Good leadership is important to overcome crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, renowned economist, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, and Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Jeffrey Sachs has told CNA.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency, Sachs criticizes US President Donald Trump, expresses his doubts that a vaccine against the coronavirus will be available soon, refers to the role of Cyprus against climate change in the Mediterranean region and speaks about his new book.<\/p>\n
Asked what the first lesson to be learnt from the pandemic is professor Sachs says \u201cthe first lesson is that this epidemic can be controlled with good leadership and effective public health systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, he adds, \u201cwhile this is a dire emergency it is one that we can surmount.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, Cyprus and Greece have done relatively better than other parts of Europe and I am counting on that to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sachs also says that \u201cthe Asia Pacific region has generally contained the epidemic but the United States suffers from another disease called Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, he adds, \u201cwe have a completely incompetent and malevolent President and it shows up in the 110,000 deaths in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I think this is a very powerful argument for good governance because it is a terrible scourge that gets out of control when the government is incompetent or malevolent,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
Skeptical about a vaccine soon<\/p>\n
Replying to a question as to whether he believes a potential vaccine would be made available widely or whether major countries would compete to stockpile it he expresses the view that there are two questions.<\/p>\n
One, he says, \u201cwhen will there be an effective vaccine and second how fair will the use of this vaccine be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course these are huge uncertainties compounded by the fact that there is a lot of self interest of companies announcing positive results that don\u2019t really mean that much,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n
The reason, according to professor Sachs, \u201cis that that it attracts more investors it boosts stock prices; it makes it easier for them to get grants from governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I am a bit skeptical that we are going to get a vaccine sometime soon,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
Of course, he continues, \u201cwe have been told in the United States that a company named Moderna is already going to start producing a vaccine this Fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expresses the view that \u201cit is very -very unlikely that such a vaccine could be available and used in a large scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe technological base of that vaccine is unproven. Even for it to be safe for use would require that there be a trial period of a year or so before it is put into the bodies of millions or even billions of people,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
Certainly, he adds, \u201cthere are other vaccine candidates, the may or may not work.\u201d<\/p>\n
He points out that \u201cwe have to act under the presumption that there won\u2019t be a vaccine soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, he says, \u201cif a vaccine is developed then the question of fairness and distribution will come up and there are different camps and power structures in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to professor Sachs \u201cthe United States government is very much in the hands of its drugs companies, so the US government will likely try to defend the patent rights and the prerogatives of the US.\u201d To that effect he recalls President Trump\u2019s policy \u201cAmerica First\u201d.<\/p>\n
He expresses the view however that \u201cthe backlash globally would be very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany other countries have aligned to have justice as the basis of the vaccine use and to have it available widely and so on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He notes that \u201cwe will probably have a struggle over this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know it would be very good fortune to have a vaccine soon potentially, but let\u2019s plan also that there isn\u2019t one and use the more traditional means of testing and quarantine and face masks and other kinds of protection,\u201d he advises.<\/p>\n
Struggle to make politics work for everybody<\/p>\n
Asked whether he believes sustainable development goals for 2030 are realistic following the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement he says that \u201cI think that we should recognize that in the Americas we have three Presidents that are known as populist Presidents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Lopez Obrador in Mexico. It is very telling that all three of these presidents are in favour of fossil fuels, are promoting policies that are against the climate control and are failing to control the epidemic as well,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
So, professor Sachs continues, \u201cthe epidemic of COVID is really out of control in the US, in Mexico and in Brazil. What does this tell us? It says that these leaders don\u2019t really care to protect the people. Even when it is a virus they don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so, he wonders, \u201chow are they going to care when it is something that takes 10, or 20 or 30 years to manifest all the risks.\u201d He also refers, among other things, to President Trump wanting the oil companies to make money, adding that \u201cthey pay his campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants power and wealth so climate change doesn\u2019t fit into his playbook,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He poses the question \u201cwhat does this mean for humanity?\u201d replying at the same time that \u201cit means we have a real struggle to make politics work for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also refers the Mediterranean region and the oil & gas interests there. On Cyprus, he notes that it is incredibly vulnerable to climate change, torising sea levels, to drying climate to higher temperatures.<\/p>\n
So, he points out, \u201ceverybody should be careful and the political leadership and I hope this is the case, I believe this is the case in Cyprus, I believe it needs to be the case in the whole Mediterranean region to be able to say \u201cNo, we are not developing more hydrocarbons we are going to focus on sunshine.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI happen to know Cyprus has loads of sunshine, some of the best sunshine in the world, so this is really a great opportunity to develop the renewable energy for example,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
According to professor Sachs \u201cwe are in a big political fight. Just like it is politics about controlling the epidemic, it is also politics about climate change. And I don\u2019t like the politics the way it is. It is not an honest politics that works for he public good. It is very narrow interest groups that are pushing against the public good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cyprus can play role in the Mediterranean against climate change<\/p>\n
Asked whether he believes that a small country like Cyprus could make a difference in the greater effort for sustainable development and combating climate change he replies \u201cabsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Anastasiades has said that this is a priority for the region. He faces all the pressures in the region, hydrocarbon countries but he knows very well how dangerous this is for the Eastern Mediterranean region so he has really been leading to make sure that political leaders in the region know the dangers and therefore get together to find solutions and this can make a very big difference,\u201d he notes<\/p>\n
\u201cLeadership counts a lot,\u201d professor Sachs reiterates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have the absence of leadership or destructive leaders like we do in the United States right now you end up with the collapsed economy, you end up with the massive deaths from an epidemic you end up with unrest in the streets,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
We have it all now, he points out, adding that \u201cTrump I believe is the worst President we have ever had and in just a short period of time, he has wrecked the economy, failed to control the epidemic, provoked social unrest and is provoking a geopolitical crisis together. It is very unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAges of Globalization\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to say a few words about his new book \u201cAges of Globalization\u201d he replies that \u201cthe idea is to understand the nature of our interconnected world by looking at the history of that interconnection from the beginning of our species.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book, starts 70,000 years ago with the dispersal from Africa and discusses the seven stages of globalization, he says. These include the dispersal, the birth of agriculture, the equestrian age, the classic age, the discoveries of sea routes from Europe to the Americas and to Asia and the industrial age.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I say we are in the fork of the seventh age, the digital age,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that this is having fundamental transformative effects that are being accelerated right now by the epidemic itself, because we are moving dramatically to a digital economy just in a matter of weeks actually,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
According to professor Sachs \u201ceverybody is realizing that we are not going to go back to the things we did before.\u201d<\/p>\n
He speaks of three transformations. One, he says, \u201cis the technological transformation and all of that entails.\u201d A second, he continues, \u201cis the geopolitical transformation we are moving to a multi-polar world with a much more powerful and important East Asia and off course China playing a huge role in that.\u201d And third, he adds, \u201cwe are in what geologists call the Anthropocene meaning the age where human activity is changing the planet\u2019s physical system so dramatically that we have put ourselves at great peril.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, he points out, \u201cthe seventh age is digital, multi-polar and environmental, all in a very complicated mix\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are almost eight billion people on the planet right now, so, it is a very complicated moment of change that we are living through,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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