In Uganda, climate change is leading to longer dry seasons, lowering crop yields and threatening the livelihoods of farmers and pastoralists. A surge in violent cattle rustling at the height of planting season exacerbated the situation. Now competition over increasingly limited natural resources could potentially lead to more conflict.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup, one of the biggest international sporting events, is being held for the first time in the Middle East, with Qatar as the host nation. My experience attending the tournament underlines the economic, political and social tensions that this World Cup has put on prominent display.
The U.N. COP27 Climate Change Conference wrapped up this month with a historic breakthrough, as world leaders agreed to create a dedicated fund to address “loss and damage” stemming from the impacts of climate change in developing countries. Now that’s been agreed to, though, the real work of financing it begins.
After the financial and cultural success of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, more and more nations have vied for the chance to host the Olympics and the World Cup, leading to ambitious budgets and corruption in the selection process. Since the selection of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, though, FIFA and the IOC have course-corrected.
China’s challenges at home and abroad have grown more pronounced in recent years—so much so that a longstanding debate over China’s intentions increasingly coexists with one over its trajectory: Is it on a path to global preeminence, or is it near the zenith of its power and perhaps even on the verge of systemic decline?
Last week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador canceled a Pacific Alliance summit scheduled to be held in Mexico this month, after Peru’s Congress prevented President Pedro Castillo from traveling abroad. The incident highlights a challenge for the group, which is floundering for a purpose and facing internal tensions.
After much foot-dragging, the European Commission proposed a cap on the price it will pay for natural gas yesterday. Fifteen of the union’s members had proposed such a cap to limit Russian energy revenues due to spiking gas prices since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but a group of members led by Germany are opposed to it.
As the United Nations COP27 Climate Change Conference closed Sunday, Egypt, this year’s host, hailed the agreements brokered there as a success. But there continues to be a gap between the climate-change commitments most countries in the Middle East and North Africa have formally expressed and their actual behavior.
On the sidelines of last week’s G-20 leaders’ summit, Argentina and China struck a deal to increase their currency swap program. By doing so, however, China is playing to the worst economic instincts of Argentina’s Peronist government, for which every economic problem can be solved by simply throwing yet another currency plan at it.
The government of newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro listed countering deforestation as one of its top priorities. But those efforts promise to raise tensions between the central government and local farmers, who in recent years have been on the receiving end of heavy-handed government efforts to counter deforestation.
Multilateralism has suffered in the past six years, but for those who consider it to be as essential as it is imperfect, the past week offers some cause for optimism. It’s premature to declare that multilateralism “is back.” But if it does enjoy a resurgence, the past week could be the moment its fortunes began to turn around.
Senegalese President Macky Sall, who also serves as the African Union’s rotating chairperson, announced on Twitter that the AU has applied to join the G-20. Many other African leaders pushed for more representation at the forum, but it’s unclear that an AU seat at G-20 table would offer the benefits they seek.
For nearly a decade now, an increasingly large chunk of government, academia and civil society has fought against media manipulation, which has been associated with and blamed for a wide range of social and societal ills. Yet the tide doesn’t appear to be turning. Why, given the attention being paid to the problem, is nothing working to counter it?
As encouraging as the three-hour meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping was, it is but one stopping point in what promises to be a long and difficult road ahead for bilateral relations between the U.S. and China, especially against the backdrop of competition that characterizes the relationship.
Financial incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles included in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act are leading to renewed trade frictions with the EU. While those tensions are significant in and of themselves, they mask deeper problems with how the IRA and climate legislation more generally fit into the global trade regime.
Decarbonizing energy use by shifting to renewable energies relies on the extraction of minerals and metals that are primarily found in lower-income countries or fragile states. Accessing the critical minerals essential for developing low-carbon energy options brings us to what we might call the dark side of the green transition.
The energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine has the potential to accelerate a historical transition from fossil fuels to a more sustainable and secure energy system. But to come close to keeping the planet from warming no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, a decisive phaseout of fossil fuels is required.