Bush may be too unaware to recognize that his historically high 70 percent disapproval rating among US voters is related to the fact that his government turned its back on the international community — and thereby got trapped in war and economic crisis.
The other G8 leaders presumably can see that their own unpopularity at home is strongly related to high food and energy prices, and an increasingly unstable global climate and global economy, none of which they can address on their own.
Starting in January when the next US president takes office, politicians should take the best chance for their own political survival, and of course for their countries’ well-being, by reinvigorating global cooperation. They should agree to address shared global goals, including the fight against poverty, hunger and disease (the Millennium Development Goals), as well as climate change and environmental destruction.
To achieve these goals, the G8 should set clear timetables for action and transparent agreements on how to fund it.
The smartest move would be to agree that each country tax its carbon dioxide emissions to reduce climate change, and then devote a fixed amount of the proceeds to global problem solving. With the funding assured, the G8 would suddenly move from empty promises to real policies.
ASK THE EXPERTS
Backed by adequate funding, the world’s political leaders should turn to the expert scientific community and international organizations to help implement a truly global effort. Rather than regarding the UN and its agencies as competitors or threats to national sovereignty, they should recognize that working with the UN agencies is in fact the only way to solve global problems and therefore is the key to their own political survival.
These basic steps — agreeing on global goals, mobilizing the financing needed to meet them and identifying the scientific expertise and organizations needed to implement solutions — is basic management logic.
Some may scoff that this approach is impossible at the global level, because all politics are local.
Yet today, all politicians depend on global solutions for their own political survival. That by itself could make solutions that now seem out of reach commonplace in the future.
Time is short, since global problems are mounting rapidly. The world is passing through the greatest economic crisis in decades. It’s time to say to the G8 leaders, “Get your act together or don’t even bother to meet next year.”
It’s too embarrassing to watch grown men and women gather for empty photo opportunities.
Jeffrey Sachs is a professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
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