The Return On Investment Of Saving The World

February 24, 2015 in Daily Bulletin

The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals have cautiously been hailed a success with several being met ahead of target. Now the United Nations is working on a set of “Sustainable Development Goals” and one economist analyzed the goals that will likely lead to the most development:

  • Air pollution kills 7 million people a year. Changing how people cook would save lives and generate $10 for every dollar spent.
  • Activists could also try to upgrade people to more high tech stoves that generate less smoke but that would create only $2 of value for every dollar spent.
  • The most beneficial policy would be to reduce barriers to trade. According to one estimate this would generate $3,426 for developing countries, for every $1 spent.
  • Other ideas that would generate high returns per dollar include providing reproductive-health services ($120), increasing nursery school enrollment ($33), and broadband penetration ($17).
  • Some argue that the UN should focus on “data for development” but the act of monitoring is expensive and will take away the money available for actual development.

Read what this methodology has to say about the return on combating climate change, what other economists think, and much more over here.

Source: The Economist