Survival of the Greenest
Adrienne Buller speaks to Amir Lebdioui about development economics, tariff wars and what we could be learning from China.
We hear a lot about “sustainable development”—it’s the buzzword of virtually every UN convening—but often with little clarity on what it means in practice.
Countries like the US, Canada or the UK hardly developed “sustainably”, so to demand that others organise their economies and societies in ways that we never did can feel like pulling up the ladder behind us. Moreover, how is “development” really defined? Reaching a certain level of GDP per capita? Having the right kinds of “advanced” industries, like finance or tech? And what do any of these indicators tell us about the things that really matter, like ensuring a decent, affordable life for everyone without compromising the planet?
Joining Adrienne to answer these questions is Amir Lebdioui, Associate Professor in Political Economy at the University of Oxford where he directs the TIDE Centre, and the author of “Survival of the Greenest” (Cambridge University Press, 2024). In this episode, Amir breaks down the economics of sustainable development, the implications of global tariff wars and what we could all be learning from China.