Professor Kahn writes:

There are plenty of urban poor people in the world. If you want to protect them from climate change and if we are unable to solve the free rider problem (i.e signing a credible global Carbon Cap agreement), then the only way to protect the urban poor is to help them to grow richer. The logic is obvious. Go to China or India and you can meet 100s of millions of people who have been lifted out of poverty by embracing free markets , isn't this a success story? Climate change actually creates a moral imperative to embrace free markets and globalization. Consider the alternatives. Bill Gates is worth $50 billion dollars. If he gives it all way to every person on the planet, they would each receive $7. This is a silly example but my point is that private charity is not going to solve this problem. Skill development, education and integration into the world economy offers the urban poor their best start.

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Published: Monday, October 04, 2010

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