Top 12 Substack posts of 2023 / 12 posts de Substack más leídos en 2023

 As 2023 comes to a close, a look back at the top 12 posts on Substack this year. Also, of note, I now have 32 free subscribers (though, alas, no paid subscriber yet - for the cost of a latte you can support my writing!).

Los 12 posts más populares de 2023 en Substack:

12.  El Ciborg con Alzheimer (cuento)

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/el-ciborg-con-alzheimer

The Cyborg with Alzheimer's, a short story:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/the-cyborg-with-alzheimers

11. Impacto del Mecanismo de Ajuste en Frontera por Carbono de la UE

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/impacto-del-mecanismo-de-ajuste-en

On the impact of the EU CBAM:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/impact-of-the-eu-carbon-border-adjustment

10. Real income, real wages are rising under Bidenomics

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/real-income-real-wages-are-rising

Sobre el aumento de los ingresos reales en EE.UU; también disponible en español:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/los-ingresos-reales-y-los-salarios

9. Competencia por atraer inmigrantes

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/competencia-por-atraer-inmigrantes

In English:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/competition-to-attract-immigrants

8. Publications on climate finance and sustainable development

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/publications-on-climate-finance-and

7. Capítulo 1 de mi novela "El Último Humano"

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/capitulo-1-de-mi-novela-el-ultimo

Chapter 1 of my novel, "The Last Human"

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/chapter-1-of-my-novel-the-last-human

6. Siete veces Si en el Referendo

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/siete-veces-si-en-el-referendo

On the referendum in Ecuador

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/seven-times-yes-in-the-referendum

5. Arauz y la ecua(des)dolarización

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/arauz-y-la-ecuadesdolarizacion

On Vice-presidential candidate Arauz and his proposals to eliminate dollarization:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/arauz-and-the-ecuadedollarization

4. Un año de la invasión rusa a Ucrania

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/un-ano-de-la-invasion-rusa-a-ucrania

One year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/one-year-of-the-russian-invasion

3. Respuesta al Embajador Ruso (respuesta a artículo anterior)

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/un-ano-de-la-invasion-rusa-a-ucrania

My response to the Russian Ambassador (response to previous article)

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/my-response-to-the-russian-ambassador

2. Prohibido olvidar II (recordando al régimen de Rafael Correa)

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/prohibido-olvidar-ii

Forbidden to Forget II (the Correa regime in Ecuador)

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/forbidden-to-forget-ii

And the top post of 2023 / y el post más leído en 2023:

1. Luisa te Venezuelaniza (sobre la candidata presidencial en Ecuador, Luisa González)

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/luisa-te-venezuelaniza

About presidential candidate Luisa González, in English:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/luisa-venezuelanizes-you

Remember you can subscribe (for free).

Chapter 1 of my novel, "The Last Human"

I will be publishing each month one chapter of my novel “The Last Human” (in Spanish and English), for my paid SubStack subscribers. 

The novel is a science fiction novel or eco-thriller, pondering on the existential threats to humanity. This first chapter is free for all. You can also purchase the novel at:

https://www.amazon.es/Last-Human-English-Luis-Fierro-ebook/dp/B09D45JFK8

1.      The Last Day

They were right: We should not have destroyed our planet.

Some people had warned us since 2015 about the risks of global warming; the rise of artificial intelligence; military conflicts between nuclear powers; pandemics; and religious extremism expressed in terrorism.

Read more:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/chapter-1-of-my-novel-the-last-human

Top 10 blog-Substack posts of 2022 / 10 posts de blog y Substack más leídos

On November 23, 2022, I started a Substack account:

https://luisfierro.substack.com

Until then, I posted my articles on this blog.

Here are the top 10 posts in 2022 (combined from both sites):

___

El 23 de Noviembre de 2022, inicié una cuenta de Substack.

Hasta entonces, publicaba mis artículos en este blog.

