More bang for your buck

According to the 'Copenhagen Consensus', a group of super-economists who aim to solve the world's ills using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics, the biggest problem facing the world is not global warming or terrorism. It is malnutrition in the developing world, and it can be sharply reduced for as little as $60 million a year, by supplying basic micronutrients for 112 million children who lack essential vitamins.

Writing in Time Magazine, Bryan Walsh explains that according to the Copenhagen Consensus's figures, $60 million would return more than $1 billion in benefits: better health, fewer deaths, and more worker productivity. The other four of the top five problems are the resolution of the Doha development agenda, micronutrient fortification, expanded immunisation coverage for children and biofortification.

The Copenhagen Consensus makes no apologies for dealing in cold economics: the group's emphasis is on 'rational prioritisation', and justified as a corrective to standard practice in international development, where, it is alleged, media attention and the court of public opinion skew priorities. Bjørn Lomborg, the Danish academic who conceived the group, says his eggheads focus on problems that have clear solutions, which explains why climate change is ranked low on the to-do list. It is a position that has incurred the wrath of environmentalists, but as Walsh writes, Lomborg is 'unshakable'.