In the News
May 14, 2010
(Jakarta Post Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - Indonesian trade officials would be entitled to wonder who has a greater say in trade relations with Indonesia — the Australian government or environmental campaigners? The environmental campaigners are currently making more noise on trade policy. They have been prodding the Australian government into taking trade actions that would effectively reduce agricultural and forestry exports from Indonesia. This would undermine economic growth — particularly in rural regions. Campaigns by groups such as Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) to put curbs on the commodities trade are nothing new. All have a history of opposing free trade.The most recent example is a push by campaigners to have the Australian government hold an official inquiry into food labeling.
April 5, 2010
(New York Times Green Inc. Blog) - There are also conflicting views among experts about the benefits for countries where many of the crops are grown. Some groups like World Growth, a nonprofit organization that favors free trade and globalized markets, say that increasing demand for fuels from crops would provide an increase to incomes in the developing world.
March 29, 2010
(Jakarta Post Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - Six months ago most political leaders felt bound to take action to reduce emissions. The politics have suddenly changed. Recent opinion polls in the US and Britain show people are becoming less convinced of the need for drastic action on climate change. There is now new political sensitivity to the high cost of cutting greenhouse emissions. This is a time when prudent people would take extra care about claims about the impact of global warming. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) apparently sees things differently.
February 11, 2010
(The Australian Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - THE revelation that a World Wildlife Fund report was the source of an insupportable claim that glaciers in the Himalayas were melting rapidly is embarrassing for the body. The organisation has been silent about this. Little wonder. Its integrity is important. It is the largest environmental body in the world and has royalty and the cream of society and business on its boards. Its worldwide arms are estimated to turn over about $US400 million ($458m) annually, most from donations, but about 10 per cent is taxpayers' money.
February 8, 2010
(Jakarta Post Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - The solution of both Greenpeace and WWF to the loss of jobs by stopping forestry is more foreign aid. At Copenhagen they put forward proposals to provide Green welfare to poor countries in lieu of the jobs lost with draconian measures to reduce emissions. Most industrialized economies would not knowingly act to replace productive jobs with welfare in their own economies. Yet Greenpeace and WWF consider this a viable strategy for the developing world. No wonder these strategies were rejected by developing countries at Copenhagen.
February 4, 2010
(Washington Times Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - RAN accused the Indonesian paper manufacturer of everything from human rights violations to rainforest destruction. Even though reality didn't match these damning accusations, Gucci caved. Turning their attention stateside, these activists recently zeroed in on General Mills' headquarters - levying claims that the company's purchase of palm oil (a type of vegetable oil) from Cargill is destroying rainforests in Indonesia. RAN launched a similar attack on Cargill's own offices almost two years ago. Some Western companies - Whole Foods retailers in the U.S., Lush cosmetics in Britain, and Cadbury chocolate in New Zealand - have already succumbed to anti-palm oil campaigns and made a show by pulling the much-maligned commodity from their products.
January 22, 2010
(Deforestation Watch) - However, says Alan Oxley, Chairman of World Growth International: “The demands constitute an unconscionable attack on the livelihoods of millions of poor people. Developing nations will resist and they are right to do so." Led primarily by the likes of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, the environmentalists claim that palm oil is a leading generator of greenhouse gases. A rash of reports produced by these organizations blame palm oil for deforestation and for destroying orangutan habitat in Southeast Asia.
January 17, 2010
(Malaysia Star) - The World Growth website contained a report titled Collateral Damage: How the Bogus Campaign Against Palm Oil Harms the Poor, which outlined several claims about oil palm plantations which the NGO described as misleading. Dr Ancrenaz said there was no doubt that forest conversions created losses to the biodiversity and there was a need for all parties – the pro-conservationists and anti-conservationists – to work together. The orang utan group and the palm oil group, he said, were both so “passionate” that it made it difficult to have an impartial view of the actual situation on the ground.
January 16, 2010
(Mongabay.com) - Dr. Marc Ancrenaz: I think this is because you have two “groups”, the orang-utan group and the palm oil group. People on both sides are so passionate that it becomes difficult to have an impartial view of the true situation on the ground. The industry is under attack by environmentalists and has adopted a very defensive “greenwashing” approach denying there are the root cause of the problem. NGOs have adopted the opposite strategy called “blackwashing” and blame the industry for all problems encountered in the field, which is not true either. This situation is very sad since the debate in its current stage cannot move in any direction at all. We all need to work together to identify solutions.
January 8, 2010
(The Australian Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - THE climate change debacle at Copenhagen last month underlined the reality that any new global agreement will be on the terms set by developing countries. Leading commentators have written that China's leading role in this was a demonstration of its new influence as an economic power. In one important sense they are wrong. This was not just China, but India, Brazil and the Arab oil states as well. Furthermore, the position of these countries and the rest of the developing world has not changed in the 20 years since climate change has been on the global agenda. For developing countries, climate change and other environmental strategies which retard economic development are unacceptable.
December 21, 2009
(New Straits Times) - World Growth (WG), a pro-development NGO, is lobbying against any international binding agreements that seek to curb oil palm planting under the guise of "saving rainforest". In an interview from Copenhagen, WG chairman Alan Oxley said Greenpeace, Wetlands International and Friends of the Earth's anti-palm oil lobby was "immoral" because their actions hurt the potential income of some five million oil palm planters in Malaysia and Indonesia. At the Copenhagen conference, WG released a report titled "Collateral Damage: How the Bogus Campaign Against Palm Oil Harms the Poor". It essentially found that palm oil production, a sustainable vegetable oil and essential food staple, raises living standards and reduces poverty in developing countries.
