Interview with Jacques Weber by Meriem Bouamrane

With the financial and economic crisis tightening its grip around the world, many researchers, organizations and institutions are being galvanized into action. Terms like Green Deal or Global New Green Deal are circulating and, with natural resources becoming scarcer, there is talk of creating a tax system based on ecosystem services. Here, the economist and anthropologist Jacques Weber, Director of Research at the International Centre for Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD) in France, analyses the ins and outs of an idea that is gaining ground: a shift towards green economics, to ensure that the global economy emerges from the crisis on a surer footing than before.

What is your analysis of the current crisis?

[...] The current crisis is indubitably financial in origin and would have happened sooner or later. But the fact that it came after steep price rises for petrol, minerals and food suggests that the crisis is one of objective rarity of non-renewable and renewable natural resources. It is the expression of this crisis that is financial.

Could the crisis be a blessing for sustainable development?

If the crisis is a result of the growing scarcity of natural resources, the ailing economy can be an opportunity to tackle this scarcity directly to make sure the problem doesn’t recur. It can be an opportunity to rethink both the global economy and national economies, and to redefine international institutions to serve the cause. [...]

Continue reading the interview in this extract [.pdf] from “A World of Science“, Vol. 7, No. 2, April-June 2009

Related links:
::  A World of Science (full version, Vol. 7, No. 2, April-June 2009)
::  A World of Science (UNESCO’s quarterly science journal)

Source:A World of Science
02-04-2009