In this forum organized by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Bertelsmann Stiftung (Germany) Prime Minister Wim Kok has participated in a plenary session and one round table dedicated to Social Inclusive Policy. The President of the Club de Madrid has acknowledged that “‘public confidence in the future and public confidence in business and political leadership are shrinking. The key question is how to restore trust?”. That’s why, according to Kok, ‘we need to move from more to better – a mental shift is needed. We need to assure people that values of fairness and inclusiveness are taken seriously. We must promote “shared societies”, where all individuals share a common capacity to participate economically, politically and socially.’ In this context for Mr Kok is clear that “GDP growth can no longer be an end in itself – it must be combined with social inclusiveness. Growth is a means to achieving better living standards and happiness”.
As democracy and shared societies were two key issues in the President of the Club the Madrid words, energy and climate change were also within his worries. In this sense Mr Wim Kok focused on six points to be tackled: ”We need integrated, holistic regional approaches; we need water management strategies; biofuel production must respect biodiversity and sustainable land use; we need clear price signals, including a price on carbon; environmental taxation is needed both for incentives and funds; and taxation of liquid fuels should be used to finance infrastructure”, Mr Kok said adding an extra strategic consideration: ”When designing environmental policy, we cannot think nationally”.
Club de Madrid participation in this symposium is part of the alliance with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Bertelsmann Stiftung in the initiative, “New Norms for Global Governance”.
