Free-market Environmentalism, and More

Algunas reflexiones sobre el acuerdo de Escazu https://elcomercio.pe/opinion/colaboradores/algunas-reflexiones-sobre-el-acuerdo-de-escazu-por-gonzalo-castro-de-la-mata-noticia/ El Comercio, Octubre 7, 2022 El debate sobre si el Perú debiera adherirse al acuerdo de Escazú está muy politizado, y como con casi todos los temas en nuestro país, solo se escuchan a los extremos. Los argumentos a favor lo consideran una herramienta indispensable para el buen manejo ambiental, acusando a sus detractores de defender las inversiones que destruyen la Amazonia y contribuyen a la eliminación de los pueblos indígenas. En la otra esquina están quienes piensan que esta es una herramienta de la extrema izquierda internacional, diseñada para robarnos la soberanía sobre nuestros recursos naturales. Ambos extremos están errados. El Acuerdo de Escazú es un tratado internacional que tiene 4 objetivos principales: 1) Acceso a la información ambiental, en donde “cada parte deberá garantizar el derecho del públ...

(Originally published in World Bank´s People, Places, Deliberation) Richard Branson believes in accountability. When he founded Virgin Galactic, the first company to offer commercial trips to space, he promised to be on board during the inaugural flight so that he would be the first saying “oops” if need be (let’s hope not). Similarly, the tradition is that the Captain of a ship is the last one to abandon it, if things go wrong, and to go down with it if necessary (the Captain of the “Costa Concordia” being a recent exception to this rule). In earlier times, Roman engineers stood under the arches they designed as the capstone was set in place, so that the full force of their mistakes would be unleashed upon their heads. Regardless of the definition of accountability used, spotting it is easy when it is there. The Inspection Panel was designed more than 20 years ago, at a time when both the Bank and the world were quite different. Today, information travels instantaneously, and the chal...