Aquí los 10 artículos más leídos de 2022:

 

# 10 Financing the energy transition in #Ecuador  

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/financing-energy-transition-in-ecuador

# 9 Presentation on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and Climate Finance 

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/presentation-on-climate-change-the

#8 The End of the World 

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/the-end-of-world

#7 China, Taiwan and the USA 

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/china-taiwan-and-usa

#6  Economic Relations between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/economic-relations-between-european

#5 The "Wired" magazine 1997 predictions (and my predictions for 2064) 

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/the-wired-magazine-1997-predictions-and

#4. Limits of democracy in the US  

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/limits-of-democracy-in-us

#3. Comunismo indoamericano es barbarie

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/comunismo-indoamericano-es-barbarie

#2.  Putin's Defeat  

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/putins-defeat

And my top post of 2022 / y mi artículo más leído en 2022:

#1.  War and Economy 

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/war-and-economy 

 

Happy New Year!  Feliz Año Nuevo!

COP 27 with modest results

 By Luis Fierro Carrión (*)

Twitter: @Luis_Fierro_C

The 27th Conference of Parties (or COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) just concluded on November 20 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Although it had been announced as the COP of “implementation” and focused on adaptation to climate change, in practice it got bogged down for several reasons:

- Developing countries demanded that a new "compensation fund" be created for "Loss and Damage" caused by climate change (China, a member of the G77, has not indicated whether it will contribute to such a fund, despite being currently responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions). The creation of the fund was finally approved on Sunday the 20th, but the details are yet to be defined (including who should contribute and who can receive the resources).

- The small island developing countries, and the European Union, insisted that ambition in reducing emissions should be increased, in order to keep alive the goal of limiting the increase in temperature to less than 1.5 degrees C. Others said that this goal was no longer feasible, but an effort had to be made to not exceed a 2 degree increase in temperature.

The event had to last two days longer than expected, given the difficulty in reaching consensus. There is no voting rule in the COP (not even a super-majority of 2/3 or 5/6), which is why it is understood that decisions must be unanimous (in some cases, when one or two minor countries have objected, the conference chair has indicated that it was his “sense” that there was consensus).

In my science fiction novel “The Last Human”, I anticipate that if a voting mechanism cannot be established, humanity will not be able to find a solution to this existential threat, and the temperature will continue to rise, and with it the sea level, natural disasters, droughts and floods in various regions, famines, among other catastrophic consequences.

More on Substack:

https://luisfierro.substack.com/p/cop-27-with-modest-results

(*) English translation of a column published in “El Universo” newspaper in Ecuador, November 24, 2022

https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/columnistas/cop-27-con-modestos-resultados-nota/

The "Wired" magazine 1997 predictions (and my predictions for 2064)

By Luis Fierro Carrion (*)

Twitter: @Luis_Fierro_C

In July 1997, "Wired" magazine published a rather optimistic article predicting a long "boom" of prosperity, freedom, and environmental improvements in the next 25 years (until 2022). 

However, to temper such optimism a bit, it also published a sidebar on problems that could arise and adversely affect this boom.

Some of these negative predictions have been fulfilled almost to the letter:

• “Tensions between China and the US escalate into a new Cold War — bordering on a hot one.”

• “Russia devolves into a kleptocracy run by a mafia or retreats into quasi-communist nationalism that threatens Europe"

• “Major ecological crisis causes a global climate change that among other things, disrupts the food supply - causing big price increases everywhere and sporadic famines".

Others have been partially fulfilled, for example

• “An uncontrollable plague - a modern-day influenza epidemic or its equivalent - takes off like wildfire, killing upward of 200 million people". The COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to have killed 20 million people to date.

• “Europe's integration process grinds to a halt. Eastern and Western Europe can't finesse a reunification". Although the United Kingdom left the European Union through Brexit, since 1997 the number of Member States of the European Union has increased from 15 to 27 (including several Central and Eastern European countries), with an additional 10 countries waiting to enter.

• An increase in crime and terrorism.

Other predictions failed, for example, that new technologies would not bring about an increase in productivity.

In my science fiction novel "The Last Human", I make some predictions until 2064. 

Without going into too many "spoilers", some of these are:

• The Saudi autocracy will collapse and an Islamic republic will be established.

• Both China and Cuba will move towards multi-party democracies, although still with a predominance of a “democratic socialist” party; while the North Korean government will implode and reunite with South Korea.

• Russia will weaken, losing population and economic dynamism (the novel was written before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine).

• Islamist fundamentalists will detonate several radiological bombs (explosives that disperse radioactive material); and they will also blow up nuclear plants.

