Chief-of-Staff for President Obama Rahm Emanuel's quote of the year, 'you never want a serious crisis to go to waste' sounds glib taken out of context. But he is right. It takes extreme situations to force decisions that go against normal short-term political interests.

So it is that governments such as the UK and the US are saddling their taxpayers with vast debts to bail out their banks and finance sector, spending unthinkable amounts of money for normal times (at least $8.4 trillion and counting) to correct the results of complacency ideology and greed.

Finding the opportunity in a crisis is more than a snappy political catchphrase. It is the opportunity for the leaders of the G20 meeting on April 2nd to take long-term decisions in the interests of people and the planet.