Author: ctornaghimedia

Rio puts on a show. Or two! 

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

Ahead of her ground-breaking show, Lady Gaga fans spent days on a sidewalk trying to see their diva at the Copacabana Palace hotel, in Rio de Janeiro. So when a delegation of black cars with police escort showed up, they went wild, and then quickly disappointed upon seeing the car passengers wearing just regular suits: Sharing the iconic beach front hotel with the pop star were BRICS+ delegates, in Rio for a smorgasbord of meetings. (Quick detour: Gaga later made it up to them sending 80 pizzas to her adoring fans camped outside.)

Building BRICS+

I have always been fascinated by this ad-hoc group. From the 2001 investment report by Goldman Sachs, to a 2006 conversation between the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, then the 2011 addition of South Africa, followed by the creation of their own development bank— the NDB— in 2015, leaders of this heterogenous grouping made it not only work but live this long, and grow. In 2024 it went from five to 11 members and nine partner countries, ranging from Bolivia to Kazakhstan. It became even more puzzling — 20 nations that have very, very different priorities, issues and allegiances coming together. What are they aiming at? What can the BRICS+ deliver different than the G20, G77, or the UN itself?

Never the main platform for any of the members, the partnership always seemed more like a “good thing to have.” It was nonetheless useful in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, when members voted together within the IMF in the push for some of the (timid) reforms made at the time, Professor Luiza Peruffo at University of Rio Grande do Sul told me. 

Membership in the group also helped Russia find a semblance of not being completely isolated at the onset of the war against Ukraine. “It follows the logic of diplomacy to look for allies,” said Laura Waisbich, programs director at Igarapé Institute, “but any agreement can only come as a consensus, and the enlarged group makes it that much harder to find the lowest common denominator.”  

Rotating presidency

The popular policy of rotating the presidency of multilateral groupings rendered Brazil in a busy spot, leading the G20, BRICS summit and COP 30 in a row. And after the relative success of the G20 summit in Rio in 2024, expectations are high for a repeat of an agreed-upon communiqué out of the next two meetings.

Brazil wants a few things from this BRICS+ summit. First, to gather support and, hopefully, a consolidated front toward a successful COP30. Then there are the topics of global health, artificial intelligence governance, peace and security architecture, and the institutionalization of the group itself. (Though the agenda presented by Brazil may not stop other members from bringing issues such as tariffs to the forefront.)

The initial sign of the stalemate-status that the enlarged group might render going forward came at the very first meeting of the (now) 11 foreign ministers: the forever-quest of reform of the UN Security Council failed to get all new members to agree on the wording around it. Until last year, when the group had only five letters, Brazil, India and South Africa hoped for the support of partners China and Russia in their candidacy for an enlarged Security Council. 

April, 29, 2025: Second day of BRICS+ Foreign Ministers Meeting
Photo Credit: Isabela Castilho | BRICS Brasil

Now, with many more letters in the acronym, the plea did not go well with new members Egypt and Ethiopia, that would prefer not to see South Africa as the flag bearer for the whole continent. That meeting of foreign ministers was expected to draft the communiqué for leaders to sign in July, but ended with just a few words from the host nation highlighting Brazil’s hopes and dreams for the Summit.

Regional disputes and the lack of common interests and priorities aren’t the only hurdles facing BRICS+. Countries at war and governments that question the right to exist of other nations coming together to discuss peace also raises questions about the validity of their words.

There’s more to collaboration

Despite the early setback,  BRICS+ representatives are holding conversations on just about everything: there is a sports task force, and anti-corruption working group, discussions on artificial intelligence governance, meetings of health ministers, webinars for youth representatives, cooperation towards energy transition and mineral research to mention a few examples of the gamut of topics and areas where this enlarged —and still odd—group is looking to collaborate on. In April, Agriculture ministers — representing a third of the planet’s arable land and fresh water reserves — were indeed able to reach a joint declaration focused on cooperation during emergencies, collaboration towards infrastructure and reducing inequality in rural areas, among other topics.

