12th December 2017 London, UK
Today the Prime Minister joined President Macron and other world leaders at One Planet Summit in Paris. The summit arose from recognition that we are way off-track in tackling climate change. But it also came from a more positive sense that the economics have shifted decisively in favour of a global low carbon transition in recent months. […]
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10th February 2015
This week a colleague said something that really resonated with me: “We are the first generation in history that could end extreme poverty, and the last generation that still has time to avert extreme climate change”. No pressure then. It’s certainly both an exciting and sobering prospect. We live in an era of such great […]
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24th September 2014
It’s the seventeenth anniversary of my first visit to the OECD. Back in September 1997 I accompanied my Treasury colleague Tom Scholar (now our Prime Minister’s G8 and G20 Sherpa) to Japan’s Economic Survey meeting, as I was about to take up my first diplomatic posting in Tokyo. It was one of the best days […]
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17th January 2014
Given the challenges for the global economy and a desperate need to create jobs and shared prosperity, the pressure on the OECD to deliver Better Policies for Better Lives will be as intense as ever in 2014. A key framework for our efforts this year is the ‘New Approaches to Economic Challenges’ project, about which I’ve […]
21st October 2013
In November the next UN Conference of Parties on climate change (COP19) will meet in Warsaw. There is an enormous amount of work to do in Poland and subsequently if we are going to get a global, legally binding agreement on carbon emissions that we committed to achieve at COP21 in Paris in 2015. In […]
15th October 2013
We are hearing more and more about ‘human capital’ at the OECD. This is good news. It may sound counter-intuitive. Human and Capital. Man and Machine. Opposites surely, or at least complements, unless you’re in some sort of modernist fantasy? But the phrase, while not the most literary, does make sense. In the same way […]
1st July 2013
Among the outcomes of last week’s G8 in Lough Erne, the formal launching of negotiations on an EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or ‘T-TIP’) may prove to be one of the most historic. With the promise of new jobs and lower prices, it has the potential to make a real and positive impact for […]
29th June 2013
I wanted to sincerely thank everyone at the OECD who helped the UK host a successful G8 Summit. The setting was Northern Ireland’s beautiful Lough Erne, where on the eve of the Summit the British Prime Minister refreshed himself with a bracing swim, avoiding the nibbles of the pike that a certain recently-retired OECD Director […]
14th June 2013
The upcoming UK-hosted G8 summit at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland is an opportunity for the UK to lead a global debate on Trade, Tax and Transparency – the “3Ts” – showing how progress on these areas is essential for prosperity in all countries. The OECD has made an invaluable contribution to this effort – […]
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25th March 2013
My first video blog gives an insight into what the OECD does and the role of the UK Delegation. Have a look to find out a bit more about our top priorities as a Delegation, and how we’re working with the OECD. The UK and the OECD – an introduction Transcript of video blog I’m Nick […]