• Despite the Paris Agreement and other efforts to combat climate change, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will continue to rise, and sea levels will continue to rise. More natural disasters due to climate change will occur, and several cities and areas of the planet will be flooded.

• Global artificial intelligence systems will gain consciousness.

• The Republican Party in the US will collapse, as the proportion of the US population that is Latino, Asian, or black increases (and as the position of young white people changes as well). A party further to the left of the Democratic Party will eventually emerge.

• In Europe, on the other hand, there will be an ascendancy of far-right, anti-Islamic, xenophobic and racist parties; and greater political fragmentation.

• Collapse of agriculture, pollination, loss of drinking water sources.

• Nuclear proliferation.

• The Israeli government will decide to decentralize the Jewish population to other regions.

My novel tries to be a call to action to avoid being affected by these new horsemen of the Apocalypse. It is available on Amazon (in print and on Kindle):

https://www.amazon.es/Last-Human-English-Luis-Fierro-ebook/dp/B09D45JFK8

(*)  A shorter version of this column appeared in Spanish in Diario "El Universo" on August 19, 2022.

https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/columnistas/predicciones-de-wired-y-mias-nota/

Policy Brief: Relaciones Económicas entre la Unión Europea y América Latina y el Caribe (ENG, SPA, FRE)

"Relaciones Económicas entre la Unión Europea y América Latina y el Caribe"

(Below in English and French)

Policy Brief que escribí para la Fundación EU-LAC / EU-LAC Foundation y el Institut des Amériques.

La integración comercial entre las dos regiones ha avanzado, pero está pendiente de ratificación el acuerdo UE-Mercosur.

La pandemia de COVID-19 y los impactos crecientes del cambio climático han dado renovado ímpetu a la necesidad de colaboración estrecha entre las dos regiones.

En cuanto al cambio climático, las dos regiones han estado muy alineadas desde la negociación del Acuerdo de París de Cambio Climático en la COP21 (diciembre 2015). Europa ha dado prioridad a la transición ecológica, la transformación digital y el desarrollo sostenible en sus programas de cooperación regionales y bilaterales, y los países de ALC son receptivos a los medios de implementación (financiamiento climático, transferencia de tecnología y desarrollo de capacidades) para impulsar la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático.

El Programa Indicativo Multianual (MIP) Regional de la UE para ALC (2021-27) apoyará la transición verde, la transformación digital, la economía sostenible e incluyente, la gobernanza democrática, la seguridad y la migración, así como la cohesión social y la lucha contra las desigualdades. El desarrollo humano y la educación ocuparán un lugar destacado dentro de estas áreas.

Alcanzar mayor crecimiento, estabilidad y seguridad en los países de ALC los vuelve mercados más atractivos para las empresas de la UE, tanto para fines comerciales como de inversión.

https://eulacfoundation.org/es/relaciones-economicas-entre-la-union-europea-y-america-latina-y-el-caribe

"Economic Relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean"

Policy brief I wrote for the EU-LAC Foundation / Fundación EU-LAC and Institut des Amériques

While economic integration between the two regions has advanced, the EU-Mercosur agreement is still awaiting ratification.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the growing impacts of climate change have renewed the momentum behind the need for close cooperation between both regions.

As for climate change, the two regions have been closely aligned since the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was negotiated at COP21 (December 2015). Europe has prioritised the ecological transition, the digital transformation and sustainable development in its regional and bilateral cooperation programmes, and the LAC countries are receptive to the means of implementation (climate finance, technology transfer and capacity development) to stimulate climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The Regional Multi-Annual Indicative Programme (MIP) of the EU for LAC (2021-27) will support the green transition, the digital transformation, the sustainable and inclusive economy, democratic government, security and migration, as well as social cohesion and the fight against inequality. Human development and education will play a leading role in these areas.

