0:00:12.141,0:00:14.175
Give me 30 seconds,

0:00:15.875,0:00:19.842
and I can give you a list[br]of 30 terrifying challenges

0:00:20.093,0:00:23.768
facing humanity and the planet [br]at this point in history.

0:00:25.091,0:00:27.416
And we wouldn't sleep tonight.

0:00:29.175,0:00:31.924
There are so many of them, [br]and they seem so frightening;

0:00:31.924,0:00:34.122
it's not really surprising

0:00:34.122,0:00:36.946
that many of us are feeling [br]a little bit disheartened

0:00:37.480,0:00:39.674
and a little bit anxious at the moment.

0:00:39.674,0:00:41.567
But the way I see it,

0:00:41.567,0:00:43.570
there are really only two things

0:00:43.570,0:00:46.161
stopping the world working at the moment.

0:00:47.000,0:00:51.788
The first one is the fact[br]that countries don't collaborate enough.

0:00:52.837,0:00:55.755
We know the solutions [br]to most of those challenges,

0:00:56.151,0:00:59.263
but we don't implement them[br]because we don't work together.

0:00:59.901,0:01:03.013
And the second thing that's stopping[br]the world working properly

0:01:03.013,0:01:06.058
is the fact that every single [br]one of those challenges

0:01:06.058,0:01:09.549
has been caused by the behaviour[br]of human beings.

0:01:10.089,0:01:13.769
And if we can change that,[br]we can change everything.

0:01:14.394,0:01:18.403
Now, those sound like [br]very big tasks, and they are.

0:01:18.813,0:01:20.184
But I'm optimistic.

0:01:21.212,0:01:27.061
For the last 10 years, I've been working[br]on projects and plans and policies

0:01:27.491,0:01:31.755
to try and attack those two barriers[br]to making the world work better.

0:01:32.396,0:01:36.080
Some of them, I try to encourage[br]countries to implement,

0:01:36.560,0:01:41.624
but the coolest ones,[br]I keep and I try to do them myself.

0:01:42.992,0:01:48.115
So I'd like to tell you about two of those[br]in the few minutes that I've got today.

0:01:49.511,0:01:51.314
The first one is more of an update.

0:01:51.618,0:01:53.867
It's a project called[br]the Good Country Index,

0:01:53.867,0:01:56.305
which I launched back in 2014.

0:01:56.626,0:01:58.499
I haven't spoken about it for a while,

0:01:58.499,0:02:01.677
but it's been through[br]four different editions,

0:02:01.892,0:02:04.411
and I thought it would be good[br]to give an update.

0:02:04.961,0:02:07.176
So the Good Country Index is an attempt

0:02:07.176,0:02:11.356
to measure what every country on earth[br]gives to the rest of the world

0:02:11.356,0:02:13.358
outside of its own borders -

0:02:13.358,0:02:16.064
a kind of balance sheet[br]for the world, if you like.

0:02:16.593,0:02:18.705
A lot of people[br]when I originally launched it

0:02:18.705,0:02:22.257
said, "Not another country index.[br]There're enough of those around already."

0:02:22.257,0:02:26.603
But the interesting thing is that[br]almost all of the others look inwards.

0:02:26.603,0:02:29.513
They treat countries [br]as if they were little islands

0:02:29.513,0:02:32.095
inhabiting their own private oceans.

0:02:32.095,0:02:34.762
But surely that doesn't really make sense.

0:02:34.762,0:02:39.647
Because everything everybody does[br]has an impact on all of us, always.

0:02:39.927,0:02:42.296
If one country pollutes[br]the air or the water,

0:02:42.296,0:02:44.666
that's our air and our water.

0:02:45.102,0:02:46.924
If they go to war,

0:02:46.924,0:02:50.631
it drags other countries in[br]and the refugees pour out.

0:02:51.926,0:02:53.938
There's really nothing you can do anymore

0:02:53.938,0:02:56.718
that only impacts the domestic population.

0:02:56.718,0:02:59.351
So what the Good Country Index[br]attempts to do

0:02:59.351,0:03:02.769
is to make a start towards[br]helping people to understand

0:03:02.769,0:03:05.464
that this is an interconnected system,

0:03:05.464,0:03:09.240
by measuring what each country[br]contributes to the rest of the world.

0:03:10.410,0:03:14.927
Now, it's not my opinion which countries[br]rank higher and which ones rank lower;

0:03:15.330,0:03:19.293
it's formed from a set[br]of 35 large databases

0:03:19.293,0:03:21.940
which mostly come from the UN system,

0:03:21.940,0:03:23.714
and what they do is they measure

0:03:23.714,0:03:26.639
the positive and negative effects[br]that countries have.

