When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most important global coordination forums. Mark my words, I said, soon The Economist will be like “Uhhh, the G20 is OVER – it’s the ...
Category: Climate Change
Eye-Rolling Through the Apocalypse
November’s COP30 gathering in Belém, Brazil, marks three decades since COP1 in Berlin in 1995, and raises a sobering reminder of how deep we’ve sunk into a climate morass of our own making amid non-stop warnings. The evacuation of millions of people and the deaths ...
Can China and Indonesia Help Save the World’s Rainforests?
Tropical forests around the world are vanishing fast. Logging, mining, and industrial agriculture continue to raze the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, accelerating the climate crisis and displacing the people who have protected these forests for generations. Efforts to halt deforestation have largely failed—not because the science is ...
ASEAN, Gulf, and China Signal New Phase in Global South Climate Leadership
For decades, global climate action has been largely shaped by the Global North—through frameworks like the Paris Agreement and funding mechanisms such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P). These initiatives have set the tone, the goals, and the financial flows, often leaving countries in the Global ...
Nigeria Backtracks Solar Import Ban Amid China’s Supply Dominance
Nigeria recently floated, and then quickly walked back, a proposed ban on imported solar panels, most of which come from China. The about-face came just a month after the initial announcement, stirring familiar concerns about policy volatility in Nigeria and across Africa. But beneath ...
Indonesia Is a Battlefield for China and Western Countries Over Energy Transition
The climate crisis is already happening. It has caused disasters in various parts of the world. A report published by the national news network KOMPAS in early October sounded the alarm over the accelerating damage climate change has on developing countries. The news revealed that river ...
Climate Change, Economics Muddy West’s Drive to Curb Chinese EVs
By Oliver Hotham and Mary Yang China's meteoric rise as the world's powerhouse of electric vehicle production makes Western efforts to curb their exports a tough sell -- and means they could even stifle the fight against climate change, analysts warn. ...
Discontent Shadows Kenya’s Biggest Chinese-Funded Solar Power Project
Although the community initially agreed to the plant and were paid for their land, Abdi says that without the other promised benefits, they now regret their decision.
Big Polluters Urged to Pay as Key Pacific Summit Opens in Tonga
By Steven Trask Emissions-belching nations were challenged to stump up for climate-related damage as a key Pacific islands summit opened on Monday, with low-lying Tuvalu declaring: "If you pollute, you should pay." The Pacific Islands ...
Key Summit Opens at ‘Pivotal’ Time for Pacific Islands
The top summit for Pacific island nations opened Monday in the Kingdom of Tonga, drawing global attention to the region's climate plight and its role in an unfolding great power rivalry. Melodic Tongan choir singers and dancing school children in traditional ...
Chinese Consortium Joins Botswana’s Renewable Energy Coterie
A Chinese consortium, Sinotswana Green Energy, is building a 100MW solar plant in Jwaneng, one of Botswana’s diamond mining towns some 170 kilometers west of the capital, Gaborone. The two Chinese members of this consortium are China Harbor Co ...
China Building More Wind, Solar Capacity Than Rest of World Combined: Report
By Matthew Walsh China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity as every other country combined, research published Thursday showed. The world's second-largest economy is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse ...
African Union Donkey Skin Trade Ban Laudable but Doubt, Pessimism Cloud Implementation
By 2020, the global donkey population stood at 53 million, two-thirds in Africa. Using the estimated human population in Africa, simple math shows that one donkey serves at least 37 people, making it a critical resource for the continent’s economy.










