Dr Bjorn Lomborg at Creative Innovation 2013 Asia Pacific

2013-12-04 THERE’S a lot of hand-wringing about our warming planet, but billions of people face a more immediate problem: They are desperately poor, and many cook and heat their homes using open fires or leaky stoves that burn dirty fuels like wood, dung, crop waste and coal. About 3.5 million of them die prematurely each year as a result of breathing the polluted air inside their homes — about 200,000 more than the number who die prematurely each year from breathing polluted air outside, according to a study by the World Health Organization. (...) 

Over the past three days, after years of build-up, world leaders have been getting down to the business of setting some of the most important priorities for the next 15 years.

At stake is $2.5tr in development aid, and countless trillions in national budgets. Unfortunately, because of politicking and a desire to please everyone, this massive budget will achieve four-times less good than it could.

Over the past decades, the Accra Metropolitan Area has witnessed major development, but this growth has given rise to risks of its own. Rapid urbanization has caused an unplanned expansion of built-up areas like roads, parking lots and other structures with impervious surfaces, which has led to perennial flooding. Inadequacies of drainage systems and poor solid waste management add to this threat that is only bound to intensify in the future as climate change poses further challenges on cities and nations.