First oil fund in the world to save the climate...

Will Norway's oil fund be the first in the world that reform their investment criteria in order to become a proactive force and support a low carbon development?

This is an article from a Norwegian paper, but why not practice your language skills? If Norway begin using their oil fund and support winners in a low carbon economy we should all learn at least a few words in Norwegian.

China, trade and Climate

A new report is launched that is worth reading for those who are interested in global trade and how OECD countries can support a sustainable development in China. Instead of a simplistic perspective (trade as good or bad) it brings a solution oriented approach. Rasmus Reinvang has done a great job and hopefully this can trigger a discussion, at least in the Nordic countries.

It is interesting that the Nordic countries are so isolated from each other. Amazing things can happen in the small countries up North, but it is more likely that it is being picked up by press outside the Nordic countries than by the neighbors. The new trade report was nowhere in Swedish media, even if it was full page news in Norway and made it into Chinese news media. Sad as the “Nordic model” could be an important inspiration for emerging economies like China and India.

One good thing might be that we can develop ideas in steps and still launch them as “new”… For this trade work we started last summer in Sweden, now Norway and we could take the next steps in Denmark…

But a joint Nordic/Scandinavian approach is probably necessary if we are to be more than a marginal actor in China and India.

PS
(the earlier Swedish study can be found here)

China, trade and Climate

A new report is launched that is worth reading for those who are interested in global trade and how OECD countries can support a sustainable development in China. Instead of a simplistic perspective (trade as good or bad) it brings a solution oriented approach. Rasmus Reinvang has done a great job and hopefully this can trigger a discussion, at least in the Nordic countries.

It is interesting that the Nordic countries are so isolated from each other. Amazing things can happen in the small countries up North, but it is more likely that it is being picked up by press outside the Nordic countries than by the neighbors. The new trade report was nowhere in Swedish media, even if it was full page news in Norway and made it into Chinese news media. Sad as the “Nordic model” could be an important inspiration for emerging economies like China and India.

One good thing might be that we can develop ideas in steps and still launch them as “new”… For this trade work we started last summer in Sweden, now Norway and we could take the next steps in Denmark…

But a joint Nordic/Scandinavian approach is probably necessary if we are to be more than a marginal actor in China and India.

PS
(the earlier Swedish study can be found here)

Another year with double digit growth predicted in China

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) just released a report where they predict that China's economy will grow by more that 10% during 2008 and that is slight slowdown compared with 2007 (over 11%).

It is easy to agree with the following statement from t a recent report from the World Bank.

“China is now the world's fourth largest economy and growing very fast. India's economic salience is also on the rise. Together these two countries will profoundly influence the pace and nature of global economic change”

Dancing with Giants: China, India, and the Global Economy, World Bank, 2007

Hopefully 2008 will see two major shifts in OECD countries (governments and companies) relation to Chinas development:

1. That Chinas development will be seen and used as an opportunity to develop global solutions that can provide high quality of life with little use of natural resources.

2. That we drop GDP as a tool to assess welfare and how successful a country is and let it be what it can be (e.g. an indicator to help us address inflation/stagnation in the industrial part of the economy).

Another year with double digit growth predicted in China

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) just released a report where they predict that China's economy will grow by more that 10% during 2008 and that is slight slowdown compared with 2007 (over 11%).

It is easy to agree with the following statement from t a recent report from the World Bank.

“China is now the world's fourth largest economy and growing very fast. India's economic salience is also on the rise. Together these two countries will profoundly influence the pace and nature of global economic change”

Dancing with Giants: China, India, and the Global Economy, World Bank, 2007

Hopefully 2008 will see two major shifts in OECD countries (governments and companies) relation to Chinas development:

1. That Chinas development will be seen and used as an opportunity to develop global solutions that can provide high quality of life with little use of natural resources.

2. That we drop GDP as a tool to assess welfare and how successful a country is and let it be what it can be (e.g. an indicator to help us address inflation/stagnation in the industrial part of the economy).