December 19, 2009
(Bangkok Post Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - The Copenhagen climate summit was jammed over fundamental differences between rich and poor. Representatives from developing world nations had threatened to walk out of the conference over the last week. Developed world diplomats thought this was just conference drama. There is a serious issue. The rich world has been making extreme and morally questionable demands of poor countries. If they persist, no effective global strategy on climate change is possible. One such example to consider is the issue of cultivation and trade of palm oil, a valuable product produced in developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America and sold in markets across the globe.
December 17, 2009
(Jakarta Post Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - Three decades ago, the World Bank endorsed an Indonesian development strategy that condoned the expansion of plantations for the pulp and palm oil sectors. Both sectors have since made significant contributions to poverty alleviation in the ASEAN region. Last month the Bank’s private sector arm suspended all funding for new palm oil developments at the behest of a well-funded environmental campaign group. The Bank may think that sacrificing economic growth to keep groups like Greenpeace onside is fine. But poverty has not gone away. It is unlikely to unless the Bank and the rich world change tack and prioritize growth as a means to good environmental management – and a solution to climate change. Otherwise, neither will be achieved.
December 14, 2009
(Inter Press Service) - A new report has accused developed nations and some environmental non-governmental organisations of distorting understanding of the role of forestry and land conversion in reducing poverty and not failing to acknowledge the developing world’s economic needs. The report, “Conversion: The Immutable Link between Forestry and Development,” was authored by Alan Oxley, chairman of World Growth, a US-based non-profit NGO established, according to its website, to bring balance to the debate over trade, globalization, and sustainable development. Oxley says arguing for the cessation of conversion of tropical forest to other land uses is an anti-development strategy.
December 4, 2009
(Jakarta Post) - Indonesia's rich biodiversity can be best protected by improving people's welfare, especially the poor, since many studies have shown that the leading cause of deforestation in developing countries is poverty, a global NGO says. "Globally, most deforestation is carried out by poor communities, not plantation companies. We found that only 7 percent of forest clearing is done for plantations," World Growth chairman Alan Oxley said Wednesday. He was speaking at a ceremony to release World Growth's new report, titled Forestry and Biodiversity: A Healthy Report.
December 3, 2009
(Dow Jones) - Increasing protection of agricultural industries by advanced economies, including the United States and European Union, in the name of environmental interests and greenhouse gas reductions threatens next week's climate?change?talks, according to World Growth, a non-governmental aid organization. The "determination" in the EU and even the U.S. to protect farmers from competition is "now poisoning efforts to negotiate strategies to reduce greenhouse?gas?emissions, just as it had poisoned the Doha?Round," Alan Oxley, World Growth Chairman and Australian trade consultant, said in a statement issued late Thursday.
November 25, 2009
(Intellectual Property Watch) - Part of the difficulty in negotiation of the regime is that there is “no common agreement on what the problem is,” said Alan Oxley, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Centre at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Australia. There is “no legally-instructive definition of the key terms,” nor an agreement on the “means by which commitments are to be delivered,” Oxley said.
November 9, 2009
(Roll Call Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - There is something brewing in Brussels that should give U.S. lawmakers a sense of how this can unfold. Over the summer, the EU imposed the first trade barrier in the name of climate change — a directive that requires member states to limit biofuel imports as part of a larger strategy to reduce emissions from fossil fuels. Like the well-hidden self-interest driving the carbon tariffs proposed by Congress, the true intent behind this ban is to ensure biofuels from outside Europe are kept out of this lucrative market.
October 16, 2009
(Jakarta Post Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - Indonesia showed how to use that land to reduce poverty when it sponsored introduction of Palm Oil in the seventies and eighties. The World Bank, then in a pro-development mode, commended that as effective poverty-reducing action. Malaysia has done the same. Palm Oil can encourage small holders to acquire property and prosperity. It is now a major export industry for both countries and Indonesia is the world's biggest producer.
October 14, 2009
(The National) - A new World Growth report, Palm Oil – The Sustainable Oil has just been released to restore balance in public discussion of palm oil. As African Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recently stated, the best way to end deforestation is to end poverty. Research has shown that between 60% and 70% of land clearing is undertaken by the poor and poverty stricken seeking shelter, fire wood or land for subsistence farming. Nations such as Malaysia have dedicated more than 55% of land as permanent forest reserve. Indonesia has set aside 25% of land in reserve. Environmental NGOs have also claimed that increased demand and supply for palm oil will necessarily lead to increased land clearing. This is simply not true.
October 14, 2009
(Daily Monitor) - An international NGO, World Growth, is already emailing loads of literature to environment journalists, governments, and other stakeholders warning that wide spread deforestation is not caused by palm oil growing but rather by poverty. It quotes the Kenyan Nobel Prize winner, Wangari Maathai as recently saying, “The best way to end deforestation is to end poverty.” The NGO further claims that research has indicated between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of land clearing has been undertaken by the poor seeking shelter, firewood, or land for subsistence farming. The NGO has no kind words for environmental NGOs such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace which it claims are propagating myths and misconceptions about palm oil. World Growth claims that palm oil is a highly efficient high yielding source of food and fuel, providing an alternative to fossil fuel and capturing carbon from the atmosphere.
October 12, 2009
(Palm Oil - The Green Development Oil Newsletter, Issue 2, October 2009) - Companies such as UK cosmetics company Lush, confectioner Cadbury and Whole Foods retailers in the US have taken "marketing" decisions to remove palm oil from their products. The European Union has gone so far as erect trade barriers against palm oil imports based on what they claim are environmental concerns surrounding its production. How much did these companies and governments really know before these decisions were made about palm oil, how it is produced and the benefits to the developing nations where it is grown?