Achieving greater growth, stability and security in the LAC countries makes their markets more attractive to EU companies, both for trade and for investment.

https://eulacfoundation.org/en/economic-relations-between-european-union-and-latin-america-and-caribbean

Relations économiques entre l’Union européenne et l’Amérique latine et les Caraïbes

Policy brief issu du partenariat entre la Fondation EU-LAC et l’Institut des Amériques

Écrit par Luis Fierro, expert en politiques économiques vertes au sein du dispositif de soutien de l’UE pour contributions déterminées au niveau national

Malgré un certain degré de mécontentement des deux côtés de l’Atlantique, les relations économiques et politiques entre l’Union européenne (UE) et les pays d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes (ALC) se sont renforcées au cours des dernières décennies, quoique de manière moins dynamique ces dernières années (compte tenu de l’augmentation des échanges entre l’ALC et la Chine). La signature d’accords d’association entre l’UE et la plupart des pays de l’ALC a entraîné une augmentation du commerce extérieur entre les deux régions, les pays de l’UE restant la principale source d’investissements directs étrangers dans l’ALC. Les investissements des entreprises de l’ALC dans les pays de l’UE ont également augmenté. Cependant, l’accord entre l’UE et le Mercosur, le plus grand marché de l’ALC, est en attente de ratification.

Fundación EU-LAC / EU-LAC Foundation

Institut des Amériques

https://www.institutdesameriques.fr/agenda/relations-economiques-entre-lunion-europeenne-et-lamerique-latine-et-les-caraibes

The End of the World

By Luis Fierro Carrion (*)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Luis_Fierro_C  

One of the films nominated for the "Oscar", "Don't Look Up", has introduced into the public debate the possibility of the end of the world (although perhaps it would be more appropriate to speak of the end of humanity, since the planet will probably continue to exist).

The essential plot is that some astronomers detect that there is a comet that is going to impact the Earth, with catastrophic effects, in a “mass extinction event”. Although scientists warn about the seriousness of the issue, first to the President of the United States, and then to the media, their warning is not taken very seriously. The President (played by Meryl Streep), a somewhat Trumpian character, even begins to question the veracity of the astronomers' warning, and at one point calls on her followers to "not look up" (not look at the comet in the sky), questioning the validity and importance of the alert.

The possibility of a meteorite or comet impact that could lead to the extinction of many species on the planet is real, although remote (it already happened 65 million years ago, when the impact of a meteorite that created the Chicxulub crater, contributed to the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction).

However, according to the film's producers and actors, the movie is really a metaphor or analogy for the climate change crisis, in the sense that scientists (including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC) present increasingly alarming studies on the possible consequences of accelerating climate change, but many governments and sectors of the population ignore or minimize its seriousness.

Last year I published an eco-thriller or science fiction novel called “The Last Human” (available in digital or print versions on Amazon, https://www.amazon.es/Last-Human-English-Luis-Fierro-ebook/dp/B09D45JFK8 ). In this novel I deal with the various existential threats that weigh on humanity, or the new "Horsemen of the Apocalypse". I mention, of course, climate change and the possibility of a meteorite impact, but I also focus on the following risks: nuclear proliferation, terrorism, pandemics and the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence.

Nuclear proliferation has led to Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea joining the club of nuclear-armed countries (and efforts by Iran to join the club). One risk is that nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists, for example, through the lack of control or the collapse of regimes such as those in Pakistan or North Korea.

As for pandemics, while the bubonic plague has decimated the population several times (most recently in the 14th century, although there was a less lethal pandemic in the 19th century), the deadliest pandemics in the last century, the “Spanish flu” and the current one of COVID-19, caused the death of around 1% and 0.3% of the world population, respectively.

Terrorism (mainly jihadist in recent decades, but also far-right) could cause millions of deaths if terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical or biological). Even if they don't acquire nuclear weapons, they could cause great damage by setting off radiological bombs, which disperse radioactive material.

Regarding artificial intelligence, in the book I explore the possibility that computer systems can acquire an "artificial consciousness", as happened in movies like "The Matrix", "Terminator" or "I, Robot".

In the end, although in the long term astronomical threats (transformation of the sun, major changes in the Earth) could affect living beings on the planet, in a shorter term it will be the actions of humans themselves who call into question survival of humanity.