As odd as the group is when it comes to geopolitics and domestic policies and priorities, most (of us) share a reality: inequality, vulnerability to climate events, and the not always geographically accurate label of Global South. Will that be enough to render the + sign in the acronym the right move for the group? Well, we need to wait for July. 

on Being a kid in bologna

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

It was a dream, that I don’t even know how, came true. Here I was, at the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair! I have always been a huge fan of children’s literature, since the time when my inner child was also my outer self :), but the Bologna Book Fair came into my radar only in 2020, when I started publishing my own stories for children ( so far, three books published independently, a fourth coming out in June, all in Portuguese). 

This was the 62nd year the event took place in the Italian city of roughly 1 million people —as well as numerous libraries and a downtown area peppered with bookstores. To be fair (no pun intended!) it isn’t just one fair but a combination of a traditional book fair, a publisher’s event and, since last year a TV and film licensing fair, where children’s brands go beyond the pages. The news in 2025 was the inclusion of the gaming industry, a platform for game developers to meet children’s content creators. 

What organizers dubbed as “an ecosystem” of all-things kids can enjoy or consume attracted 1,577 exhibitors from 90 countries and over 33 thousand visitors — myself included.  I was mesmerized by the plethora of titles and creative illustrations stemming from the four corners of the globe, quite literally. 

As this year’s guest of honor, Estonia had a few large areas exhibiting some exquisite art. The nation has a government office, the Children’s Literature Center, dedicated to promoting books for kids (could we all do that please?) and is celebrating 500 years of the publication of the first Estonian-language book, which did not carry illustrations yet — picture books started to appear in the 19th century. Their artists’ drawings are as varied as they are whimsical and creative.


Roaming around the fair, I bumped into the Comics Corner, where, well, comics’ publishers, were showcasing their catalogs. And there were a lot of interesting and surprising themes. A Brazilian publisher from Bahia, Trem Fantasma, was showcasing titles about African-Brazilian religious figures, or the Brazilian dance/martial art capoeira. At the Translators Corner, panel discussions raised the challenges and opportunities of bringing a publication from one culture to another, while at the Content Cafe writers and illustrators discussed collaboration styles — being in a creative business has its intricacies! PublisHer had a large booth dedicated to women in the publishing business, and some token gifts like the opportunity to have a professional headshot taken — of course I did it! Have yet to see mine, but it was fun to pose in the middle of the crowded event.
I attended a few of the more than 500 talks and panels that were happening throughout the Fair, and whatever was the topic of discussion, the elephant in the room kept being raised:  what, and how to create for children, while the world is on fire? With so many children directly affected by conflict, others witnessing a harsh reality through the ubiquitous presence of social media and technology in their lives, how to bring joy, information about the Sustainable Development Goals or awareness of differences? A panel with Ukrainian writers and illustrators was particularly poignant, as they described making sense of reading for kids in ravaged areas. Among the myriad projects showcased at the IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, stand a selection of children’s books from and about Palestine was yet another reminder of ways to face the harsh reality so many kids are enduring.

My native Brazil had a strong presence, not only the official booth where the trade agency APEX and the publishing group CBL (Brazil Book Chamber) supported multiple publishers, large and small, but also at the Fair at large. Author Henrique Coser Moreira, winner of the 2024 Illustration Award, was there to launch a beautiful book published after and as part of the award given by Fundación SM, a beautiful poem in images about hope and love titled “La Danza del Cielo y la Tierra.” And then there is Bruno de Almeida, responsible for the gorgeous and whimsical visual identity of the 62nd Edition of the Fair. His drawings surrounded us, and let me tell you, were a cheer of joy.
There was a lot more happening over there, but for now I will wrap raising a cheer to children’s literature, a true door to building a better world!

