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The John Batchelor Show

2/2: Best Things First: The 12 most efficient solutions for the world’s poorest and our global SDG promises Hardcover – May 8, 2023 by Bjorn Lomborg (Author), Bjørn Lomborg (Editor)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

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2/2: Best Things First: The 12 most efficient solutions for the world’s poorest and our global SDG promises Hardcover – May 8, 2023 by Bjorn Lomborg (Author), Bjørn Lomborg (Editor)

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Things-First-efficient-solutions/dp/1940003288/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

In this urgent, thought-provoking book, Bjorn Lomborg presents the 12 most efficient solutions for the world's poorest and our global SDG promises. • If you want to make the world better, Best Things First is the book to read.

World leaders have promised everything to everyone. But they are failing. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are supposed to be delivered by 2030. The goals literally promise everything, like eradicating poverty, hunger and disease; stopping war and climate change, ending corruption, fixing education along with countless other promises. This year, the world is at halftime for its promises, but nowhere near halfway. Together with more than a hundred of the world’s top economists, Bjorn Lomborg has worked for years to identify the world’s best solutions. Based on 12 new, peer-reviewed papers, forthcoming in Cambridge University Press’ Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, this book highlights the world’s best policies.

Some things are difficult to fix, cost a lot, and help little. Other problems we know how to fix, at low cost, with remarkable outcomes. We should do the smart things first.

Governments and philanthropists should focus on these 12 smartest things. Fix tuberculosis, malaria, and chronic disease, tackle malnutrition, improve education, increase trade, implement e-procurement, and secure land tenure. This will improve the world amazingly. The cost is $35 billion a year. The benefits include saving 4.2 million lives each year and generating $1.1 trillion more for the world’s poor.

We can definitely afford it: The cost of $35 billion is equivalent to the increase in annual global spending on cosmetics over the last two years. This is likely the best thing the world can do this decade.


Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.7

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0:30.8

This is CBSI in the world I'm John Batsworth.

0:37.8

We are in Lomburg of the Copenhagen consensus.com website.

0:41.8

Also of the new book, Best Things First.

0:44.8

Recommendations for the immediate future about what is to be done

0:47.8

that it has a cost benefit that immediately is vivid.

0:51.8

However, there are two items here that I need to attend to

0:55.8

because they're quandaries for the richest nations,

0:59.8

dealing with the poorest nations.

1:01.8

How do we define that under $3 a day?

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