0:03:27.205,0:03:30.291
It's always been a tiny bit controversial.

0:03:30.291,0:03:31.714
But that's kind of good

0:03:31.714,0:03:34.864
because it helps to start[br]a new kind of argument.

0:03:35.709,0:03:38.191
In fact, it works really well.

0:03:38.191,0:03:42.219
Within hours of me releasing the first[br]edition of the Good Country Index,

0:03:42.219,0:03:46.232
I started receiving thousands[br]and thousands of beautiful hate mails

0:03:46.232,0:03:48.446
from trolls all over the world,

0:03:48.446,0:03:52.547
demanding to know why[br]the country they hate ranks so high,

0:03:52.547,0:03:55.222
and the country they love ranks so low,

0:03:55.222,0:03:57.512
and how I cooked up the entire thing

0:03:57.512,0:04:01.342
just to produce that specific result[br]and annoy them personally.

0:04:01.342,0:04:02.842
(Laughter)

0:04:02.858,0:04:06.093
So we have conversations about[br]these things and we'd argue about it,

0:04:06.093,0:04:10.413
and at the end I'd always say [br]the same thing, "Look, it's working."

0:04:10.615,0:04:12.713
I don't know if I'm right[br]or if you're right,

0:04:12.713,0:04:15.343
but in the end, we are [br]discussing the right thing:

0:04:15.343,0:04:18.795
we are talking about[br]not how well is your country doing,

0:04:18.795,0:04:21.136
but how much is your country doing.

0:04:21.506,0:04:23.870
And that's what it[br]was supposed to achieve.

0:04:24.043,0:04:28.695
So by pushing the direction[br]of the argument, the conversation,

0:04:28.695,0:04:31.039
towards a new way of looking at countries,

0:04:31.039,0:04:33.390
then I think that it's pushing[br]the agenda forward.

0:04:33.827,0:04:35.928
So, my colleague Robert Govers and I

0:04:35.928,0:04:39.061
just released the latest edition[br]of the Good Country Index.

0:04:39.242,0:04:43.068
I'll just give you a very quick glimpse[br]of what's going on there.

0:04:44.258,0:04:46.172
Finland came first.

0:04:47.705,0:04:51.142
One of these days, somebody[br]is going to invent a country ranking

0:04:51.142,0:04:53.760
that does not have [br]a Nordic country in the top ten.

0:04:53.760,0:04:55.993
(Laughter)

0:04:56.584,0:04:59.014
An index of modesty perhaps?

0:04:59.907,0:05:03.177
Anyway well done Finland, seriously![br]It's absolutely great.

0:05:03.379,0:05:05.581
And another rather[br]interesting thing happened

0:05:05.581,0:05:08.302
in this latest edition[br]of the Good Country Index,

0:05:08.302,0:05:12.932
and that was what you can see[br]if you go slightly lower in the Index,

0:05:12.932,0:05:15.746
that the United States of America

0:05:15.746,0:05:20.332
has for various reasons sunk[br]quite a long way since the last edition,

0:05:20.332,0:05:23.315
and Russia for various reasons has risen.

0:05:23.315,0:05:27.535
And we now have this peculiar situation[br]where the USA and Russia,

0:05:27.535,0:05:29.579
relative to the size of their economies,

0:05:29.579,0:05:33.100
are neck and neck, [br]quite a long way down the Index.

0:05:33.564,0:05:37.351
It's like two mean kids holding hands[br]at the edge of the playground

0:05:37.351,0:05:39.433
and refusing to join the others.

0:05:39.433,0:05:40.816
(Laughter)

0:05:40.816,0:05:43.898
(Cheering) (Applause)

0:05:47.784,0:05:50.566
But hey, it's an interesting result,

0:05:50.566,0:05:52.752
but in the end, I'm afraid to say

0:05:52.752,0:05:56.938
that the world hasn't changed very much[br]since the first one came out in 2014.

0:05:57.452,0:06:02.178
It's still: America first, Britain first,[br]Russia first, Germany first.

0:06:03.077,0:06:06.150
And in a way, I understand that. [br]I don't have a problem with it.

0:06:06.150,0:06:09.052
I mean after all, if you are[br]elected to run a country,

0:06:09.052,0:06:12.524
it's pretty obvious that you put[br]that country's interests first.

0:06:12.856,0:06:16.611
But what I find rather demoralising [br]about those kinds of sentiments

0:06:16.611,0:06:20.081
is the implication that[br]everybody else has to come last.