Tax is not a curse word

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

OK, I am a G20 news geek. And this week is especially chock full of firsts. At least rhetorically, taxing the super rich has just gained the status of a viable global policy, with G20 finance ministers and central bankers agreeing to work on the idea, as well as on how to cooperate to stop tax avoidance. A tax on wealth appears to be seen as the low hanging fruit to help bridge the multiple gaps and holes in funding climate and poverty alleviation initiatives. 

I’ll leave the math of whether this would actually help to the number lovers out there, but from the ethical side of things, it is hard to dispute the concept of paying more if you have more. (And I naively want to believe that everyone, rich or poor, would prefer to live in cities and nations where street lights work, police and teachers have livable wages, waste management works, etc — those things the ever so maligned taxes pay for. )  

This week’s G20 myriad events also include the unprecedented meeting of social and finance track practitioners. Central bankers and finance ministry’ deputies listening to civil society — from women’s issues to favela dwellers and business leaders — taking notes on recommendations coming not from economics and finance books, but from people dealing directly with domestic violence, flooded homes, impacted by drought or lack of sanitation, dealing with regulatory and tax norms, as well as those used to getting a “no” from lenders.

One thread connected the multiple meetings happening in Rio de Janeiro: the climate crisis. If taxing the rich is seen as a potential short-term windfall, reforming the multilateral lending system is being hailed as the best available tool to get us out of the hole we dug for ourselves when it comes to the environment. While successful nature based solutions at a local level happen despite lack of funds, a concerted, global effort to move away from fossil fuels, water-repelling pavements, retrofit factories and buildings, monocultures and predatory land use, just to name a few necessary initiatives — is not cheap. There is profit in the status quo, and change goes in the expense column.

Multilateral Development Banks catalyze private money and can help it find profit in nature-friendly projects. For U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, some extra $200 billion could surface by tweaking that system. How to get there is not for lay people: “callable capital, SDRs, hybrid capital, and guarantee provisions” are some of the ingredients listed in this recipe, that also calls for debt relief. To be fair, the recommendations aren’t just pie in the sky suggestions. The G20 finance track is proposing a road map, a specific sequence of reforms to get there, including operational changes towards more collaboration among MDBs, improving evaluation processes as well as mapping actions with specific measures such as gender participation.  

Also during this week, Brazil and U.S. agreed to work together on efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change. Then there was a joint declaration by  engagement groups, the agreement around creating a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, a meeting between UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil, the three COP hosts (28, 29 and 30) to align priorities. A smorgasbord of intentions and talks.

I only wish the G20 could yield enforceable commitments. But hey, setting targets is better than not. 

We are all cop’ers

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

COP28 is moving along, with promising speeches and leadership from a fossil fuel executive—but the news arriving from Dubai elicit a mix of hope and dread. Are we ready to move beyond pledges to meaningful action?  We boast about our human ability to use complicated math to explain our surroundings. We can do life-saving surgery and fly rockets— and we can also accurately project our self-inflicted doom. Many incredible graphs are out there depicting our trajectory towards an inferno-like atmosphere, exercises of science-based cristal ball that raise the alarm loud and clear. Yet, all our intelligence does not translate into common sense when it comes to our collective decisions and choices.

Why do we prefer to procrastinate while dreaming of a silver bullet, a scientific miracle of sorts, if we have known the answer for a while? Even the fact that the poor are already bearing the brunt of our past and current decisions has yet to influence meaningful change.

The way we organized our economy and society (yes, it is a choice) does not allow companies to “waste” money with meaningful changes. A turnaround in industrial processes or types of consumer products we push onto ourselves is only allowed when initiatives don’t impact profits or executives’ fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Geopolitical considerations stop governments from prioritizing the future. GDP metrics favor war over peace while us, individuals, have a hard time budging from our comfort zone and privileges. Looking at the microcosm of decision making, we see politicians thinking they need to prioritize their elections. As consumers, our individual choices are defended as rights, regardless of our impact. Managers have year-end bonuses to worry about. And the list goes on.

Meanwhile, a focus on scalable businesses as the best option for development or GDP growth is blinding us when it comes to protecting natural habitats, hindering the success of small and creative entrepreneurs. Sometimes solutions are too local to scale. Should that be a death sentence?