October 10, 2009
(The Nation Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - With the UN's deadline looming, diplomats have made almost no progress towards a new global emissions agreement. With deep divisions between the EU and the Americans, experts in negotiations, now predict no new treaty will be inked at Copenhagen. Even if governments were willing to hike energy costs to reduce greenhouse gases in the midst of an economic crisis, they could not do so between now and November with the current 200-page, incredibly caveated, draft treaty text. Most of the positions are just opening gambits and seriously impractical.
October 6, 2009
(Forbes) - Some notable major brand names have joined the "green" bandwagon in the lead up to the U.N. climate negotiations at Copenhagen in December. Suddenly, palm oil is "bad," so Whole Foods retailers in the U.S., Lush cosmetics in Britain and Cadbury chocolate in New Zealand have made a show pulling this maligned commodity from their products. Even government is in on the act, with the E.U. recently placing restrictions on imports.
October 5, 2009
(Jakarta Post) - A report on palm oil production says the intensive worldwide campaigns against the practice are misplaced, and may endanger developing countries' efforts to alleviate poverty and reduce emissions. The report was released at the ongoing Bangkok climate conference by the Virginia-based NGO World Growth. World Growth chairman Alan Oxley said on the sidelines of the Bangkok talks, as quoted by its website, "The Greens' campaign against palm oil is very short-sighted. The anti-poor message it carries will be enough to tip scales - already ominously leaning the wrong way - against success at Copenhagen.
October 5, 2009
(New Business Review) - In a series of briefing papers, World Growth accuses Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth of attacking the palm oil industry because it’s successful, and says the environmental groups ignore the contribution to lifting people out of poverty. World Growth says palm is the fastest growing, cheapest, highest quality and most sustainable vegetable oil in production. Analyses by the US Department of Agriculture show annual production from Indonesia and Malaysia (which account for nearly 90% of world production) has risen over the past decade from 15,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes.
October 3, 2009
(The Nation) - Both goals - national development and a reduction in greenhouse gases - are achievable, but Oxley's push for palm-oil plantations around the world has also faced serious opposition because widespread plantations will lead to fewer wildlife habitats and a drop in bio-diversity in eco-systems due to mono-crop plantations. Yet, Oxley argues that economic benefits from the palm-oil movement are significant and can help reduce poverty in developing countries in Asia and Africa.
October 3, 2009
(CoolEarth.org) - A current campaign aimed at stopping the export of palm oil into the European Union is unlikely to have an immediate impact on exporters but could lead to some restrictions in the future, it has been claimed. According to chairman of World Growth International Alan Oxley, even though there has been a "smear campaign" in Europe over palm oil and the effect that the business around it has on the rainforest, the oil's big markets are China and India.
October 3, 2009
(Bangkok Post) - Palm oil, a key export for Southeast Asian nations, is likely to be the biggest victim of the ongoing effort to prevent forests being levelled to make way for plantations, a study reveals. The commodity is one of the biggest non-oil and gas exports for Indonesia and Malaysia and it is gaining ground in countries such as Laos. These countries will likely be affected by moves to protect forests, says World Growth, a non-governmental organisation which undertook the study. The NGO said there has been a sudden increase in hostility towards the palm oil industry which employs a large number of the region's inhabitants.
October 1, 2009
(Malaysia Star) - Palm oil, which accounts for 60% of the global vegetable oil trade, has come under fire from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are pressuring processors and consumers to boycott the oil and European Union (EU) governments to block its import based on the contention that palm oil damages the environment. But, according to a report by World Growth entitled Palm Oil – The Sustainable Oil, palm oil uses less land than crop-based oilseeds. “Only 0.26ha is required to produce a tonne of palm oil while soybean, sunflower and rapeseed need 2.2ha, 2ha and 1.5ha respectively to produce the same amount of oil,” said the report.
October 1, 2009
(Palm Oil - The Green Development Oil Newsletter, Issue 1, October 2009) - In recent months Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have mounted a major campaign against Palm Oil in markets of industrialized economies, threatening to campaign against brand name consumer businesses unless they vow to cease using Palm Oil. The European Union has imposed trade restrictions on imports of Biofuels (particularly Palm Oil). The Organ-utan is being promoted as an animal which Palm Oil is threatening. The aim is to restrict production of Palm Oil.
September 30, 2009
(Biodiesel Magazine) - With more than 4,000 delegates convening in Bangkok to discuss climate change over the next days, World Growth, a nongovernmental organization and palm oil advocate, decided it was the time to launch its campaign. World Growth’s “Palm Oil Green Development Campaign” will focus on “setting the record straight and correcting the falsehoods and misconceptions” propagated by others like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
September 29, 2009
(ICIS Chemical Business) - Non governmental organization World Growth strikes back at green groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth stating that their campaigns against the production of palm oil in Southeast Asia are damaging the economic and environmental benefits that this industry is giving to developing countries.
September 29, 2009
(American Oil Chemists' Society) - A new report suggests campaigns to halt production of palm oil threaten the world's poor and will have damaging environmental consequences for developing countries. The report was released at the United Nations' climate change meeting in Bangkok by a pro-trade nonprofit called World Growth (http://www.worldgrowth.org). Calling palm oil "the most sustainable vegetable oil available," the group suggests that production of palm oil has been more effective than most commodity crops in reducing poverty.
September 29, 2009
(Bernama) -- The anti-palm oil campaign by environmental groups is unlikely to have immediate effect on leading Malaysian and Indonesian exporters but could lead to trade and aid restrictions in future, the crop's pro-campaign group said Tuesday. Alan Oxley, chairman of the World Growth International, a US-based non-governmental organisation, said despite the smear campaign in Europe and restrictions on renewal energy there, palm oil's major markets are China and India.
