Something I’ll miss about living in Malawi - being able to purchase a beautiful painting on the side of the road 🇲🇼 artist Sergio Kasongo (resident of a refugee camp just outside Lilongwe, having fled from DRC in 2016)
Any grants must be tied to decarbonisation commitments. Alternatively, instead of handouts, provide loans. These can be interest-free during this crisis, with company stocks laid down as collateral. Later repayments can be funnelled into EU industrial decarbonisation funding streams.
If even more public money is given to carbon-intensive industry, it should be accompanied by strict decarbonisation conditionalities. The Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework is the wrong tool for this moment, especially if its already lenient decarbonisation requirements are not applied.
Now we are in this situation, there are multiple reasons why support needs to be given to companies. They need to survive this turbulence, unemployment should not spike and inflation needs to be managed. Yet we must move forward in a way that puts us on a path that will not lead back here again.
We are in this position because we did not learn the lessons that previous crises have more than sufficiently underlined. Europe needs to build back in a way that avoids another crisis like this one reoccurring in the next few years.
Our senior policy advisor @lerayner.bsky.social is back with another Future-Fit Policy Watch blog - this time on the painful price Europe is paying for #fossilfuel dependence. 🔒
↪️ Can the Iran war be an overdue 'Zeitenwende’ for EU energy independence?
🔗 zoe-institut.de/en/news/futu...
#proudmummoment as my son chose the importance of green spaces for communities as his passion project at school. Last night’s exhibition was the culmination of several month’s work, as well as taking action doing a litter pick at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre 🌍
Couldn’t be more delighted that these companies are going to have to stand responsible for their actions. It took me more than 2 hours to work out how to delete a YouTube account last week. Enough time for me to decide that they’re deliberately awful platforms rather than accidentally awful.
Excellent #GRANULAR Knowledge Transfer Accelerator Bootcamp today, exploring how we measure and monitor rural development in the EU. I got an opportunity to preach
#BeyondGDP policymaking, and why we should always be using sustainable & inclusive wellbeing indicators to measure what matters 🌍
I guess I won’t find guys like this in the kitchen sink once we leave Lilongwe for Vienna… 🇲🇼
Self-aggrandising nonsense, clearly demonstrating that politicians always rank above the rest of the population.
At long last, the Industrial Accelerator Act is out. #MadeInEU criteria and robust European employment requirements for foreign direct investment feature, despite political fights. ‘Made in EU’ criteria can support EU prosperity and social cohesion, if used wisely: zoe-institut.de/en/publicati...
I’ve really appreciated the focus Martin Wolf has put on the issue of demographic change and the situation of mothers over the past few months. All of the past columns on this issue are well worth a read.
In this month's @zoe-institute.bsky.social newsletter I reflected on European unity (or lack thereof) as leaders try and make progress on improving #competitiveness, as well as the recent calls by UN Secretary General Guterres to go #beyondGDP.
zoe-institut.de/en/news/futu...
The fact that it’s an amazing photo is probably little comfort 📸
This is really excellent news, smart politics and I would hazard a guess that Ed Miliband has a hand in it #beyondGDP
“Yes there are some rigid rules, but honestly I’m not the one that wanted them. I’m not pointing the finger at anyone, but someone asked for these strict rules. Now we have these rules and the commission is asked to implement them.”
Nothing like a well-placed “I told you so.”
I do enjoy the period when European Commissioners are halfway out the door. The speeches and remarks are much more telling 😆 Here is Gentiloni on the new fiscal rules:
This report 👇🏼 analyses how capable current macroeconomic models are of simulating the transition to a more just and sustainable society.
zenodo.org/records/1419...
They propose a broader set of #indicators that capture the social and environmental performance of society.
To understand how societies can become sustainable and fair, economic models need to be expanded to include a more holistic depiction of the economy within its broader context.
Several initiatives such as the #Doughnut and the #SDGs have paved the way.
How can countries meet the basic needs of their citizens without overburdening the 🌍’s ecosystems?
The mainstream economic paradigm is unfit to address this challenge, as it lacks a satisfactory description of how the economy is embedded within broader societal & environmental systems.
Out of curiosity, am reading a bit about the market for farmland. This briefing is from January.
"Meanwhile, non-farmer buyers – who are a mix of private and institutional investors and lifestyle buyers – accounted for 56% of sales"
rural.struttandparker.com/article/engl...
The moon rising over Lake Malawi
Mothers are working more than in the past - but are still most impacted by childcare requirements.
On current progress, it would take until the 2220s to reach gender parity and close the gender parenting gap.
The biggest flaws of GDP are that it does not measure quality of life, does not distinguish between sustainable & unsustainable
economic activities, ignores social inequalities & excludes the informal economy & care activities. The majority of the respondents consider these to be significant flaws.
The pursuit of GDP growth has a
strong influence on the design of government policies, and this has not changed over the last five years. The most common reasons to use GDP connect to its current status & widespread use. Comparability and public familiarity with the concept are also common reasons.
Legitimacy is the main reason for preferring specific indicators and models. Only data, indicators and models that are produced by organisations that are seen as legitimate are used by EU policymakers, which tends to refer to official and conventional sources such as EUROSTAT.
Barriers related to structural factors in governance & policymaking are considered as most difficult to overcome. These include path dependencies in governance systems (e.g., consolidation of GDP), short-termism & prioritisation of urgent issues in policymaking, & an unfavourable political context.