0:06:20.418,0:06:22.136
And this is what I dispute.

0:06:22.136,0:06:24.223
I think we can all come first.

0:06:25.153,0:06:28.527
A nice thing about the job I've been doing[br]for the last 20 years or so,

0:06:28.527,0:06:30.392
advising governments around the world

0:06:30.392,0:06:33.322
and trying out real policies[br]in the real world,

0:06:33.322,0:06:34.961
is that it's perfectly possible

0:06:34.961,0:06:39.103
to harmonise your domestic[br]and your international responsibilities.

0:06:39.103,0:06:41.301
You can do the right thing[br]for your own people,

0:06:41.301,0:06:44.560
and you can do the right thing[br]for humanity at the same time

0:06:44.560,0:06:46.472
without sacrificing yourself.

0:06:46.472,0:06:49.341
And the funny thing is[br]it makes better policies.

0:06:49.341,0:06:52.348
This is something that most[br]governments have simply never tried.

0:06:53.463,0:06:57.155
So, on to the second thing[br]that's stopping the world working:

0:06:57.155,0:07:01.343
the slightly more complicated issue[br]of the behaviour of us humans.

0:07:01.975,0:07:03.716
Well, to get started on this,

0:07:03.716,0:07:05.103
I thought it'd be interesting

0:07:05.103,0:07:07.550
to try to find out[br]how many people in the world

0:07:07.550,0:07:10.654
already agree with some[br]of these basic principles,

0:07:10.654,0:07:14.361
the ones outlined[br]behind the Good Country Index.

0:07:14.361,0:07:16.225
So Robert and I did some research,

0:07:16.225,0:07:20.153
and we discovered that no less than[br]10% of the world's population

0:07:20.153,0:07:23.716
appears to fully share[br]the principles of the Good Country,

0:07:23.716,0:07:28.436
the idea that countries should collaborate[br]and cooperate a great deal more

0:07:28.436,0:07:30.930
and compete a tiny bit less.

0:07:30.930,0:07:35.925
This is great news. Ten percent,[br]that's 760 million people.

0:07:36.295,0:07:39.832
If that were a nation, that would be[br]the third largest nation on the planet

0:07:39.832,0:07:41.564
after China and India.

0:07:42.149,0:07:45.086
And I have to admit[br]that when those numbers came out,

0:07:45.086,0:07:46.786
I got very excited.

0:07:47.090,0:07:48.523
But then on mature reflection,

0:07:48.523,0:07:51.543
I realised that, actually,[br]the counterpart of that

0:07:51.543,0:07:56.229
is that 90% of the people in the world[br]don't agree with that proposition,

0:07:56.341,0:07:59.252
and I think if one was going[br]to take this challenge seriously,

0:07:59.252,0:08:01.624
one has to focus on the 90%.

0:08:01.894,0:08:06.274
It's not enough just to sell messages[br]to the people who already agree with you

0:08:06.274,0:08:09.688
and try to make them make[br]tiny tweaks in their behaviour

0:08:09.688,0:08:12.493
because frankly, it's too late for that.

0:08:12.493,0:08:14.214
We are in too much of a hurry.

0:08:14.227,0:08:16.919
We need big change,[br]and we need it very soon.

0:08:16.919,0:08:18.984
In fact, we need it right now.

0:08:19.571,0:08:24.311
So how can we deeply educate[br]the majority of the world's population

0:08:24.311,0:08:27.515
to behave in a way which is more [br]friendly to the world we live in

0:08:27.515,0:08:29.474
and more friendly to each other?

0:08:29.707,0:08:32.183
Because, by the way,[br]when I was speaking of trolls,

0:08:32.183,0:08:36.610
of course it reminded me of[br]this strange idea that emerged recently,

0:08:36.610,0:08:38.452
and I don't know where it came from,

0:08:38.918,0:08:41.857
that the people who care more[br]about local things

0:08:41.857,0:08:44.592
and the people like me[br]who care more about global things

0:08:44.592,0:08:46.174
should be enemies.

0:08:46.186,0:08:48.217
Who thought of this idea?

0:08:48.217,0:08:51.205
This is the most dangerous idea[br]in the world at the moment,

0:08:51.205,0:08:55.024
and I think we should all look out for it[br]and challenge it whenever we hear it.

0:08:55.035,0:08:57.194
The people who care more [br]about local things

0:08:57.194,0:09:00.584
and the people who care more[br]about global things shouldn't be enemies.

0:09:00.584,0:09:02.392
They should be working together.

0:09:02.392,0:09:04.941
We should be glad that each other exists.