September 29, 2009
(EFE) - Today the non-governmental organization World Growth predicted the failure of the UN’s climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen next December, and harshly criticized the ecological campaigns that eliminate good strategies against poverty, such as palm oil plantations.
September 28, 2009
(Biofuel Review) - A new initiative aimed at correcting, what the organization describes as, the myths, misconceptions and falsehoods perpetuated by environmental NGOs against Palm Oil was launched today (28th September)by the NGO World Growth. The launch of World Growth's "Palm Oil Green Development Campaign" took place at the United Nations climate change meeting in Bangkok.
September 27, 2009
(Bangkok Post) - "There are various proposals being set forth and one of them is for developing nations to seize deforestation and try to earn carbon credits," Alan Oxley, the chairman World Growth International, a US-based non-governmental organisation, said in a phone interview with the Bangkok Post...In any case, economic development takes centre stage for most policymakers in Asia. They and their public seem to give deforestation a far lower priority than their counterparts in nations with greater economic success, said Mr Oxley.
September 22, 2009
(Forbes) - Mongolia's agriculture- and mining-centric economy has been battered over the past year as demand for commodities has fallen worldwide. Nonetheless, the country has reason for optimism, as a pending deal to exploit the massive Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper deposits promises to pour wealth into the tiny nation of 2.9 million people. President Tsakhia Elbegdorj spoke to Forbes during a lunch hosted by the NGO World Growth, on investment opportunities in the country, with its large untapped reserves of coal, copper and other commodities.
September 19, 2009
(The Australian) - Alan Oxley, a former senior trade negotiator for the Australian government, said it would take years to craft workable agreements on reducing carbon emissions and emissions trading...Mr Oxley, a former Australian ambassador to GATT - the precursor to the World Trade Organisation - said the Copenhagen talks would not deliver an agreement because the US, the EU, China and India were "miles apart" in their positions..."If you want an international agreement, you have to build it around the position of the key players," said Mr Oxley, who heads the international relations consultancy ITS Global.
August 14, 2009
(Jakarta Globe oped by Alan Oxley) - As they do every year, Greenpeace and nongovernmental organizations like “Eyes on the Forest,” which is supported by the WWF and other western environmental groups, have squarely blamed the plantation industry for the seasonal fires in Sumatra. This generates sympathy for the anti-forestry campaign NGOs have been waging in Indonesia for many years, which pits economic development against the environment.
August 13, 2009
(Investor's Business Daily Op-Ed by Alan Oxley) - Environmental NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) Greenpeace and Worldwide Fund for Nature have just released the "NGO Climate Change Treaty." It's their wish list for terms of a treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, and they're pushing it this week at a U.N. meeting in Bonn, Germany. Environmental activists have always believed governments should put the environment ahead of every other issue, including economic growth. The NGO Treaty is a blueprint for this.
August 12, 2009
(Forbes.com oped by Alan Oxley) - This week climate change negotiators are meeting in Germany to review a 260-page document, which U.N. officials hope will be crafted into a new treaty to reduce carbon emissions and adopted by world leaders at Copenhagen in December. At the center of this proposal is a strategy for governments to raise money by creating a large global market for carbon credits.
August 3, 2009
(Jakarta Post op-ed by Alan Oxley) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had a seat of honor at the last meeting of the G20, where leaders solemnly promised they would not use protectionist measures during the greatest economic crisis in 70 years. Nevertheless, the European Union (EU) has quietly proceeded to implement a strategy which it settled on six months earlier to use protectionism to achieve its climate change ambitions. This strategy threatens exports from Indonesia. The instrument is the "Renewable Energy Directive". Its purpose is to encourage consumption of renewable fuels instead of those derived from fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas.
July 24, 2009
(The Australian) - ENVIRONMENTALISTS who oppose everything except renewable energy are condemning billions to poverty. THE federal government's support for a liquefied natural gas development in the Kimberley and the Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia has generated heated opposition from people who say they are true environmentalists.
July 2, 2009
(ABC Radio Australia) - OXLEY: This sort of thing happens and I think the Chinese are probably right to be getting a little irritated, I mean US steel industry's got a tradition of getting Congress and the government to push against more competitive exporters when times are tight and that's what's happening. There's been quite a lot of pressure from the US steel industry to do something about significant increases of Chinese exports of steel, China's exports have risen dramatically all around the world. However to date it looks like the subsidies if they are paid aren't that significant. China's just a more competitive steel producer.
June 29, 2009
(National Post) - Now is the time to pay more attention to the “third neighbor” policy, and address its relevant issues. The Foreign Policy Principle, which is still in force, provides for the foreign policy priorities. Of course, there are ranks among the priorities as well- the third neighbor comes after the two neighbors.
June 16, 2009
(The Australian) - Alan Oxley, who was Australia's ambassador to the World Trade Organisation's predecessor and is now managing director of trade consultancy ITS Global, asked: "Why is Australia's least competitive, lowest-growth state doing this? "Even before the downturn, NSW was our weakest performing economy. It is the state that can least afford to implement even worse policies. It should be driving harder in the other direction. This will foster businesses which are not globally competitive, which is not a way to ensure NSW gains its share of jobs when the economy picks up."
June 9, 2009
(The Australian oped by Alan Oxley) – THE better than expected recent economic performance is significantly attributable to our strong export performance. Yet pressure is growing to restrict trade. Unions want uncompetitive manufacturers protected with import barriers and preference in procurement for Australian producers. Greens want to restrict trade to force environmental policies in forestry and climate change on regional neighbours. Nationalists want to restrict Chinese investment in resources export industries.
May 25, 2009
(Forestry and Poverty Project Newsletter - Issue 3, May 2009) - The World Bank’s announcement of a US$1.3 billion loan to Brazil which includes improvement of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Brazil shows a welcome broadening of the attitude of the Bank towards promotion of sustainable forest management.
