Redistribute the Windfall from High Oil Prices

The Americas face multiple and simultaneous challenges in the coming years, ranging from climate change and the competition from the growing economies of China and India to rising crime and narcotics trafficking. These issues have been magnified recently by the severe problems associated with rising oil and food prices. But the challenges in those two areas also contain some unique and innovative possibilities.

By acting in concert, we can help alleviate the pressures on the economies and societies of the world’s poorest nations. That will not only help to minimize a growing global crisis, but also reduce the risks that food scarcity, poverty and energy shortages pose to the elected governments of the hemisphere.

As a participant in several international summits this year, I became keenly aware that global concerns must be translated into viable public policy options…