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It is a recent tradition among occupants of the White House, as they head out of office, to play a few practical jokes on their successors. The Clinton administration jesters, for instance, removed all the Ws from White House keyboards before handing over the keys to George W. Bush’s transition...
Anthropogenic climate change and the unprecedented shift in the global center of economic gravity from West to East represent two of the most profound macrotrends set to transform the geopolitical landscape in the 21st century. Indeed, as Asia’s emerging powerhouses, notably China, with its...
One of the many difficulties in understanding global warming and climate change, and their impacts, is that they are complicated. Climate change is not linear over time and it is inconsistent across different regions. As I explain in my book, “A Climate for Denial,” the nonlinear...
It is hard to think of impending natural hazard-related disasters in the middle of a global pandemic. But it is absolutely essential that policymakers do so. This year, due in part to climate change, scientists predict one of the most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record. In fact, nine...
The heads of state and government of the European Union propose introducing a “carbon border adjustment mechanism” from 2023, to charge imported goods according to the CO2 emitted during their production. At their recent summit, they decided to use the ensuing revenues to boost the EU’s...
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is “living through an unrivalled drop in carbon output.” According to the International Energy Agency, global use of energy will drop 6% in 2020, an amount that equals India’s total energy demand. Worldwide demand for electricity has already fallen 5%,...
Despite more than 3,000 years of Chinese history, many of the world’s countries had little to no direct experience with China or Chinese investment prior to the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). There was a presumption on the part of many governments that international best practices...
In India, many people blame the communities living in and around the forests for exploiting natural resources. They are held responsible for forest degradation and deforestation. Communities who live in the Himalayas are no exception. Today, the once-pristine Himalayan mountains are littered with...
Italy has a mere 400,000 buffaloes. Yet the country guards them as precious national wealth. The celebrated mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk. Italians use this iconic cheese in salads, pizzas, pasta and more. Such is the status of this cheese that “mozzarella di bufala” enjoys legal...
Today, the world faces one of its most challenging crises of the 21st century. A tiny yet powerful virus has been able to shed light on a number of questions we all knew but might not have truly comprehended. First, we are incredibly interconnected, from Wuhan to Milan to New York. Second, we are...
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is grappling with COVID-19, an unresolved war in Yemen and collapsed oil prices. At the same time, recurrent purges of opponents of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) are harming the country’s foreign investment climate. Within this context, the ambitious Vision...