April 22, 2009
(Forbes.com) - Good intentions don't automatically lead to good results, and protecting the environment is no exception. In spite of pledges made to reject protectionist trade restrictions at the G-20 summit just a few weeks ago, several Western nations are trying to enact trade bans on timber and forest products in the name of environmental protection.
April 4, 2009
(The Australian) - Alan Oxley, trade principal at ITS Global and a former Australian ambassador to the WTO's predecessor, said it was important to recall that ASEAN's own internal FTA originally discriminated against some Australian products. He said: "In the long run, there will be some form of new regional architecture, and this agreement will help reduce the risk of illiberal results there. "It can make a contribution to raising the standard of FTAs around the region, to making them cleaner. And in the longer term it helps us to gain better access to consumer markets in ASEAN, which are bound to keep growing. Our trade with the region is at present quite patchy, dominated by a few products."
February 19, 2009
The international debate on forestry is one sided - it is anti-poor. It is dominated by the greater concern of bodies in rich countries to preserve forests and forest landscapes than to alleviate the poverty which is fostered by shortages of food and fuel. The aim of the Forestry and Poverty Project is to bring attention back to the development dimension of forestry. Forestry and Poverty does not have to make the case - it already exists – it simply needs to be stated.
February 11, 2009
(The Age) - Growing investment matters. In February 2004, former chairman of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (predecessor of the World Trade Organisation), Alan Oxley, opined in The Age that "in today's world, investment is as important for growth as trade … (because it) is the vehicle that delivers new technology".
January 7, 2009
(Bloomberg) - UN delegates at the final session of the Poland talks on Dec. 13 vowed to produce a new treaty to stem global warming, succeeding the Kyoto accord, by December 2009. That goal probably will be missed, said Alan Oxley, a former Australian diplomat. “We can’t get a deal done within a year,” Oxley, who heads World Growth, an Australian non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable development, said in an interview.
December 22, 2008
(Forbes.com) - Tucked away in a voluminous assessment released last year by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there's an incredibly cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It's in the chapter on forestry. Given the global economic crisis, the cost of "going green" is--not surprisingly--becoming an increasingly prominent factor as international regulators consider drafting environmental policies. This shift in priorities was evident in the latest round of U.N. climate talks, which ended last Friday in Poland.
December 20, 2008
(Bangkok Post) - Careful cultivation, maintenance, and development of the world's forests, as well as afforestation and reforestation, could offset up to 46% of human carbon emissions, while simultaneously driving economic growth in developing nations. This is stated in research by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international body providing technical advice to negotiators.
December 17, 2008
(RISI) - One of the attacks comes from none less than Ambassador Alan Oxley, head of World Growth International www.worldgrowth.org, a non-profit organization set up to expand and improve the health and economic welfare of disadvantaged populations. Speaking at the Poznan Climate Change conference held in Poland recently, Oxley said: "Green activists like the WWF and Friends of the Earth perpetuate the misconception that forestry is a black and white issue, but it is time to turn the tide in the global forest debate. "
December 11, 2008
(Jakarta Post) - Sir Nicholas Stern is a British economist. But his influence spreads far beyond the UK's border. In his now-renowned report on climate change, Stern claims that deforestation in tropical countries causes around 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. And he attributes half that figure to Brazil and Indonesia.
December 10, 2008
(Xinhua) - POZNAN, Poland, Dec. 10 -- China's far-reaching tree planting efforts in recent years have benefited its environment and economy significantly and should be recognized as one of the key tools to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the chairman of the non-governmental organization World Growth said Wednesday
December 10, 2008
(The Poznan Report) - The current recession has a silver lining: it’s likely to save the world’s poor from “green” global welfare. Overnight, the worldwide financial slump raised the specter of potentially massive job loss in industrialized countries from costly climate change initiatives. As a perceptive statesman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sees the change. But many overzealous green groups like the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) do not.
December 9, 2008
(Biofuels Digest) - From the World Growth Institute: “To date, the biggest hindrance to sustainable forestry has been opposition from environmental activists, particularly Greenpeace and WWF. These radical groups opposed proper recognition of forestry’s role in offsetting carbon when the Kyoto Protocol was originally negotiated.
December 9, 2008
(The Chilling Effect blog - Institute for Liberty) - Last week we came across World Growth, an international organization that seemed to care more about good policy than the prattling of do-gooders. Here we exchange a few questions and answers with World Growth’s leader, Alan Oxley.
December 4, 2008
(Kauppalehti) - According to a new report, published last Thursday, international organizations also have another way of fighting poverty in developing countries, other than by limiting, for example, the activities of international companies. The World Growth organization, which supports international trade as an antidote to poverty, is of the view that lumber companies should be given more business opportunities especially in poorer countries.
December 4, 2008
(Netposten) - Smaller NGO’s (Non Governmental Organisations) traditionally keep in line with bigger ones such as Greenpeace and WWF, World Wildlife Foundation. However, this is not the case in the climate debate. In this case World Growth, a small NGO, now counterbalances Greenpeace, WWF and the World Bank on their points of views. This was highlighted at the climate conference in Poznan, Poland, where World Growth published its report ”Winners All: How Forestry Can Reduce Both Climate Change Emissions and Poverty.”
December 4, 2008
(National Association of State Foresters Blog) - One such group, World Growth, disputes that deforestation is generating nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and argues that when timber is processed into wood products or paper, as the majority of logged timber is, the carbon remains stored.
