The Climate Diplomat: A Personal History of the COP Conferences

Peter Betts

What did Tony Blair get right (on climate)?

The Rise and Fall of the Department for International Development

Mark Lowcock and Ranil Dissanayake

The Emissions Gap: What Does It Mean for Us?

Indicators of Global Climate Change 2023

Not the End of the World: How we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet

Hannah Ritchie

State of Climate Action 2023

By the Systems Change Lab

Within Reach: Navigating the Political Economy of Decarbonization

Stéphane Hallegatte and others, for the World Bank

Climate Change Isn’t Everything

Mike Hulme

The Value of a Whale

Adrienne Buller

Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose

Stefan Dercon

How to avoid a climate disaster: The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need

Bill Gates

Sustainable Futures: An Agenda for Action

Raphael Kaplinsky

Beyond a Fringe: Tales from a reformed Establishment lackey

By Andrew Mitchell

Fairness and opportunity: A people-powered plan for the green transition

The final report of the IPPRInstitute for Public Policy Research (London) Environmental Justice Commission

Seven Ways to Change the World: How to Fix the Most Pressing Problems We Face

Gordon Brown

Go Big: How to Fix Our World

Ed Miliband

UK comparative advantage: the missing chapter in the UK’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy

Do Not Disturb: a challenge to development actors on human rights and authoritarian development

Emissions Gap Report 2020

 Less is More: Previewing a debate on de-growth

People, Power, and Profits:Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent

Joseph Stiglitz

The Globotics Upheaval: Globalisation, Robotics, and the Future of Work

By Richard Baldwin

The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties by Paul Collier

Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy

Final report of the IPPRInstitute for Public Policy Research (London) Commission on Economic Justice

Trumped-Up Aid and the Challenge of Global Poverty by Tony Vaux

‘Advancing Human Development: Theory and Practice’ by Frances Stewart, Gustav Ranis and Emma Samman

Edge of Chaos

By Dambisa Moyo

Does ICAI need a broader remit? Lessons from the Review of the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund

A World for the Many Not the Few: The Labour Party’s Vision for International Development

Trouble in the Making? The Future of Manufacturing-led Development

Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

By Alexander Betts and Paul Collier

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a twenty-First Century Economist

Kate Raworth

'How Change Happens' by Duncan Green

Three memoirs of British aid

This Changes Everything: Capitalism Versus The Climate by Naomi Klein

Development Cooperation Report 2014: Forwards or sideways on Financing for Development?

The New Climate Economy: Report of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate

Climate Compatible Development in Theory and Practice: three book reviews

Review of Aid on the Edge of Chaos

By Ben Ramalingam

Review of Influencing Tomorrow: Future Challenges for British Foreign Policy by Douglas Alexander and Ian Kearns

Review of  ‘Divided Nations: why global governance is failing and what we can do about it’ by Ian Goldin

Review of Why Poverty Persists: Poverty Dynamics in Asia and Africa

The Righteous Mind: An Application

Review of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

Review of ‘The Carbon Crunch’ by Dieter Helm

Inclusive green growth: A review of the World Bank policy paper

I have some points of difference with the new World Bank policy paper on green growth – but let me begin by saying that it represents a real achievement by Marianne Fay, Stephane Hallegatte and their many collaborators. The 196-page paper is wide-ranging, analytical, rich in examples, and practical. To my mind, there are few people working in environment or development who would not benefit from a careful reading of this text. Indeed, I would recommend setting up a reading group and taking it one chapter at a time. Believe me, I am not often as enthusiastic.

Poor economics: a review

Picking up this book, written by two of the world's leading 'randomistas', I looked forward to endless analysis of randomised controlled trials, coupled with a self-satisfied belief that policy design should always, and only, derive from statistical analysis of carefully designed experiments. Up to a point, I was right. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo are, of course, enthusiasts for RCTs: that is the unique selling point of the Poverty Action Lab they founded at MIT. They obviously like statistics. I do too, and because I read this on my tablet, can report that the word 'experiment' occurs 84 times in the book, 'random' 76 times, and that 16 times there are references to Banerjee and Duflo's eighteen-country data set. On the other hand, there are 43 results for 'visit' and 24 for 'talk', so it is clear that Banerjee and Duflo don't spend all their time 'staring at data'.

Will cities lead the charge?Review of The Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser

The message of Edward Glaeser’s book is in the sub-title: ‘How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier’. ‘Aha’, you might think – depending on your preference: agriculture; universities; printing; penicillin; the internet; roll-on deodorant; cheese and onion crisps . . . Well, No. There’s a further clue to Glaeser’s thinking in the main title. His book is called ‘The Triumph of the City’. These ‘dense agglomerations’ (which is as close as we come to a definition) are engines of innovation, the epitome of human progress. Cities vary a great deal, as we discover towards the end of the book (the ‘imperial city’, the ‘smart city’, the ‘consumer city’); and some fail (step forward Detroit). But taken as a group, cities speed innovation, act as gateways between markets and cultures, provide opportunities for cultural enrichment – and, incidentally, provide a higher standard of living at a lower environmental cost than suburban or rural alternatives. I live in Brighton, which used to be only a town. But, hooray, we were declared a city by the Queen in 2000. I definitely feel richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier!

Is evolution a good model for innovation?  Review of ‘Adapt’ by Tim Harford

It's always a pleasure to read a book which is entertaining, well-researched and certain in its argument. Even better if the book has a snappy title. Tim Harford's latest, Adapt, ticks all those boxes. It confirms my view that academics have to clear an ever-higher hurdle:  the contemporary audience has an attention span geared to the 140 characters of Twitteror the 500 words of the typical blog. Well, anyway, I fear I do. Paul Collier is another in the Harford mould - which is why I described the Bottom Billion as a master-class in bridging research and policy.....

The political economy of climate change - a review of the IDSInstitute for Development Studies, Sussex Bulletin

When first published, this was a work in progress, a review of ‘War Games: The Story of Aid and War in Modern Times’ by Linda Polman. It has now been published in DPR (Vol 28 No 6, Nov 2010 Pgs 771-5). Comments welcome.

Reading Linda Polman’s polemic on humanitarian aid feels dangerously, even thrillingly illicit. It’s like watching a cheetah bring down an impala on the Serengeti plain. Your sympathy is with the doe-eyed victim – but you can’t help admire the power and ruthless ferocity of the predator.

A master-class in bridging research and policy, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Oct 2007

I approached The Bottom Billion with trepidation, but do you know what – I loved it.  I was wary because I’m not naturally sympathetic to the kind of heavy-duty econometrics which is Paul Collier’s stock-in-trade, especially when the results depend on the use of unexpected transformations or recondite instrumental variables.  Let’s be honest: it doesn’t help that I can’t do that kind of work and don’t usually understand it.  However, I have always recognised that Paul has an extraordinary ability to apply sophisticated technique to answering high-level common-sense questions about the world, and that he then uses his results to tell stories that, In Diane Stone’s phrase, ‘capture the political imagination’................. (see link in title for full article)

What do readers think of Bill Easterly's book, 'The White Man's Burden'?,ODI Blog, November 2006

'Bill Easterly has been criticised - by no less an authority than Amartya Sen - for being 'swept up by the intoxicating power of purple prose'. Unkind, I think. This book is a hoot from start to finish. Whether he is poking fun at UN jargon on donor coordination, describing his experience with an electric blanket, or citing the 'bons mots' of his small children, Easterly is nothing if not entertaining. Add the fact that he segues rapidly from history to statistical analysis to anecdote and back again, and Easterly has delivered a classic page-turner. This is one you can take to the beach.................