Most recent 10 articles: Economist
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Kenya wants to pioneer a new African approach to global warming - Economist (Sep 14, 2023) |
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Sep 14, 2023 · Your browser does not support the <audio> element.
On September 3rd William Ruto drove himself to a curtain-raiser for the Africa Climate Summit in a small yellow electric car, flanked by bodyguards riding electric motorbikes. Mr Ruto, Kenya’s president, sees climate diplomacy as a way of burnishing his reputation in the West. But during the summit - the first dedicated to Africa’s response to the warming planet - the motorcades of visiting presidents had a more familiar look. While the politicians talked green inside the venue in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, outside were rows of petrol-guzzling SUVs.
A gap between symbol and substance is common when it comes to ... Read more ...
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The choice between a poorer today and a hotter tomorrow - Economist (Jun 27, 2023) |
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Jun 27, 2023 · Suppose, for a minute, that you are a finance minister in the developing world. At the end of a year in which your tax take has disappointed, you are just about out of money. You could plough what little remains into your health-care system: dollars spent by clinics help control infectious diseases, and there is not much that development experts believe to be a better use of cash. But you could also spend the money constructing an electrical grid that is able to handle a switch to clean energy. In the long run this will mean less pollution, more productive farmland and fewer floods. Which is a wiser use of the marginal dollar: alleviating acute poverty straight away or doing your ... Read more ...
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Can carbon removal become a trillion-dollar business? - Economist (May 21, 2023) |
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May 21, 2023 · “TODAY WE SEE the birth of a new species,” declared Julio Friedmann, gazing across the bleak landscape. Along with several hundred grandees, the energy technologist had travelled to Notrees, a remote corner of the Texas oil patch, in late April. He was invited by 1PointFive, an arm of Occidental Petroleum, an American oil firm, and of Carbon Engineering, a Canadian startup backed by Bill Gates. The species in question is in some ways akin to a tree - but not the botanical sort, nowhere to be seen on the barren terrain. Rather, it is an arboreal artifice: the world’s first commercial-scale “direct air capture” (DAC) plant.
Your browser does not support the <audio> ... Read more ...
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What America does after a debt-ceiling disaster - Economist (May 15, 2023) |
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May 15, 2023 · America is once again in the throes of a debt-ceiling crisis. If Congress and the White House do not come to a deal, the government may run out of cash, and be on the brink of a sovereign default, in just a few weeks’ time. Most investors expect a last-minute compromise, thereby avoiding financial Armageddon, as during past crises. Yet positions on each side of the aisle look entrenched: Republicans want big spending cuts; Democrats are resisting. So the White House must consider its break-glass options. If there is no agreement, what would President Joe Biden do?
There are two broad kinds of workarounds - one magical, the other messier and neither appealing - that the Biden ... Read more ...
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The aviation industry wants to be net zero - but not soon - Economist (May 14, 2023) |
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May 14, 2023 · FLYING IS A dirty business. Airliners account for more than 2% of the annual global emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, many times commercial aviation’s contribution to world GDP. Two forces look poised to push this figure up in the years to come.
First, people love to fly. IATA, the airline industry’s trade body, predicts that 4bn passengers will take to the skies next year, as many as did in 2019, before covid-19 temporarily grounded the sector. Airlines could be hauling around 10bn passengers by mid-century (see chart 1). Boeing, an American planemaker, estimates that this will require the global fleet to roughly double from around 26,000 in 2019 to 47,000 by 2040. ... Read more ...
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It's time the West committed to Ukraine for the long haul, says Fabrice Pothier - Economist (May 12, 2023) |
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May 12, 2023 · ITS CAFES may be buzzing, but the mood in Kyiv is downbeat these days. True, Ukrainians have made it through a winter that brought the economy and society to the brink. The Ukrainian army is holding against grinding Russian pressure. Yet the message from some Western leaders, that Ukraine cannot expect much more support after its spring offensive, seems to have sunk in.
Russia’s war against Ukraine is reaching a crucial moment. In the short term, Ukraine is set to launch its much-anticipated counter-attack. In the longer term, Western leaders need to take hard decisions to address the fact that a democratic and sovereign Ukraine is now part of the West’s fundamental security ... Read more ...
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A new world order seeks to prioritise security and climate change - Economist (May 11, 2023) |
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May 11, 2023 · After the cold war, America and Europe established an economic order based upon open markets, global trade and limited state meddling in the economy. Climate change was a distant threat. Allowing countries like China or Russia into the global economy was widely seen to be beneficial for both them and their Western trading partners. As the two countries grew they would surely adopt market economics and, ultimately, democracy. Other things mattered. But economic considerations took precedence.
Not anymore. Policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic have come to the conclusion that national security and climate change must now come first. In Brussels talk is of “economic ... Read more ...
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Are electric vehicles recharging the car industry? - Economist (May 11, 2023) |
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May 11, 2023 · BUYING A CAR used to be about two things: style and performance. But as motorists trade in their petrol or diesel cars for electric vehicles, manufacturers are increasingly focusing on experience by adding features like karaoke machines and mood lighting. Those drivers also have a lot more choices. The ditching of internal combustion engines in favour of battery-power has allowed new car makers to enter the market. But rather than thinking like BMW or Ford, they are looking to firms like Apple for their inspiration.
On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin examine the remaking of the auto industry. The Economist’s Simon Wright explains that ... Read more ...
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Britain plays catch-up in a global scramble for critical minerals - Economist (May 11, 2023) |
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May 11, 2023 · IN CORNWALL’S MINING heyday in the 18th and 19th centuries, copper and tin were hewed from beneath the county’s craggy landscape. Many attempts at revival have failed, but another is under way. In April Cornish Lithium began its latest search for a prized metal of the 21st century, drilling a borehole near the village of Blackwater. Jeremy Wrathall, its founder, expects to be producing lithium by 2026. Another Cornish company, British Lithium, also expects to be in full production by then.
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Lithium, which is used to make batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), is classed as a “critical mineral” - economically ... Read more ...
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“Why must we have an election?” Turkish earthquake survivors wish a plague on every party - Economist (May 09, 2023) |
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May 09, 2023 · In a rubbish-filled valley overlooked by one of the oldest churches in the world, the air is thick with flies. A thin, muck-clogged stream winds past tents and makeshift shelters, which are huddled against the base of a mountain. There is a smell of rot and human waste. Children play in the dirt outside while their parents sit in the shade, seeking some respite from the rising heat. Here in Antakya, thousands of survivors of the twin earthquakes that struck southern Turkey on February 6th 2023 have been left to fend for themselves.
Just up the hill, their homes lie in ruins. Many houses were crushed by enormous rocks, and many more were rendered uninhabitable. Those that were ... | By Erin O’Brien Read more ...
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