December 4, 2008
(The Chilling Effect blog - Institute for Liberty) - We’ve been noting the work of World Growth — why? because we keep finding their stuff interesting — and now the New York Times’ Green Inc blog has picked up on the group’s work, too. In a post, “Climate Change Reduction or ‘Green Global Welfare’?” the blog notes:
December 4, 2008
(UN Radio) - Supporting this view, World Growth International, a non-profit non-governmental organization, released a new report at the Poznan Climate Change conference that reveals the significant role forestry stands to play in global efforts against climate change. Quoting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Chairman of World Growth, Alan Oxley says there are three ways forestry can help to reduce emissions.
December 4, 2008
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(The Timber Industry Magazine) - A hard-hitting report published today criticises the stance taken by the World Bank, leading nations and green groups in tackling carbon emissions from global deforestation. NGO World Growth’s report says the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) scheme, supported by the World Bank, WWF and Greenpeace, is “severely flawed”.
December 4, 2008
(New York Times) - The idea seems simple enough. The rich world would pay the poor world to save a natural commodity form which we all benefit from – trees. A new report from the pro-globalization group says paying poor countries to preserve their forests does little to improve global warming.
December 3, 2008
Debate at Poznan over deforestation’s role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions has revealed fundamental divides over a basic question: “What should be the aim of a new global convention on climate change?” Is it to reduce emissions? Or is it to put those who generate emissions, like non-renewable energy industries, out of business? Though a handful of people think both of these answers amount to the same thing, the debate over forestry shows they do not.
December 3, 2008
(The Chilling Effect blog - Institute for Liberty) - The World Growth Institute, mentioned on this blog recently, sent out a newsletter to its supporters and it hit on a note that we watch closely: the negative economic impact of unreasonable activists. Here’s the group’s take on enviros and forestry policy:
December 2, 2008
Right Place, Right Time - This week’s U.N. climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland represent one of those rare occurrences: an intersection of the right place at the right time. The global recession -- officially announced yesterday -- clarifies a reality that many already knew: it’s simply not feasible for negotiators to meet their looming deadline of the end of 2009.
December 1, 2008
(The Chilling Effect blog - Institute for Liberty) - Is it possible that well-intentioned activists have it all wrong on the way that forests can be seen as a solution to — not just a cause of — global warming? According to one group, that’s the case. Here’s a statement we got, and we thought we’d pass along. It’s from World Growth International, which says its mission is to expand the education, information and other resources available to disadvantaged populations to improve their health and economic welfare.
November 24, 2008
(Australian Broadcastin Corporation (ABC) - Alan Oxley, chairman of the Australian APEC Centre, says China and India strengthened their commitment to Doha at the weekend's APEC forum in Peru.
Oxley says while it's important to get the current Doha round of negotiations finished, there needs to be greater recognition of the value of opening up agricultural markets.
November 22, 2008
(The Australian) - ITS Global trade expert Alan Oxley says WTO officials were impressed with the way Trade Minister Simon Crean handled negotiations.
"He has breathed a bit more life into that Doha round," Oxley says. "He has clearly won respect from the other ministers, so that's a very good start."
November 14, 2008
(Montsame) Prime Minister S.Bayar has received a head of the "World Growth" organization the Ambassador Alan Oxley. The Premier thanked the organization for its many initiatives to contribute to implementing the adequate policy on the economic development.
November 9, 2008
(UB Post, Mongol Messenger, Unuuder, Century News, Century Post and Daily News) - Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of advisors’ group of World Growth International NGO in Mongolia Ts. Gombosuren is interviewed.
November 6, 2008
(Century News, Century Post, Daily News and Onoodor) - Mongolia’s long-term economic prospects are closely tied to its mining sector. Policymakers in Ulaanbaatar must adopt sensible policies for the country’s mining sector. If they do, the beneficial effects will be felt throughout the country and across every economic sector, from manufacturing to services. The policies lawmakers adopt will determine whether this chance becomes a reality for the entire country or for only a few.
September 24, 2008
(The Australian) THERE has been a disturbing inclination in Canberra in recent months to default to policy alchemy. Take the easy assertions by officials that the Australian economy can be restructured to utilise nonexistent, low-emission technologies and remain globally competitive.
August 13, 2008
(Sydney Morning Herald) - Alan Oxley, from trade consultants ITS Global, told the ABC Australia's case was weak and would probably be defeated. "It may have been that the previous government who set this process in train decided it was going to be easier to be overruled by the WTO to demonstrate that its case couldn't stand, rather than take the decision itself," he said.
July 31, 2008
(The Australian) - Trade analyst Alan Oxley says the danger is that everyone will think that because the deal was 90 per cent concluded and collapsed over a minor issue, further efforts will be wasted in trying to revive a model that has been shown not to work.
July 25, 2008
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - A trade expert is predicting the World Trade Organisation will rule against Australia in its hearing into apple imports. New Zealand is challenging Australia's quarantine rules for apples at the WTO, claiming they're an excessive trade barrier. The Australian Government is arguing the import regulations are a protection against the disease fire blight.
July 7, 2008
(The Australian) - ITS Global principal Alan Oxley said Professor Garnaut was wrong to suggest the problem required urgent action. "The argument has no basis - we do have the luxury of time. It's a 100-year problem," he said. "This is something we should be beginning quite gingerly." Mr Oxley, a former Australian ambassador to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, said there was no point in Australia acting faster to cut its emissions than the rest of the world.
May 25, 2008
(UB Post) - In the course of any nation’s history, there are points in time when decisions are made that set the direction for its future. Mongolia is at one of those points now as a debate grows over mineral rights and the future of the mining sector. Decisions are being weighed by the Mongolian Government which will determine the future prosperity of this great land. It is imperative to get these decisions right.