Chocolate maker Dona Nena, founder of Filha de Combú, holds an open cacau fruit.

Of course not all is lost. There are plenty of people out there defying the odds, acting and thinking outside the box. In a recent trip to Belém, the capital of the Amazon state of Pará, I visited Dona Nena, founder of Filha do Combu, a small business operating within — and in harmony with —the forest biome. From grinding cacau seeds in her kitchen to sell at a street fair, Filha do Combú has defied the odds, blossoming into an artisanal chocolate factory and a tourist destination. During a business hackathon, young Pará based entrepreneurs introduced us to — doable — projects ranging from recycled glass-based concrete to potable water solutions for small Amazon communities. At another business fair, I met an entrepreneur making bricks, charcoal and other products out of wasted açai seeds.

It isn’t out of our reach to rethink market incentives and policies to increase the chances that small sustainable businesses will flourish. Small can be beautiful when it comes to employment generation, cementing communities and even innovation. And within natural biomes, small is the only scale possible. And why not? Why do we need to grow exponentially all businesses?

When it comes to large businesses, if we are to keep the planet livable, a change in incentives is also urgent. Instead of betting only on solutions that feel like industrial bulimia, such as carbon capture schemes and shooting at clouds for rain, we must shatter the rules holding back C-suite workers from following their own best instincts. Emissions and waste generation must be charged against profits. No business or person should be allowed to profit while creating a cost to others. No waste is “just a little” — landfills and the oceans are beyond capacity and it is more than urgent that we stop generating waste. Organic waste must be composted for energy generation, agricultural use or other creative endeavors like the açaí seed project I mentioned. Packaging must be returnable to the original packager, and subsidies be granted to recycling businesses. And while we are at it, aluminium can and paper collectors must be paid for their services, as opposed to shunned by society.

Profit is not the enemy, but calculating it according to reality can help bring about the solution. Industries have for long been incentivized to produce ever more, leading us to a society of waste —solid, gas and liquid! —disguised as convenience. Externalities are rarely accounted for. We created those incentives. We can change them.

Hatred vs Climate Finance

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

First published on LinkedIn Articles on Oct 9, 2023

The IMF and the World Bank tried to make Climate Finance the topic of the week. The issue is headlining multiple panels planned for their annual meeting happening in Marrakesh this week. But bombs and missiles, heavy artillery and weapons being deployed across the globe — from outright war to domestic conflicts propped up by illicit conglomerates — continue to steal the limelight.

My original plan for this post was to comment on the suggestions the Fund’s Global Financial Stability Report has for poor countries struggling to attract climate-related financing. Ideas to help nations be more attractive to capital, all based on studies and data, of course. The Fund’s economists work on the real world, and their recommendations are worthy of attention: develop a taxonomy, standardize your data — investors need to be able to measure and compare to decide where to put their money. Organize domestic capital markets so investors can figure out how to get their money into your projects/plans/needs. And many more sensible ideas and analysis, from ESG to credit ratings. Also, to be fair, they spell it out that the Fund itself can help countries achieve those goals.

Myself, I do not operate in the real world. My words have no applicable impact such as theirs, therefore, since I am free to think and write as I wish, I will question the premisse. Even with technical help, poor countries with feeble resources, dealing with floods and droughts, populations fleeing dire realities on dingy boats or on foot, even nations where money does pour in but only to extract natural resources by hand, just to start the list, how can governments facing these challenges direct efforts to standardize (or even collect) data or organize its capital markets?

Of course, the Fund and the World Bank are financial institutions. Their job is to look at financial markets, and operate within the realms of how money travels today. But what if instead of asking the poor and the developing (and sometimes the bombed and attacked, the overtaken by rentists and illicit organizations) nations to adapt to the global financial system, we figured out how to change the incentives that govern capital markets? What if we changed the carrots that make it so hard for those making decisions about money to choose what in fact protects us all— mitigation and adaptation and, hopefully, going carbon free a lot faster than today’s plans? 

