The formal coronation of King Charles III in London on 6 May did not generate much interest in the Commonwealth, of which he is the formal head. Perhaps this is because the Commonwealth activities have been limited to some fellowship schemes for higher studies and games organized every four years.
There is no visible attempt to address the most urgent global problems of the day. There is climate change and desertification or submergence is likely to affect Member States; Equally dire are the more far-reaching consequences of artificial intelligence (AI) spiraling wildly out of control until it is moderated by global regulations; And the global financial turmoil has become not an episodic disruption, but an ever-present threat.
Climate action is one of the group’s stated aims. But then again, climate action demands massive finance for mitigation and adaptation along with risk protection, which only multinational agencies like the World Bank are equipped to provide.
However much can be done to harness initiatives within the Commonwealth. India’s Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for the Environment) lists 75 simple lifestyle improvements at the individual or household level that, according to International Energy Agency estimates, could reduce annual global carbon dioxide emissions by 2 billion by 2030 if adopted universally. ton or more. The Commonwealth can help drive this process, while supporting this Indian initiative and monitoring adoption rates.
More interventionist steps by the Commonwealth could extend to helping countries where the transition to renewable sources of electricity generation is hampered by poor regulatory structures tainted by political interference; and providing technical solutions to common problems of transmission and distribution losses. The issue is that the Commonwealth has not taken steps to provide a window at which countries can seek assistance for these and related issues.
The problem of AI running amok can’t really be addressed within the Commonwealth, as the big players are outside the grouping. But it could put together an informed plan for consideration by widely represented world bodies.
When in financial turmoil, the Commonwealth can play a role in debt relief, by providing a window of assistance to member states who lack the means to find their way through the application process.
All of this can seem depressingly unrealistic within a group riddled with sharp differences. Dissatisfied within the country lead to protests in third countries, causing friction at the governmental level. Public property and diplomatic posts have been vandalized in the UK recently by such dissident groups, but these are difficult to contain when Commonwealth diaspora pockets are large enough to be electorally important in the host country .
The related problem of migration is a big issue. The Commonwealth may develop a framework within which agreements on the size of flows that can be handled by any recipient nation are reached in a collegial manner. There must be an agreed reciprocity to end the problem of illegal immigrants, which would then extend to near-slave conditions of work that are often under the radar in the destination country.
The only issue that has gained traction within the Commonwealth in recent years is that of reparations for victims of the slave trade. The CARICOM Reparations Commission, set up by Caribbean heads of government, addresses all former colonial powers, not Britain alone. But there is growing pressure from Caribbean members of the Commonwealth for reparations from Britain.
In recent years, institutions such as Harvard University and Guardian Newspapers in Britain unilaterally declared the abolition of slavery partial payment of compensation received by their slave-owning founders, while the slaves themselves received nothing. There are also British families, such as the Trevelyans, who have announced compensation for the Caribbean country where they have ancestral plantations. In such cases, the entity or family to which compensation may properly flow is easily identifiable.
But compensation claims against the British government could only be paid from current tax revenues, which would involve a large number of current taxpayers who are not descendants of the beneficiaries of the slave trade. Tax revenue today is collected from both earned and inherited income. A 2015 review paper by Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zuckman suggests that 40% of total private wealth in the UK in 2010 was earned wealth. In other European comparator countries, the accrual share was more than half. Even in the category of inherited property, some may have been acquired by other forms of extortion, such as by the East India Company. Therefore, paying slave reparations at the country level from normalized tax revenues is not easily justified.
On balance, the Commonwealth would do better to respond to problems that affect all populations within it, with a focus on bringing countries together in a mutual aid pact so that membership can take on greater prominence in today’s world .
The British leadership of the group has historical roots, but is based on a consistent belief of consistent governance and financial maturity. Today, with Britain’s public debt spiraling upwards, and brilliant public institutions like the National Health Service crumbling for lack of fiscal support amid vast hoardings of private money, that leadership is being tested.
For now, we wish King Charles III a happy Coronation Day.
Indira Rajaraman is an economist.
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