Development Futures

In this episode, we delve into the United Nations Loss and Damage Fund, the most concrete effort to address restitution for those impacted by climate change. As the recently appointed board begins crafting a global fund to financially support climate victims, much remains unresolved, including complex questions about who is eligible for money and how they can access it, how to quantify intangible impacts such as the loss of traditional knowledge, and how the Fund itself can raise enough resources to cover escalating costs. To explore these questions, Alexandre Dayant, Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, talks with IPDC climate experts Dr Melanie Pill and Georgia Hammersley, who recently authored a Lowy Institute Policy Brief outlining recommendations for the Fund’s structure.

You can access the Policy Brief here: A climate loss and damage fund that works

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Can we measure national success beyond economic growth? Professor Robert Costanza speaks with the Lowy Institute’s Alexandre Dayant about why countries need to move away from gross domestic product as the measure of economic prosperity and factor in other complementary gauges of success. In a time of high inflation, increased cost of living, and growing environmental degradation, Professor Constanza argues that moving “beyond growth” is essential to achieving sustainable prosperity.

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Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel Prize-winning economist, has dedicated four decades to studying poverty, inequality, health, wellbeing, and economic development. Recently, he strongly criticised his own profession, arguing that economists have overlooked the power dynamics inherent in capitalism.

In this wide-ranging episode of Development Futures, Alexandre Dayant, the Deputy Director of the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre, talks with Deaton about the factors behind his shift in thinking and discusses his evolving perspectives on free trade, immigration's impact on American workers, and the role of foreign aid, among other topics.

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China is facing many economic problems, at home and abroad. The two are connected. Weak demand at home has contributed to a sharp rise in Chinese manufacturing exports, especially in green technologies such as electric vehicles. Surging Chinese exports have in turn prompted a backlash from the United States, Europe, and others who accuse China of exporting overcapacity and damaging their own green industrial ambitions.

In this episode, Roland Rajah, Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre (IPDC), talks with Dr Bert Hofman, one of the leading international experts on China’s economy and a widely respected development economist and practitioner. They discuss China’s development model, the idea of “Peak China”, whether China is exporting overcapacity, what this all means for developing countries, and Bert’s ideas for what the world should be doing in response.

Dr Hofman is currently an adjunct professor at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore and before that was with the World Bank for almost three decades, most recently as director of the World Bank’s country office in China.

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Today, the dynamic duo of globalisation and robotics, which international economist Richard Baldwin calls “globotics”, is disrupting the service sector and professional jobs faster than ever. Digital technology is empowering “white-collar robots” to take over many service sector and professional jobs, while “telemigration” opens doors for skilled workers in low-wage countries to join high-wage economies remotely. But what's next? What new jobs will “globotics” create, and how will they shape the future of work?

In this episode of Development Futures, Alexandre Dayant, the Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, talks with Richard Baldwin, professor of international economics at the IMD Business School in Lausanne and author of The Globotics Upheaval.

They explore the disruptive impact of globotics on the international labour market, assess the public policies needed to facilitate the adaptation of displaced workers, and expand on the additional complications introduced by geopolitics. These are just a few of the topics covered in this wide-ranging conversation.

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Climate change is one of the biggest challenges for sustainable development around the world. Large developing economies, particularly in Asia, are now major sources of global emissions but need external assistance to accelerate their transition to clean energy. Meanwhile, many poor and vulnerable countries have contributed little to the climate crisis but face the worst of its escalating impacts.

In this episode of Development Futures, Roland Rajah, Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre (IPDC), talks with Melanie Pill and Michelle Lyons — both IPDC climate policy research fellows and experts in climate finance – to examine the key issues and what needs to be done following the “historic” yet disappointing outcomes of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) summit held in the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year.

Among other issues, they discuss the outcomes of the COP28 summit, where to next on climate finance, the synergies and tensions between climate and development, how to accelerate progress in emerging Asian economies, the acute challenges facing vulnerable island states such as in the Pacific, the role and responsibilities of Australia, and their own practical ideas for how the world could do better in delivering on the climate and development progress needed.

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As we usher in the new year, the global economy is at a turning point. From confronting an economic development crisis and addressing the good-jobs dilemma, to navigating the climate transition and charting a course towards a more sustainable and equitable form of globalisation, 2024 promises to be an interesting year.

In this episode of Development Futures, Alexandre Dayant, the Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, talks with Harvard professor and economist Dani Rodrik about the challenges of globalisation and the intensification of geopolitics on the global economy.

They discuss the role of redistributive domestic policies, the impact of US–China competition on the delivery of global public goods, and the risk of breakdown of the multilateral trade system. These are just a few of the topics covered in this wide-ranging conversation.

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Many of the most economically efficient policies to reduce emissions, such as carbon pricing, have proven difficult to implement. In this episode of Development Futures, the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre Research Fellow Michelle Lyons speaks with Professor David Victor from UC San Diego on how to make climate policy work and ways to accelerate decarbonisation of the global economy. Their discussion includes the roles of carbon and offset markets in addressing climate change, opportunities for Australia and Pacific Island countries to accelerate climate action if their bid to co-host the 2026 UNFCCC Conference of the Parties is successful, and the importance of enhancing national institutional capacity when seeking to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

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Progress depends on many choices, notably the ones we make about technology. The way in which we structure production and communication can either cater to the exclusive interests of a privileged few or lay the groundwork for widespread prosperity.

In this episode of Development Futures, Alexandre Dayant, the Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, talks with economist and author Daron Acemoglu of MIT about the challenge of shared prosperity and the policies that could bring about a more inclusive economy. They discuss the role institutions have in ensuring technologies benefit all, how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can reduce the gap between emerging and developed economies, and the role of foreign aid as a tool to reduce poverty. These are just a few of the topics covered in this wide-ranging discussion.

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Multilateral institutions and the global financial system are on a transformative journey aimed at confronting the dual challenge of climate change and sustainable development. This multifaceted agenda involves substantial improvements to the governance structures of multilateral development banks, the redefinition of objectives and targets, and the creation of innovative financial instruments to mobilise both public and private capital for investments in climate and development. However, the journey is far from over, and many questions remain unanswered.

In this episode of Development Futures, Alexandre Dayant speaks with Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. Together, they discuss ongoing reform efforts, explore innovative solutions to maximise the impact of MDBs, and analyse the implications of the US–China competition within the reform landscape. What steps can MDBs take to optimise their financial resources, and how can they navigate the potential trade-offs between climate and development financing? These are just a few of the questions covered in this wide-ranging discussion.

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