April 12, 2008
(Bangkok Post) - Expanded sustainably harvested forestry will produce a much better and bigger dividend for Asean economies and for the environment. But like their head-in-the-sand attitudes to nuclear power as a global warming solution, Greenpeace and WWF only want to see forestry in developing countries managed by their rules.
April 11, 2008
(Associated Press) - The U.S. warned last week that deep emission cuts could hurt economic growth, especially for developing nations, while a U.S.-based pro-business group, World Growth, said quick action on climate change would do more harm than good.
April 3, 2008
(Xinhua) - "No government in Asia could adopt that strategy knowing it would increase, not decrease poverty," said Alan Oxley, Chairman of World Growth, a U.S.-based pro-free-trade NGO. The World Growth holds that the EU case is based on claims by the British official Sir Nicholas Stern that the cost to developing countries of deep cuts is low. Therefore, the EU argues that unless deep cuts are imposed soon, the poor countries will be hurt most.
April 3, 2008
(Associated Press) - World Growth, a pro-business group, argues that quick action on climate change would do more harm than good. "Immediate and substantial cuts in emissions will rapidly translate into reduced access to energy, lower economic growth and a reduced capacity to roll back poverty," the group said in a report in December.
April 2, 2008
(Economic Times of India/AFP) - But Alan Oxley, a former Australian ambassador who leads the pro-globalisation group World Growth, said that green technologies were not yet economically viable. "If we try and engineer a new economy, we would have the same success as the Soviet communist party," he said. Oxley, a critic of the Kyoto Protocol, said that curbing emissions would inevitably reduce consumption, particularly of energy, and would hit developing economies particularly hard.
March 20, 2008
(UB Post) - World Growth, a non-profit organization, announced it will undertake an advertising campaign to pressure the government into developing policies that will foster greater economic growth. The group also released the first in a series of public policy statements this week, pushing for higher growth as a means to raise living standards and generate wealth.
February 1, 2008
(The Australian) - JOSE Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Council and former prime minister of Portugal, dropped a policy bomb last week. He threatened climate trade war. Europe plans to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by a further 20 per cent by 2020. It would restrict imports from countries that did not do the same thing, specifically the US and China. He called the trade problem the nuclear bomb of the climate change debate.
January 28, 2008
(Council on Foreign Relations – Daily Analysis) - Alan Oxley, head of the nongovernmental organization World Growth, called Bali’s outcome “a defeat for the European Union,” which was unable to get commitments (Bangkok Post) on reduction targets of 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels.
December 22, 2007
(Bangkok Post) - The outcome of the Bali climate change meeting shows that most countries in the world do not favour radical action to reduce greenhouse gases. Yet in the lead-up to the meeting, the world's media were full of stories about how it is necessary to take dramatic action. The consequences would be serious if we did not. Who got it wrong? The governments at Bali or the media? The four-page communique' adopted at Bali shows what governments wanted. It reflected agreement to start negotiating to aim for conclusion of a new global strategy by the end of 2009.
December 14, 2007
(The Straits Times) - Mr Alan Oxley, chairman of US-based non-governmental organisation World Growth, said Mr Lee identified 'the only real strategy that will work to achieve a global consensus'.
December 12, 2007
(Melbourne Herald Sun) - World Growth proposed a multi-track approach, which would balance the need for reduction in overall emissions, but allow developing countries to prosper economically. The fault line that threatened a creative outcome in Bali, according to Oxley, was the cost of mitigation. The cost of cutting emissions. The analysis in the Stern report -- prepared for the British Government by economist Nicholas Stern -- which purported to show the cost was small, had been discredited as thoroughly flawed.
December 11, 2007
(Courier Mail) - This is the critically important counter-view to the simplistic feel-good consensus, that is articulated by the "World Growth" coalition founded and chaired by Alan Oxley, Australia's leading trade campaigner. Europe had been spinning the case that deep early cuts in developed world emissions would not undermine either their or world growth, Oxley said...World Growth proposed a multi-track approach, which would balance the need for reduction in overall emissions, but allow developing countries to prosper economically.
December 11, 2007
(Jakarta Post) - The fault line that threatens consensus on a new global strategy on climate change is the cost of mitigation, and yet the signs are that the finance ministers will focus instead on how to fund adaptation to climate change, according to Alan Oxley, former chairman of the GATT, predecessor to the World Trade Organization and chairman of World Growth.
December 10, 2007
(Jakarta Post) - Australia's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will make his international debut at the Bali climate meeting. He will more than hold his own in the international arena. His grasp of international issues will be the match of most national leaders. He is also fluent in Mandarin, a great asset in world adjusting to China's unprecedented emergence in global affairs.
December 10, 2007
(Xinhua News Agency) - As a finance trade ministers meeting will start on the sideline of the ongoing UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, World Growth (WG), anon-profit and non-governmental organization, warned Monday that the meeting may risk "letting a golden opportunity slip."
December 8, 2007
(Bangkok Post) - As the diplomats and ministers gather in Bali for global climate-change negotiations, the wet season has begun. The WWF erected a giant candle outside the conference to signify the Earth is burning; but the cooler weather this week may lead to cooler reflection. That is needed in Bali. The consequences of what governments decide can be momentous.
December 7, 2007
(BBC Brasil) - Entitled "The Real Climate Threat for Developing Countries", the study by the nongovernmental organization WG (World Growth) analyzes the possible impact of implementing the recommendations of the Stern report on the economies of developing countries.
December 6, 2007
(Xinhua News Agency) - A new report published here on Thursday by World Growth, a non-governmental organization, shows that the European Union strategy of making early, deep cuts in emissions the centerpiece of a post Kyoto Protocol global framework would harm developing countries and derail efforts to alleviate global poverty in the developing world.
