Click here to watch the President's speech in full.
President Higgins delivered a keynote address at the “Confronting Planetary Emergencies” meeting of the OECD.
The OECD’s “New Approaches to Economic Challenges” programme hosted the conference to reflect on international approaches to the Covid-19 pandemic and their consequences for strategies to address other global emergencies, such as climate change, poverty, malnutrition and growing inequalities within and among societies.
President Higgins, who had been invited to give a keynote address, suggested that the global, inter-linked economic system is inherently subject to crises and cascading failures; failures that can worsen environmental degradation, deepen social and economic inequality and increase geo-political tension.
Addressing these problems, he suggested, requires new systemic approaches, new economic thinking and a greater focus on resilience, safeguards and a symmetry between economic, social, and ecological measures.
The President’s address builds on his earlier advocacy in favour of a radical rethink of the global economic model, and makes the case that in recent decades mainstream economic commentary has consistently prioritised privatisation and market deregulation, at the expense of the role of the State and mechanisms that could prevent detrimental effects on society and the environment.
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Some of the President’s key speeches on this topic include:
- President delivers keynote address at Engineers Ireland conference on climate action (2020)
- President gives keynote address at NESC conference on Just Transition (2020)
- ‘Rethinking the Role of the State in Fostering a Sustainable and Inclusive Economy’ (2019)
- Keynote address at Fordham University (2019)
- Keynote address at Leipzig University (2019)
- Address at the Congress of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (2019)
- President meets delegates from UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2018)
- Address at the Social Justice Ireland Annual Public Policy Conference (2017)
- Keynote Address at the Ibec Business Leaders’ Conference (2017)
- Address at the official opening of the ICTU Biennial Conference (2017)
- Speech at the TASC Annual Conference (2016)
- Discovering the Rich Promise of a Moral Foundation to Economy & Society (2015)
- ‘Toward an ethical economy’ (2013)
