Jeffrey Sachs
University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University
The World in 2050: Some Quantitative Perspectives
The world economy is changing rapidly under several distinct forcings, including technological advance, catching-up growth in poorer countries, regional integration, energy transformation, climate change, and demographic change. I will describe some quantitative projections for the world in 2050, illuminating the major trends in output, population, and energy production and use across the world’s major regions to mid-century.
Speaker Bio
Jeffrey D. Sachs is University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed the Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, and TanSri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University.
He has been Special Advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary General António Guterres. He spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. Sachs has received 42 honorary doctorates, and his recent awards include the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France, and the Order of the Cross from the President of Estonia. His most recent books are The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020) and Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (2022).