0:09:04.941,0:09:08.397
There isn't time for this kind[br]of childish tribalism.

0:09:08.397,0:09:10.913
We need to get on and fix things.

0:09:11.488,0:09:13.395
Well anyway, as I was saying,

0:09:14.008,0:09:18.732
the 90% need to be fundamentally [br]educated in a different way.

0:09:19.092,0:09:21.883
And I started looking[br]at some of the websites of the NGOs

0:09:21.883,0:09:24.637
and the campaigning [br]organisations and the charities,

0:09:24.637,0:09:27.721
and I began to notice[br]there was a common theme emerging.

0:09:27.891,0:09:29.508
There was a sentence,

0:09:29.508,0:09:32.156
which in one form or another[br]kept on cropping up.

0:09:32.156,0:09:33.917
The sentence was something like this:

0:09:35.073,0:09:39.333
"And we should leave the world[br]in a better state for our children."

0:09:40.679,0:09:44.622
And I've tried to read this sentence[br]about 93 times in different places.

0:09:44.622,0:09:46.587
I began thinking to myself,

0:09:47.550,0:09:49.969
"You know, that's pretty arrogant really."

0:09:49.969,0:09:52.735
The idea you could take[br]something huge like climate change,

0:09:52.735,0:09:56.172
a huge systemic problem[br]or conflict or migration

0:09:56.172,0:10:00.132
that's taken billions of people [br]centuries to perpetrate,

0:10:00.132,0:10:02.352
and you are gonna fix it [br]before you check out?

0:10:02.352,0:10:03.488
(Laughter)

0:10:03.488,0:10:06.019
It's this kind of arrogance and impatience

0:10:06.019,0:10:08.369
that causes more problems than it solves.

0:10:08.621,0:10:12.193
If we only have the nerve,[br]if we only have the courage

0:10:12.193,0:10:13.850
to give it one generation,

0:10:13.850,0:10:17.360
we can fix everything[br]and we can fix it for good.

0:10:17.976,0:10:20.486
Because every single day that passes,

0:10:20.486,0:10:23.402
humanity has an opportunity[br]to start again.

0:10:23.938,0:10:27.695
Because every single day that passes,[br]new children are born,

0:10:27.695,0:10:30.105
and they can learn in new ways.

0:10:30.105,0:10:33.272
So there is a solution to every[br]single challenge facing humanity;

0:10:33.272,0:10:34.745
it's called education.

0:10:34.745,0:10:37.365
But we need to do it in a new way[br]and a different way

0:10:37.366,0:10:40.836
and a much more ambitious way[br]than we've done it before.

0:10:40.836,0:10:43.585
Imagine if you will, a test tube rack

0:10:43.585,0:10:46.957
of the sort you probably had[br]when you studied science at school.

0:10:47.422,0:10:49.628
And in this test tube rack made of wood,

0:10:49.628,0:10:53.114
there are 7, 8, 10, I don't know,[br]little glass test tubes,

0:10:53.114,0:10:55.861
and each one contains[br]a different coloured liquid.

0:10:55.861,0:11:00.646
And each one of those liquids[br]is a vaccine, an educational vaccine

0:11:00.646,0:11:04.083
against the behaviours[br]that cause climate change, conflicts,

0:11:04.083,0:11:08.498
human right abuses, terrorism, migration,[br]pandemics and all the rest of it.

0:11:08.498,0:11:12.390
And if we administer these educational[br]vaccines to all of our children,

0:11:12.390,0:11:16.696
in the next generation, they will be[br]incapable of continuing the behaviours

0:11:16.696,0:11:19.081
that we have indulged in for so long.

0:11:19.802,0:11:23.149
If we teach our children [br]cultural anthropology at the age of six -

0:11:23.149,0:11:25.935
it's a wonderful subject[br]for six-year-olds -

0:11:25.935,0:11:30.385
they'd grow up taking a scientific pride[br]in understanding cultural differences.

0:11:30.657,0:11:31.814
They are immunised

0:11:31.814,0:11:35.096
against the kind of ignorance[br]that leads to prejudice and intolerance.

0:11:35.096,0:11:36.112
I know that one works

0:11:36.112,0:11:39.403
because I experimented it[br]on my children, and it works a charm.

0:11:39.403,0:11:40.894
(Laughter)

0:11:41.571,0:11:44.670
If we want to lessen [br]the speed of climate change,

0:11:44.670,0:11:47.526
we need to teach our children [br]oceanography and meteorology,

0:11:47.526,0:11:48.601
and then maybe one day[br]

0:11:48.601,0:11:51.314
they'll switch off the damn light[br]when they leave bedroom.

