Addressing climate resilience needs in fragile states is one of the biggest outstanding gaps in climate finance. However, recent research suggests it is also one of the biggest opportunities, including for addressing crucial conflict drivers. COP28 will bring together the major stakeholders needed to tackle this problem.
The big question hanging over Argentine President-elect Javier Milei’s term in office is whether he can turn around the country’s crisis-stricken economy. But if Milei’s control over Argentina’s economic fate is limited, he’ll have free rein over the country’s foreign policy, where he is also planning some very large shifts.
Today at WPR, we’re covering the calculus behind Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and last week’s elections in the Netherlands.
But first, here’s our take on today’s top story.
Panama: The Supreme Court in Panama ruled unanimously that a 20-year concession for a Canadian-run copper mine was unconstitutional, after which the president said a process to close the mine would begin. The ruling comes after weeks of widespread environmental protests in Panama against the mine. (AP)
Our Take: This ruling, although limited to one mine in one country, is representative of a growing tension across the Global South stemming from climate change and the green transition.
As we’ve written about before, the transition to renewable energy technologies is crucial to mitigating the effects of climate change, but it also relies on the supply of critical minerals that are often located in the Global South. As a result, countries that have reserves of these critical minerals stand to gain economically from mining and exporting them. In this case, the Cobre Panama mine—the one just ruled unconstitutional—accounts for 40,000 jobs, roughly 75 percent of Panama’s exports and 5 percent of its GDP.
But there are also clear costs to mining for these resources, particularly for the environment. Mines often contaminate the surrounding area and draw heavily on water resources, both of which displace local—often Indigenous—communities.
In Panama, the protests against Cobre Panama were so widespread in large part because the new 20-year deal with the mine’s parent company comes at a time when the country is experiencing one of its driest periods on record. As a result of experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand, Panamanians are particularly tuned in to the environmental costs of mining.