(*) A shorter version of this note was published in Spanish in Diario "El Universo" on February 18, 2022:

https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/columnistas/el-fin-del-mundo-nota/

My top 10 blog posts in 2021 / Mis artículos de blog más leídos en 2021

Mis artículos de blog más leídos en el 2021 / My top 10 blog posts in 2021

# 10 Proposals by Pedro Castillo, candidate in Peru

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/05/proposals-by-pedro-castillo-candidate.html

# 9 Prohibido Olvidar

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/04/prohibido-olvidar.html

# 8 Presentation on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and Climate Finance

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/11/presentation-on-climate-change-paris.html

# 7 Resumen de mi gestión como Viceministro de Economía de Ecuador

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/10/resumen-de-mi-gestion-como-viceministro.html

# 6 Disinfodemic

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/02/disinfodemic.html

# 5 Ecuador: Agreement with the IMF and the presidential candidates

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/01/ecuador-agreement-with-imf-and.html

# 4 ¿Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva?

 https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/01/ano-nuevo-vida-nueva.html

# 3 Elecciones en Ecuador: Dos opciones opuestas

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/03/elecciones-en-ecuador-dos-opciones.html

# 2 Ecuador: Acuerdo con el FMI y los candidatos presidenciales

 https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/01/ecuador-acuerdo-con-el-fmi-y-candidatos.html

And my top blog post of 2021 / Y el artículo más leído en 2021:

Green Recovery and Climate Finance in Ecuador

https://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/08/green-recovery-and-climate-finance-in.html

What a strange and weird year

The year 2021 was another strange year, affected by the pandemic. I also held four jobs during the course of the year (according to LinkedIn, I worked 14 months, because I ended and started jobs in mid-months).

At the beginning of the year, Vanessa and I had been finalizing 9 months of essentially staying at home (we had returned from Peru and Ecuador in February 2020, when the pandemic hit in the U.S. in March).

However, a new job as a “Climate Finance Expert” for the EuroClima+ Programme of the European Union (through the French Development Agency) required that I had to go to Bogotá, Colombia to start the job.

I was able to get one of the first Pfizer vaccines before travelling (but Vanessa was not able to).

So, I started the new job, but essentially continued to have all meetings via videoconference (Zoom, WebEx, Teams, etc.).

At the end of January, we had to fly back to Miami, to get the second Pfizer dose (and also for a periodical medical treatment). The idea was to stay a few days and fly right back to Bogota. I got the second dose of the vaccine. I thought I had some mild secondary effects. However, when I took a COVID-19 PCR test (to fly back to Colombia), I tested positive. Thankfully, Vanessa (who was not yet vaccinated) did not get it. It was a fairly mild episode, given, I suppose that the first vaccine dose had generated some immunity. I had a bit of fever and malaise, but not more severe symptoms.

In any case, we were forced to stay in Miami. When I finally tested negative, we flew back to Colombia. Bogotá was having a second wave, and many restrictions were in place (including that I could only go to the office a couple of days per week). I was finally able to convince the good folks at the AFD that it did not make much sense to be paying an AirBnB apartment just to work from home (considering especially that all meetings continued to be virtual). So back to Miami we went. Vanessa was finally able to get the first dose of the vaccine.

I should also mention that since July 2020 I had been working remotely (and part-time) for a Mongolian green housing project financed by the Asian Development Bank. Even though initially the idea had been for the team to stay in Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator in the good ol’ days), finally we were only able to work remotely.

So, I was merrily working remotely on the two climate finance related projects from Miami, when the Ecuadorian elections took place. I had campaigned in the first round for my friend César Montúfar (contributing to his campaign program), but in the second round I strongly supported Guillermo Lasso. He was the candidate competing with the Correista (Chavista) candidate.

Against initial expectations and polls, Lasso managed to pull off an upset in the second round, in part thanks to expanding his proposals to incorporate some center and center-left initiatives (such as increasing the minimum wage, defending women/LGBTQ/ environmental rights and issues), and committing himself to fighting childhood malnutrition, something that the nominally leftist Correa had failed to do in 10 years, with more than $360 billion in fiscal revenue.

Lasso named as Economy and Finance Minister Simón Cueva, a centrist and prestigious economist, who had previously worked at the IMF and in academic positions.

In a surprising move, Simón asked me to join his team as Vice Minister of Economy. I had been considering public service in Ecuador (I even thought about running for member of the National Assembly, representing migrants in North America), but even so the proposal took me a bit by surprise. I am a center-left economist (leaning towards social-democracy), so I had not expected to join the government of a center-right former banker. But I accepted, given my trust in Minister Cueva, and also the urgent need to address the severe economic, social and health crisis that Ecuador was facing. So, I moved to Quito (I could not serve as Vice Minister remotely 😉).