0:11:51.314,0:11:52.344
(Laugher)

0:11:52.344,0:11:56.202
We need to teach our children hygiene[br]so that there is less disease.

0:11:56.202,0:11:59.568
We need to teach them to meditate [br]so there is less mental illness

0:11:59.568,0:12:02.680
and they learn to have more empathy[br]and understanding and kindness

0:12:02.680,0:12:04.647
towards everybody else.

0:12:04.647,0:12:06.121
There are so many subjects.

0:12:06.121,0:12:08.166
I can't decide which ones they should be.

0:12:08.166,0:12:09.435
What I think we need to do

0:12:09.435,0:12:12.325
is to have a big global[br]discussion on the internet,

0:12:12.325,0:12:14.556
where everybody puts in their own idea

0:12:14.556,0:12:17.104
about what should be [br]the next set of values

0:12:17.104,0:12:19.784
that we're going to teach[br]the next generation of children

0:12:19.784,0:12:22.261
so they can run towards[br]the global challenges

0:12:22.261,0:12:25.460
instead of running away [br]from them as we've done.

0:12:26.862,0:12:28.658
And we can do this.

0:12:29.253,0:12:32.274
Next year, it will be my aim, my ambition,

0:12:32.274,0:12:35.435
to have one hundred[br]ministers of education signing up

0:12:35.435,0:12:38.632
to this new global compact[br]of educational values.

0:12:38.932,0:12:40.761
UNESCO has already signed a letter

0:12:40.761,0:12:44.181
saying they would like to support this[br]if we can get it going.

0:12:44.688,0:12:48.077
And if you have any doubts[br]about whether it's possible

0:12:48.078,0:12:52.072
for humanity to engage[br]in such a big common project

0:12:52.072,0:12:54.496
despite all of that cultural differences,

0:12:54.496,0:12:58.895
well, just have a think[br]about the United Nations' charter

0:12:59.613,0:13:03.175
or the human rights documentation.

0:13:03.175,0:13:06.045
Have a read if you[br]haven't read it for a while.

0:13:06.045,0:13:09.306
These are the most beautiful documents[br]ever produced by humanity,

0:13:09.306,0:13:11.429
and they really give you faith

0:13:11.429,0:13:13.388
because they remind you as you read them

0:13:13.388,0:13:14.887
that we are capable

0:13:14.887,0:13:19.033
of behaving like a single species[br]inhabiting a single planet.

0:13:19.428,0:13:22.506
We can do it if we really want to[br]and if we do it at scale.

0:13:22.506,0:13:23.554
The good news is

0:13:23.554,0:13:26.638
it's more about joining up the dots[br]than starting from scratch.

0:13:26.638,0:13:28.526
Because there're hundreds and hundreds

0:13:28.526,0:13:31.928
if not thousands of projects[br]around the world at the moment,

0:13:32.279,0:13:35.199
finding and experimenting[br]different ways of educating children

0:13:35.199,0:13:36.994
so they behave better in the future.

0:13:36.994,0:13:41.390
The trouble is they're mostly[br]single topics and in single countries.

0:13:42.000,0:13:43.981
There's no time for doing it slowly now.

0:13:43.981,0:13:47.381
We need to do it big,[br]and we need to do it in one go.

0:13:48.850,0:13:51.968
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old [br]Swedish climate activist,

0:13:51.968,0:13:54.625
is beginning to discover[br]and beginning to show us

0:13:54.625,0:13:59.481
how very difficult it is to persuade[br]grown-ups to change their behaviour.

0:14:00.183,0:14:02.150
But the simple fact of the matter is

0:14:02.420,0:14:07.453
that we can see that a lot of children[br]have got the right attitude,

0:14:07.453,0:14:09.614
but they don't have the solutions.

0:14:09.839,0:14:11.688
Some adults have the solutions,

0:14:11.688,0:14:14.638
but they definitely[br]don't have the right attitude.

0:14:15.163,0:14:19.601
And so, guess what, it's another[br]necessity for collaboration -

0:14:19.601,0:14:22.472
the children and the grown-ups[br]working together.

0:14:23.873,0:14:28.233
We all have to think very hard now[br]about being better human beings.

0:14:29.033,0:14:34.155
And that's about being better citizens,[br]both locally and globally,

0:14:34.771,0:14:38.971
but it's also, perhaps mainly,[br]about being better ancestors.

0:14:39.379,0:14:42.940
If we can do that,[br]we can make the world work.

0:14:44.027,0:14:45.024
Thank you.

0:14:45.024,0:14:47.978
(Applause) (Cheering)