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Rising Asia and Old Europe need to work together

Mercoledì 28 Marzo 2012 14:16

Originally published by Friends of Europe 21/3/2012

By Giles Merritt and Shada Islam

Tempting as it may be, it would be wrong to write off Europe as yesterday’s power. Europe still matters even though this is not the message some EU policymakers have been sending out to a watching world.

The impression that Europe is too busy dealing with internal challenges to play a strong global role is especially strong in Asia . True, China gets a great deal of EU attention. And the EU’s outreach on trade remains strong. But there is more to Asia than China - and trade and investment agreements must not be made a substitute for a more pro-active EU foreign policy.

The EU must engage more strongly with South Asian and Southeast Asian countries on foreign policy and security questions, not just trade. This means top-level EU participation in Asian security fora such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). It means showing up and seriously participating in ministerial meetings with Asian countries such as the EU-ASEAN gathering of foreign ministers in Brunei in April. It also requires regular and consistent high-level conversations on global and regional challenges with India and other South Asian nations.

Ultimo aggiornamento Mercoledì 28 Marzo 2012 14:22 Leggi tutto...

A glimpse into the next industrial age

Sabato 03 Marzo 2012 18:09

Originally published by Europe’s World*, Spring Issue 2012”, http://www.europesworld.org

Mankind is entering the third industrial revolution, says American futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, and it heralds a future of more continental-scale political unions like the EU along with dramatic shifts in our economic patterns

Industrial civilisation is at a crossroads. Oil and the other fossil fuels that make up our industrial way of life are sunsetting, and the technologies made from and propelled by these energies are becoming antiquated. The ageing industrial infrastructure based on fossil fuels is increasingly in disrepair. The result is that unemployment is rising to dangerous levels around the world, with governments, businesses and consumers awash in debt and living standards plummeting everywhere. A record one billion human beings – a seventh of the human race – face hunger if not starvation. Worse, climate change from fossil fuel-based industrial activity looms on the horizon. It is increasingly clear that we need a new economic narrative to take us into a more equitable and sustainable future.

Great economic revolutions occur when new communication technologies converge with new energy systems. New energy systems increase interdependent economic activity and expand commercial exchange. They also facilitate more dense and inclusive social relationships. New communication revolutions in turn become the means to manage the new dynamics arising from new energy systems.

Ultimo aggiornamento Mercoledì 21 Marzo 2012 14:32 Leggi tutto...

The green economy: Re-thinking global governance

Sabato 03 Marzo 2012 17:53

Originally published by "Europe’s World*, Spring Issue 2012”, http://www.europesworld.org

As head of the UN’s environmental arm UNEP, Achim Steiner believes that multi-lateral governance structures are overdue for a radical overhaul

Twenty years after the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, the world is once again taking the Road to Rio, but in a world that geopolitically, socially and environmentally is markedly different from that of the late 20^th century.

From women and trade unions to environmental NGOs and indigenous peoples, there is a deep-seated sense that we are living in an increasingly unequal world, and that the environmental services on which we all depend – especially the poor – are also rapidly hitting their limits as a result of decades of pollution, damage and degradation. Enlightened sections of the private sector can also see the writing on the wall, for we live on a planet where climate change and the loss of productive ecosystems can, and increasingly will, disrupt global supply chains.

Extraordinary achievements have nevertheless occurred in some areas – economically, many millions have been lifted out of poverty in places like China and India, and environmentally the world's network of protected areas has grown substantially. But for all that, the development path of these years has by-passed far too many areas; it has brought prosperity to the few rather than the majority, and is running up an ecological bill that is paid by the poor and the vulnerable every day and will ultimately have to be paid by generations to come.

Ultimo aggiornamento Mercoledì 14 Marzo 2012 11:50 Leggi tutto...

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