Bernice Lee

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Dump trucks at a Nickel mining site in North Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

InternacionalEconomía,

Barely a day goes by without another government announcing a plan to diversify and create sustainable, resilient, clean energy supply chains.

The rationale typically invokes some variant on the theme of a fast-evolving and geopolitically charged global resources landscape involving trade in critical minerals. Recent examples include the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, or Australia’s talks with India on critical mineral trade.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has highlighted several minerals required for clean energy technologies. Individual governments’ designations will vary according to national priorities, resource endowments or vulnerabilities.

Recent breakthroughs in sodium-ion battery technology underscore how innovation might alter the utility of a given mineral – but as things currently stand lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are key to the performance, longevity and energy density of batteries.…  Seguir leyendo »

Walking under an array of potted succulent plants in the Green Zone of the UNFCCC COP27 climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

ReflexionesNaturaleza,
Loss and Damage fund is a historic moment

Anna Aberg

COP27 will go down in history as the UN climate change conference where the Loss and Damage fund was agreed. After decades of pushing, this is a momentous victory for climate-vulnerable developing countries.

The shift in the conversation – and in the positions of developed countries – since COP26 is remarkable. It is critical parties continue to build on the positive momentum created in Sharm as challenging discussions on how the new loss and damage fund will work – and who will contribute to it financially – ensue.

Tim Benton

Overall COP27 was a hectic, sometimes chaotic, event that advanced some matters but left others trailing behind where they need to be to drive ambition towards the sort of climate action required to keep alive the possibility of restricting climate change within the envelope of the Paris agreement.…  Seguir leyendo »

Climate protest march in Brussels, Belgium ahead of the start of COP27 in Egypt. Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.

ReflexionesNaturaleza,

Although global attention on COPs fluctuates from year to year, ultimately all of them are important, even those where big decisions are not expected. One of the reasons for this is that the coming together of all parties can act as push mechanisms for new political leadership on climate to emerge, in sometimes unexpected ways.

At COP26, the US turnaround on climate following the election of President Joe Biden provided hope and momentum. For COP27, it appears likely Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil could be the star attraction, with the potential to inject new urgency into the process.…  Seguir leyendo »

10 Downing Street in London, United Kingdom as seen on 05 September 2022 as Liz Truss was announced as the UK's next prime minister. Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Europa

It says something of the UK that the incoming prime minister has ordered a rewrite of British foreign policy barely 18 months after the last one was published.

Liz Truss, who has become the fourth prime minister in Downing Street in six turbulent years, is not prone to risk aversion or offering bland reassurances. She made clear during the campaign for the Conservative leadership that she wants the 2021 Integrated Review redrawn with a far greater focus on combating the ‘growing malign influence’ of Russia and China. She has also pledged to increase defence spending from its current 2.1 per cent of GDP, to 2.7 per cent, and then to 3 per cent by 2030, which will include more support for the intelligence services and cyber security, a further £10 billion overall at a time when public finances are in dire straits.…  Seguir leyendo »

Artist Luke Jerram's 'Floating Earth' at Pennington Flash in Wigan, England, which aims to prompt discussions on what individuals and societies can do to make lifestyles more sustainable. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

InternacionalEconomía
Balancing trade and non-trade policy objectives

Marianne Schneider-Petsinger

The supply chain disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic highlight trade cannot be taken for granted, and economic interdependencies have both benefits and costs. As international commerce rebounds and trade policy is increasingly seen through the prism of enhancing resilience, the moment is ripe to redefine and reimagine trade.

The goal of trade policy has never been to increase trade for trade’s sake, so a new narrative and framework for global trade requires striking a careful balance between pursuing trade and non-trade policy objectives.

Protecting the environment, strengthening labour standards, and upholding human rights have long been goals for which trade policy is used as a lever, and the interaction of trade and national security interests as well as the links between trade and competition policy are not new issues either.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Carabinieri police officer stands guard outside the convention center La Nuvola in the EUR district of Rome, ahead of the 2021 G20 World Leaders Summit. Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images.