Capital flows aren’t laws of nature, we decide on incentives and act on them. We’re trying to adapt our current challenge to the mechanics of money flows that we created ourselves, as opposed to repairing those mechanics to suit our existential need to survive as a species.

Meanwhile, the wave of hatred being acted-upon with unspeakable violence thwarts any and all efforts to make the planet livable. I don’t want to be a pessimist, but it does feel like we’re expediting our demise.  

We could try different incentives. The financing world is populated by people that make decisions, but they have mandates and rules to follow. Asking them to “do good” will never unleash the trillions that IMF economists are telling us we need right now. And maybe rethinking incentives to investments and capital could even impact the forces multiplying exponentially the impact of hatred and the reach of our violent instincts.

Utopia? As Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva said, if no one had dreamed of using solar power, we wouldn’t have it today. So why not think outside the box? I suggest a new global currency. No, not bitcoin, the CO2Eqv. Instead of setting a dollar price on carbon emissions, let’s price things on CO2 Equivalents instead. How much for an oil barrel? 1,000 CO2Eqvs. A pair of jeans? 10 CO2Eqvs. A missile? 100million CO2Eqvs. In place of mining cryptos, let’s go out there and capture emissions before spending it. 

Or we could put a price on peace. Make it tradable and profitable.

OK, mine are laughable. But there are many people out there with serious and applicable ideas. Let’s find them. Let’s try them. Let’s focus.

Amazon in New York (the forest!!)

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

Originally published on LinkedIn Articles on Sept 24, 2023

So we read on the news that Monday, September 25, Brazil and the US start working towards a partnership on climate issues. Yet one more morsel of news after a week of seeing, hearing and thinking the Amazon — in New York. 

Brazil arrived for the UN General Assembly with a concerted message: from the president, ministers and representatives in official events to multiple parallel climate panels happening on the sidelines of the Assembly, we kept hearing the chorus ‘save the Amazon’ and ‘sustainable growth is necessary.’

It was part fun — a show with drones and music by Indigenous artists over the East River and a festival in Central Park’s Summerstage with multiple artists from the North and Northeast got people up on their feet, dancing away — and part serious. 

“Brazil only loses with deforestation, but our challenge is to give the forest population a dignified life,” was Minister Fernando Haddad’s message at Columbia University. “The world sees Brazil through the lenses of forest preservation. But we have more to give. We can double our clean energy production, for consumption and for export. We can help several industries become sustainable.” Environment Minister Marina Silva was direct: “We are living in inertia of what we have already accomplished, but whatever we’re doing, it is not enough,” she said in a poetic and philosophical speech at the university. 

The main song was a collaboration between Haddad and Marina’s cabinets dubbed the Plan for Ecological Transformation. The plan presented to President Lula back in July is a wish list of policies and initiatives ranging from implementing a carbon pricing scheme (currently being debated in Congress, with the hope to have it approved before COP 28 in the UAE in November…) and green bonds, to government procurement rules and tax reform. But getting their bucket list off the ground is a different tune, and if talking to the international community may help increase pressure, it doesn’t make it a reality. Hurdles include a skeptic portion of the private sector, including players in agricultural industries, a convoluted bureaucracy, especially at the state and municipal levels, and, to use a technical term, a crazy tax system. (Not to mention a still difficult political environment at home and all the backwinds coming from the global scenario.)

The main goal being taunted across Manhattan all week, to keep the forest standing, needs loads of cash. There is an urgent need to finance the transition from an illicit economy, but even more urgent is to find a way to get that cash to the last mile. “We need to pay people on the ground, an income stream is necessary,” said Talanoa Institute President Natalie Unterstell during The Wilson Center panel Unlocking Climate Finance In Latin America and the Caribbean. Indeed. Right now, crime is a major employer in the Amazon. IDB’s Susana Cordeiro Guerra says it is important to think bigger also. “We have to move the goal post to the trillion,” she said, but adding that “we need to be able to measure progress.” Herein yet another challenge.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though. Cordeiro said that the Green Coalition formed by development banks to collaborate on the Amazon issue will allow for the exchange of information on initiatives and formats, an idea that should increase their impact. And the newfound mainstream understanding that local communities do have the know-how and can help others understand how to protect the environment can give all efforts a leg up. As Minister Menezes said, “Brazil’s Indigenous peoples have a sophisticated notion of ecology.” 