December 6, 2007
(Reuters Environment Blog) - Oxley, former Australian ambassador at world trade talks and now chairman of his NGO World Growth, believes the sense of urgency that pervades the Bali talks – meant to launch negotiations to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol — is misplaced.
December 6, 2007
(El Mercurio Blog) - 12 Alan Oxley, president of World Growth www.worldgrowth.org, warned that developing countries should be alert "because the measures proposed are extremely punitive and directly stunt growth (...) and they should exercise a great deal of caution with regard to the issue of avoidable deforestation."
November 5, 2007
(Energy Central) - "If China could replace all its old technology with new, more efficient technology, it could cut the growth of Chinese emissions by as much as half," says Alan Oxley, chairman of World Growth that is dedicated to fostering economic growth while limiting emissions. "Unlike Kyoto, such reductions can be achieved without stifling growth and penalizing business."
October 6, 2007
(Bangkok Post) - In the second of a two-part series of articles on the ongoing debate about climate change, and what developing countries such as India and China should do to meet demands by developed economies for cuts in greenhouse gases, Alan Oxley discusses ways that could be used to find the middle ground for both parties.
September 29, 2007
(Bangkok Post) - World Growth’s report, called ‘‘Building a Pro-development Strategy on Climate Change’’, said the Kyoto Protocol demonstrated that a successful global strategy to address climate change needs to recognise the different interests of countries. Global regulation of energy would not work and support would come only if all countries thought the approach was equitable, the report says. Most developing nations view the Kyoto protocol as biased toward developed nations.
September 24, 2007
(The Straits Times) - Mr Alan Oxley, chairman of the US-based non-governmental organisation World Growth, told The Straits Times that 'there is still a big gap between nations' over the need to balance environmental and developmental concerns. World Growth, which recently concluded a study on the Kyoto Protocol, has found that the pact delivered only limited benefits to developing countries and failed to build a global consensus on a strategy to tackle climate change.
September 10, 2007
(The Australian) The Sydney Declaration will help to shape the agenda for a series of key international meetings on climate change later this year, according to the top White House adviser on climate change.
September 7, 2007
(ePT--the Electronic Newsletter of Pharmaceutical Technology) ... In fact, according to an August report by World Growth, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization, two-thirds of the value of America’s large businesses resides in intellectual property, especially patents and trademarks.
September 7, 2007
(The Sydney Morning Herald) A US-based non-government organisation, World Growth, is proposing a process to allow Asia Pacific countries to reduce emissions while allowing economic development programs to continue.
September 6, 2007
(The Australian) Was John Howard right to propose the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum begin to set out a new global strategy to tackle climate change?As the world's leading economies decided at the G8 summit in June that Kyoto has to be replaced, any Australian prime minister should have felt duty-bound to encourage APEC leaders to lead the effort to develop a fresh approach.
September 6, 2007
(Borneo Bulletin) As the region's leaders stand divided on climate change at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in Sydney, Australia, a study launched at the meeting proposed a new strategy for unified global action.
September 5, 2007
(The Australian) Australia's push for APEC to agree on aspirational targets for greenhouse gas reductions is doomed to fail, according to a leading international negotiator who has proposed an alternative negotiating framework to help include developing countries.
September 5, 2007
(Bernama.com) A study released here (Sydney) today has proposed what it says is "a new strategy for unified global action" to tackle climate change, an issue over which leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) remain divided.
September 5, 2007
(Xinhua News Agency) A study released here on Wednesday proposes "a multi-track" process to tackle the issue of climate change. "Pro-development, 'Multi-Track' process to reduce emissions could help forge regional collaboration toward progress at global talks," said the study titled "Building a Pro-Development Strategy on Climate Change" by World Growth, a United States-based non-governmental organization.
September 1, 2007
(The Australian) This spring is high season for international climate change negotiations. Next Saturday the leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific economies sit down in Sydney to talk about climate change.
August 31, 2007
(Business Week) Global warming, not trade or terrorism, will top the agenda at next week's annual meeting of Pacific-Rim leaders -- a year after climate change barely got a mention in the group's final declaration.North Korea and Iraq also will be among the topics discussed on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, one of the largest gatherings of world powers.
August 31, 2007
(TIME) You may not be quite sure what it does, but in Sydney right now APEC is impossible to ignore. For its sake guards patrol the Harbour Bridge, dummy motorcades race through the streets, zoo animals are being moved to an island in the harbor so VIP wives can view them in peace, and a 3-m-high wall is going up around the Opera House. Even Sydneysiders who've missed the preparations know that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum Leaders' Week, which runs from Sept. 2-9, will be giving them a public holiday.August 16, 2007
(Peter Zura's 271 Patent Blog) Two economic reports were recently published, analyzing the effects of IP on innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Not surprisingly, each report concludes that strong IP regimes are a prerequisite for robust innovation and growth.
August 14, 2007
(US-PharmaTechnologist.com) The pharmaceutical industry has come up top in the most Intellectual Property (IP)-intensive industry in the US, according to a report released this week. The study, Economic Effects of Intellectual Property: Intensive Manufacturing in the United States, found that two-thirds of the value of the US' large businesses comes from IP, especially patents and trademarks, with the pharma industry topping the list.
July 24, 2007
(The Australian) We need enterprising pharmaceuticals, not a Cuban-style health system, argues Alan Oxley. THE global fight against HIV-AIDS has become so highly politicised that publicity hungry activism is overshadowing the real causes of an AIDS resurgence in the Asia-Pacific. The trend is exemplified by this week's international conference on HIV science in Sydney.
September 21, 2006
(Bloomberg) ... ``Today's moves are significant for the current round,'' said Alan Oxley, head of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation center at Melbourne-based Monash University. ``The test is how far the U.S. is willing to go.''
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