Press release March 5th 2004
Copenhagen Consensus – Prioritizing the world’s problems Today Bjorn Lomborg, Director of Denmark’s Environmental Assessment Institute and The Economist will be launching Copenhagen Consensus 2004. Copenhagen Consensus is a far-reaching project that will bring together nine of the world’s leading economists – including four Nobel Prize winners – from May 24-28. The extraordinary roundtable of economists will meet in Denmark to prioritize solutions to ten of the most important challenges facing the world – from climate change and disease to corruption and hunger. The economists will base their judgements upon ten economic papers written expressly for Copenhagen Consensus. The ten papers will be published by Cambridge University Press. Bjørn Lomborg said today: “The world faces a number of serious problems such as pollution, hunger and disease. Which
problem should be addressed first? There are 800 million people starving, 2.5 billion people lacking sewerage, and billions affected by climate change. We all wish that there were money enough to solve all problems. But our means are limited. Therefore policy-makers prioritize every day, but not always on the best basis. Copenhagen Consensus will provide a framework to allow us to make better prioritizations.”
The deputy editor of The Economist, Clive Crook, explains why the newspaper is backing the event:
“Copenhagen Consensus is unique in gathering world-class economic expertise and in explicitly addressing the crucial issue of priorities. If you had 50 billion US$ at your disposal, how could you spend it best to improve the living conditions of the people of the world? This is the core question of priorities, which the experts are to answer in Copenhagen in May. We hope that the meeting in Copenhagen will have global implications both academically and politically. Copenhagen Consensus is an outstanding, visionary idea and deserves global coverage.“ The nine economists forming the Copenhagen Consensus roundtable are Jagdish Bhagwati, Robert Fogel, Bruno Frey, Justin Yifu Lin, Douglass North, Thomas Schelling, Nancy Stokey, James Heckman and Vernon Smith. See more material about Copenhagen Consensus on www.copenhagenconsensus.com, including: • CVs of the roundtable of economists participating in Copenhagen Consensus • Names and CVs of the ten economists preparing the economic papers for the meeting • Copenhagen Consensus – vision and facts Additional information Director Bjorn Lomborg +45 7226 5800 / +45 2099 6060 Project Manager Henrik Meyer +45 7226 5820 / +45 2612 5803