Reflections are only that, reflections, nothing more nothing less. Often these reflections are related to books I read, but occasionally also other things. These are often written very late, very fast,  using notes from my mobile phone, so the grammar and spelling is horrible.



The day oil hit 100$ (and new opportunities should become even more obvious)

It is hard to understand that it was only a few years ago when oil prices above 40$ was not seen as “realistic” (and even the last IEA report, from 2007, thought that 100$ would happen 203o and only in a high-growth scenario. When I started WWFs trade and investment work in China and India five years ago we had that as one “low possibility, but high impact scenario”. Then we could not use this in relation to donors and in communication in OECD. In China and India they were willing to discuss the possibility of the consequences of such a price increase. Today I still feel that these countries often are ahead of us (even if we say it, little seems to happen).

The opportunities are amazing though and I really look forward to a few initiatives that I hope to launch in the first half of 08, as well as the launch of a few reports (about ICT and climate change, global trade regime for sustainability and export from Baoding in China)…

But one thing that I really like to recommend is the report “Arab companies in the 21st Century” from last year… More relevant today than ever.