Now, the real challenge is to get things done. “To speak and not to act is worse than hypocrisy, it is a crime against humanity,” said Minister Silva. She was truly inspired on her presentations across the island of Manhattan. She might have been moved by the unprecedented moment of seeing Brazil’s leadership singing to the tune she has been pounding on for decades.

The G, the D and the P

Posted on by ctornaghimedia

Image 6
The face of happiness?

Like the seasons, as each trimester ends mathematical minds across the globe rush to crush numbers calculating how their local economies fared. Is it growing? Shrinking?
A simplicity we strive for in life: an equation gives us a big number we can use to guide our decisions going forward… after all numbers don’t lie!

Right?

Well, when we choose what to count then the answer may just be a lie. Or fake news!

To do the math for Gross Domestic Product we add what was produced in a country or region: what was made in factories, dug out from mines, grown in commercial farms.
Or we add everything that was purchased on the other side – – in theory it should be the same result. Things just have to have a cash value, and a legal one, to be added.

Only this beautiful equation is no longer a metric, it has become a goal in itself and a dangerous one because of what it leads us to prioritize.

What stay-at-home parents do to raise the next generation of productive workers, the ones that will pay for our retirement, doesn’t count. The street vendor doesn’t count either because he or she is not an established commercial enterprise. Drug dealers and smugglers move billions in production, wholesale and retail while providing jobs – – not saying these are good jobs – – for millions of people. That doesn’t count either.

Just leaving out informal and illegal ventures already makes for a pretty fictitious number in many places but on top of that many costs are never subtracted. How much does poverty cost a society? What is the cost of pollution, all those car and factory emissions that blacken city walls and people’s lungs? How much do we pay to live with tons of waste, from packages to designing products that don’t last so people can buy more, all piling up in landfills, or killing our oceans?
(And there are spin masters suggesting more consumption to increase recycling…)

Even the dear cost of crime and violence, all those productive lives lost are just a tear, not a guiding light for economic policy.

Oh, wait.

If a place is bombed the material losses may be counted, but rebuilding and the sale and production of weapons adds a lot more to some economy somewhere.

Adding to GDP things like weaponry and car production means we incentivize those industries; and leaving out other things like quality of water, quality of infrastructure, non-commercial cultural expression or even health means these become unimportant from an economic policy point of view.

A hydroelectric dam may displace entire populations that can become beggars and homeless and a cost to society and municipalities but while the energy created is seen as contributing to the economy, other consequences are not counted. The loss of a subsistence economy is not deducted; it lacks a market price and therefore doesn’t exist even if it was a food source for families. The loss of wildlife, natural cycles of reproduction, land fertilization, erosion – none of this subtracts from GDP. Even our agricultural production has lost its focus on feeding and clothing to target (short-term) financial returns alone.

We are using cash value as a yardstick for life and that endangers wellbeing, the environment and ultimately life on earth.

As we learn in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the meaning of life is 42. We like simple, unquestionable answers; a number is a number, an irrefutable truth but if we guide our society by calculating randomly chosen numbers, we will get 42.

No yardstick will be perfect and guiding decisions by one measure alone seems silly and dangerous. If we need to use metrics and acronyms to help our brains decide what to do, there are options out there we can use together to form a slightly better picture of a nation or region.

Can we look beyond GDP please? Even markets will fare better if we re-prioritize and keep the planet functioning.

My future grandkids thank you.

(If you love your metrics, here are a few links of many, an alphabet soup of indicators that add a bit of flavor to countries’ economic portraits: HDI , GINI, WHR , HPI )