Fixing climate change, poverty and ocean plastic requires a 'Moonshot' approach, economist Mariana Mazzucato says  -  ABC Radio National  By Belinda Sommer and Richard Aedy for The Money  -  2 April 2021

The 'Moonshot' approach can help us fix the problems of today, says economist Mariana Mazzucato.

Nearly six decades ago, President John F Kennedy's famous "Moonshot speech" rallied the US public behind the Apollo mission to send astronauts to the Moon.

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard," are the inspirational words that continue to be associated with ambition and grand achievement.

Leading economist Mariana Mazzucato isn't the first to ask why, if humans can land on the Moon, they can't also solve some of the huge challenges here on Earth such as climate change, poverty or a plastic-free ocean.

NASA was 'confident' in co-ordinating the effort to put men on the moon, Professor Mazzucato says.

But as the founder and director of UCL Institute, it's a question she's spent a lot of time thinking about.

Her answer? Governments should adopt the "mission-oriented approach" of the Apollo project.

"Conventional wisdom continues to portray government as a clunky bureaucratic machine that can't innovate," Professor Mazzucato tells ABC RN's The Money.

"At best, its role is to fix, regulate, redistribute; it corrects markets when they go wrong."

In contrast, she says, those in the private sector are seen as entrepreneurial risk-takers, responsible for creating wealth and value in society.

But in the 1960s, the Apollo mission was led by the US Government's space agency NASA, in conjunction with the private sector.

President Kennedy's 'Moonshot speech' helped rally the US public behind the Apollo mission.

The project was defined by ambitious leadership, clear goals, experimentation, and the public sector interacting with companies such as Honeywell, General Electric and Motorola, Professor Mazzucato says.

"The reason I think it worked is because NASA was very confident," she says.

NASA had clauses in its procurement contacts that prohibited excess profits and provided incentives for innovation.

It paid close attention to the skills of its own staff, encouraging training and learning, and didn't rely on external consulting firms to do any project management.

Professor Mazzucato contrasts this with modern governments, where consultants are thick on the ground.

She points to the UK, where Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew accused the British civil service of becoming "infantilised" by an "unacceptable" reliance on expensive consultants.

He said public servants were being deprived "of opportunities to work on some of the most challenging, fulfilling and crunchy issues" such as Brexit and COVID-19.

Mariana Mazzucato has spent decades researching the economics of innovation and high tech industry. (Supplied: University Of Sussex)

Mariana Mazzucato acknowledges that the goals we have today "are much harder than going to the Moon".

But Professor Mazzucato argues that, if we look at responses to the pandemic, "active government" is having a moment — one it could build on.

Governments, she says, can restructure capitalism to be inclusive, sustainable and driven by innovation.

She wants governments to co-ordinate the public and private sectors on a massive scale to work on important problems such as inequality.

Professor Mazzucato says governments should clearly identify goals and explain these "missions" to the public.

She urges transparency — even in today's media environment, where a government mistake can become a huge story.

"Getting to the Moon would have never happened had the civil servants been risk adverse. It would have never happened if they feared failure," Professor Mazzucato says.

Aiming higher: mission policies

Mariana Mazzucato points to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a starting point for such a "mission-oriented" approach.

The goals cover some of the world's greatest problems including poverty, climate change and gender inequality.

Some of the goals are complex — goal number 13 is Climate Action, while goal 14 focuses on ridding oceans of plastic.

For this reason there are clear targets under each goal (creating 100 carbon neutral cities in Europe by 2030, for example, or building autonomous ocean stations that remove plastic pollution).

All countries who have agreed to the goals are required to work toward the targets, bringing in, "real estate, energy, mobility, construction, the social sector, food sector and so on," says Professor Mazzucato.

"Government cannot pursue missions alone," she says.

"All sectors need to be involved and great attention has to be paid to procurement contacts."

According to at least one index, most countries are struggling to make headway on the UN goals.

But Professor Mazzucato says their value lies in getting governments to raise their level of ambition.

Changing finance

Recently, Mariana Mazzucato helped Scotland set up a new "mission-led" bank.

The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) provides capital to businesses, projects and communities that align with the goals of the Scottish Government.

Professor Mazzucato believes such changes in finance are crucial in getting the economy to work for society, rather than society working for the economy.

SNIB's stated aim is to "build a stronger, fairer, more sustainable Scotland".

Its first investment was in a Glasgow-based company specialising in precision lasers and quantum technology.

Professor Mazzucato would like to see the bank's focus more broadly adopted.

"The status quo is failing too many people and changing the planet in way that will also fail future generations," she writes in her new book Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism.

"How can we do what Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin asked for: to protect people on our oasis, and to foster common good?"