I had never held public office in Ecuador, except for a six-month period when I was the Representative of Ecuador on the IMF Board of Directors in 2006 (before Correa). I had to regrettably leave my consulting work for EuroClima+/AFD and for the Mongolian ADB green housing project.

As I said, the challenges were manifold. The initial thrust was to put into motion and finance a massive vaccination drive, that ramped up to the point in which 12 % of the total population of Ecuador received a dose in a single week. President Lasso had offered to vaccinate 9 million people in his first 100 days in office, which at the time seemed like an overly ambitious goal, but in fact the goal was met.

The second effort was to renegotiate the terms of an “Extended Fund Facility” with the IMF, that would enable Ecuador to receive $1,500 million in 2021. The initial program sought to increase fiscal revenue by 3 % of GDP (about $3 billion) in 2022; the thought was that this could be accomplished by raising the Value Added Tax (VAT) by 3 points (to 15 %); this, however, is a regressive tax, and it seemed unlikely that the Assembly (dominated by left and center-left parties) would approve it.

The Ministry team was able to negotiate with the IMF to reduce the amount of additional revenue expected and designed a direct taxation fiscal reform that would only affect the 3.5 % of the population with the highest income (as well as the 0.1 % of the population with the highest net worth).

Even though this was a very progressive (some called it a social-democratic) tax reform, in the end the majority of the “leftist” and "center-left" parties in the Assembly did not vote in favor of it, but simply let it become law by not taking a position (under the terms of emergency laws, if a proposed law is not adopted or rejected in 30 days, it comes into force automatically).

A greater effort was required to reactivate the economy, boost private sector investment and employment. In the period through September, sales, tax revenues, private investment and employment all started to recover (from their pandemic lows). The progress in vaccination helped, as well as some multilateral credits that were channeled towards small and medium enterprises. Here is a summary of some accomplishments:

http://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/10/resumen-de-mi-gestion-como-viceministro.html

In August, I was notified that a consulting position for which I had applied many months before (in 2020, actually) had been approved. This was a long-term (five years) contract to work as a “Green Economic Policies Expert” for a new EU NDC Facility, which would work to assist developing countries in strengthening their climate action plans (NDCs, as well as long-term low-emissions development strategies, National Adaptation Plans, etc.).

Given the uncertain tenor of my work at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the fact that this new job was essentially my dream position, I unfortunately had to leave the Ministry on September 20th.

The European Union funded project required that we move to Brussels. I had to get a short-term visa to be able to travel, and was just about to do so, when there was a new spike in COVID-19 infections in Brussels and new restrictions were imposed. So, it was decided that it did not make sense for me to travel to Brussels and work from a hotel room. We are now in the process to obtain a long-term residence permit for Belgium and will likely travel next year.

So COVID-19 thwarted our travel plans twice; modified jobs to be remote three times; but thankfully did not make us severely ill or worse (thank you Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech researchers!).

All of our immediate family members have been vaccinated, and not one of them contracted a severe case (although some less immediate relatives did regrettably succumb to the disease).

It has been, without doubt, a strange and weird period, and to be honest, working remotely has become somewhat tiresome and frustrating.

We did see my parents, my siblings, my nieces, my son Pablo, his wife, and my granddaughter Nelia Luna throughout the year, and we will see Vanessa’s family at the end of the year.

A silver lining has been that, in 2020, greenhouse gas emissions fell for the first time in recorded history, although the temperature kept on rising (see this updated presentation on the topic: http://economicsandinvestment.blogspot.com/2021/11/presentation-on-climate-change-paris.html).

I also published my first novel, “The Last Human”, a science fiction novel that is a call to action to confront climate change and other existential threats to humanity (including, yes, pandemics).

https://www.amazon.es/Last-Human-English-Luis-Fierro-ebook/dp/B09D45JFK8

I hope that by expanding vaccination globally, and continuing to observe other precautions (masks, social distancing, remote working) we will finally defeat the pandemic in 2022.

Happy Holidays!