InternacionalEconomía

‘If we didn’t have it, we would have to invent it’ might well be the catchphrase for the Group of 20 (G20) as the international community rethinks global institutional architecture in the face of shifting power dynamics and geopolitical strife.

To be fair, the same is often said of other venerable institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), or even the United Nations (UN), often as a line of defence when questions are raised over their relevance or effectiveness.

According to former Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman and UK treasury minister Jim O’Neill, size also matters because the G20 is both too big and too small to be on the ball consistently.…  Seguir leyendo »

The 56th Tirreno-Adriatico 2021 cycle race by the Adriatic Sea in Lido di Fermo, Italy. Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images.

ReflexionesNaturaleza,

Regular headlines reaffirm the rise of sustainability on the global stage. Political momentum behind climate action has not been derailed by COVID-19, sustainability is increasingly central to national political debates, and what once might have been confined to scientific pursuits and UN conferences has now percolated through to international financial affairs and the wider political summits.

Much is made of the scale of the challenge, from climate change, water stresses, and biodiversity loss to the looming spectre of environment-induced societal breakdown triggering unprecedented civilizational challenges on the back of decades of systemic neglect over the true cost of social and environmental imbalances and unencumbered consumption.…  Seguir leyendo »

Futurescape is a Chatham House initiative for our second century, generating innovative thinking and exploring how a more sustainable future could come about in the next one hundred years around London’s Piccadilly Circus.

EuropaReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

‘We wanted flying cars. Instead we got 140 characters’ said controversial technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel more than a decade ago. Clearly technologies will play an outsized role in shaping humanity’s future, including that of our urban habitat. But predicting which specific technologies will race ahead is no mean feat, although huge effort has gone into dissecting future trends and anticipating new needs and wants.

Futurescape is a Chatham House initiative for our second century, generating innovative thinking and exploring how a more sustainable future could come about in the next one hundred years around London’s Piccadilly Circus, an area which has been the Institute’s neighbourhood for almost a century.…  Seguir leyendo »

A graphic artist paints a mural advert for US smartphone manufacturer Apple in Berlin, Germany. Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images.

InternacionalEconomía,

Just as climate change worsens existing vulnerabilities such as food poverty and water shortages, trade amplifies weaknesses in the social fabric.

In regions where people have fallen behind economically due to political neglect and technological change, it is jobs lost in the face of import competition that make the headlines.

The appeal of Donald Trump and Brexit had much to do with deep grievances felt by those attributing their social problems to the negative impacts of openness and competition from shores afar.

Yet the costs of doing away with globalization and our open-trading system could far exceed any benefits. This is why, in 2021, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will begin its metamorphosis into an organization that puts social issues at its heart.…  Seguir leyendo »

Six Aspects of Daily Life Rapidly Changed by COVID-19

InternacionalSalud Pública,

When the pandemic struck, many countries were quick to close their borders, turning inward in the scramble to protect lives and livelihoods. Sadly, the crisis has done little to bond nations against this shared, invisible foe – in some cases, blame for the outbreak and rows over responses actually exacerbating geopolitical tensions.

However, some effects of COVID-19 may yet unite us, in the profound ways the disease has impacted almost every part of life across the planet, giving us a rare opportunity to pause and consider how we live. News of an effective vaccine makes the prospect of a ‘return to normality’ more hopeful but have these dramatic accelerations in existing trends already changed how we travel, work, and consume, and the face of our cities for good?…  Seguir leyendo »

Billboard in Berlin warns people to acknowledge all the challenges posed by global warming. Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images.

ReflexionesNaturaleza, , ,

Trade policy has long included reassuring references to appease environmentalists, such as including sustainable development in the preamble to the Marrakesh Declaration of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in provisions related to domestic environmental protection and conservation, as well as largely respecting global environmental norms, national policies and processes — especially those demonstrating a consistency of intent and commitment.

But this uneasy peace is likely to be tested sharply by fast-evolving climate policies, with a growing number of jurisdictions setting target dates to become carbon-neutral, using carbon taxes and other market-based measures as well as regulations, standards, and subsidies to get there.…  Seguir leyendo »