Book review: the new extractivism: a post-neoliberal development model or imperialism of the twenty-first century? edited by Henry Veltmeyer and James Petras

The New Extractivism aims to address a fundamental dilemma faced by governments in Latin America: to pursue, or not, a development strategy based on resource extraction in the face of immense social and environmental costs, not to mention mass resistance from the people negatively affected by it. This book offers a persuasive antidote to the misplaced optimism about Latin America that many progressives have bought into, writes Jason Hickel

Book review: the crises of microcredit edited by Isabelle Guérin, Marc Labie and Jean-Michel Servet

Do microfinance initiatives offer a panacea for poverty? In The Crises of Microcredit, editors Isabelle Guérin, Marc Labie and Jean-Michel Servet present a set of essays that examines the emergent problems in the microfinance sector. While the book will be of use to those wanting to understand how an apparent miracle cure now seems shrouded in crisis, Jason Hickel argues that the book does not fully explore the structural issues that render microcredit a fundamentally flawed means of enabling development and solving global poverty

Five reasons to think twice about the UN’s sustainable development goals

As part of the Africa at LSE and South Asia at LSE cross-blog series on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, LSE’s Jason Hickel critiques the new Sustainable Development Goals. He argues that the goals due to be signed at the UN Summit this week are not only a missed opportunity, but actively dangerous because they lock the global development agenda around a failing economic model

Flipping the Corruption Myth

LSE’s Jason Hickel argues that corruption is far from the sole cause of poverty in the Global South

Quantifying national responsibility for climate breakdown : an equality-based attribution approach for carbon dioxide emissions in excess of the planetary boundary

Background: This analysis proposes a novel method for quantifying national responsibility for damages related to climate change by looking at national contributions to cumulative CO2 emissions in excess of the planetary boundary of 350 ppm atmospheric CO2 concentration. This approach is rooted in the principle of equal per capita access to atmospheric commons. Methods: For this analysis, national fair shares of a safe global carbon budget consistent with the planetary boundary of 350 ppm were derived. These fair shares were then subtracted from countries' actual historical emissions (territorial emissions from 1850 to 1969, and consumption-based emissions from 1970 to 2015) to determine the extent to which each country has overshot or undershot its fair share. Through this approach, each country's share of responsibility for global emissions in excess of the planetary boundary was calculated. Findings: As of 2015, the USA was responsible for 40% of excess global CO2 emissions. The European Union (EU-28) was responsible for 29%. The G8 nations (the USA, EU-28, Russia, Japan, and Canada) were together responsible for 85%. Countries classified by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as Annex I nations (ie, most industrialised countries) were responsible for 90% of excess emissions. The Global North was responsible for 92%. By contrast, most countries in the Global South were within their boundary fair shares, including India and China (although China will overshoot soon). Interpretation: These figures indicate that high-income countries have a greater degree of responsibility for climate damages than previous methods have implied. These results offer a just framework for attributing national responsibility for excess emissions, and a guide for determining national liability for damages related to climate change, consistent with the principles of planetary boundaries and equal access to atmospheric commons

Book review: how soon is now? From personal initiation to global transformation by Daniel Pinchbeck

In How Soon is Now? From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation, Daniel Pinchbeck presents his argument for the need for urgent transformations at both the personal and global scale if we are to tackle the ‘hard problems’ posed by climate change and other pressing environmental issues. While querying aspects of Pinchbeck’s argument and the transition movement more broadly, Jason Hickel nonetheless welcomes this as a brave and necessary book from an important contemporary thinker

Exposing the great ‘poverty reduction’ lie

The UN claims that its Millennium Development Campaign has reduced poverty globally. This assertion is far from true, writes Jason Hickel

Book review: Poverty and the millennium development goals: acritical look forward edited by Alberto Cimadamore, GabrieleKoehler and Thomas Pogge

In 2015, The UN Millennium Development Goals reached their deadline – but what has been their legacy? Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals, edited by Alberto Cimadamore, Gabriele Koehler and Thomas Pogge, brings together scholars to interrogate their success in reducing global poverty. Jason Hickel welcomes this as a refreshing and vital critical perspective on the MDGs and recommends it to readers looking for an alternative paradigm for development