Prioritizing Development: A Cost Benefit Analysis of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

This book is a unique guide to making the world a better place. Experts apply a critical eye to the United Nations' Sustainable Development agenda, also known as the Global Goals, which will affect the flow of $2.5 trillion of development aid up until 2030. Renowned economists, led by Bjorn Lomborg, determine what pursuing different targets will cost and achieve in social, environmental and economic benefits. There are 169 targets, covering every area of international development – from health to education, sanitation to conflict. Together, these analyses make the case for prioritizing the most effective development investments. A panel of Nobel Laureate economists identify a set of 19 phenomenal development targets, and argue that this would achieve as much as quadrupling the global aid budget.

Bjorn Lomborg is President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School. He researches the smartest ways to do good, for which he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. His numerous books include The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001), Cool It (2007), How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place (2014) and The Nobel Laureates' Guide to the Smartest Targets for the World 2016–2030 (2015).