Category: Foreign Policy
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Decarbonisation Is a Dependency Swap. India Should Price It.
TL;DR India’s energy transition replaces imported fuel with imported equipment, bought from fewer suppliers. India holds 10.4% of the world’s fossil reserves relevant to electricity and 2.8% of the critical material reserves; China holds a third of the latter. Seven years of customs data show India’s imports of four clean-technology components rising from $3.37 billion…
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The Anatomy of Agri-Food Shocks Visualised: Wars, Climate, and Food
The price of a loaf of bread or a bag of rice looks simple at the checkout. Behind it sits a much longer chain: natural gas turned into ammonia, phosphate and potash mined in a handful of countries, fertiliser shipped through narrow sea lanes, and weather deciding what finally grows in the field. The global…
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Global Decarbonisation Potential of Agri-Residue-Derived Bioethanol
The transition to low-carbon energy systems necessitates the rapid decarbonisation of the transportation sector, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of global CO₂ emissions. Second-generation (2G) bioethanol, produced from agricultural residues such as rice straw, corn stover, and sugarcane bagasse, offers a promising, sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, with the added advantage of circumventing the food-versus-fuel…
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Nitrogen in a Carbon-Centric World: The Omnipresent yet Invisible Pollutant
When we think of climate change, carbon often takes centre stage. It is no surprise given its direct and visible impact on global warming. But what if I told you that another element, nitrogen, contributes to climate change and leads to environmental pollution, yet it remains largely overlooked? In the words of Mark Sutton, an…
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The Ukraine Crisis and a Century of Academic Boycotts
On the 24th day of February 2022, the world was taken by surprise. The orders came in from Moscow and a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine was underway. An invasion of such intensity was not anticipated by any other government elsewhere, reasoning that it would be logistically impossible to occupy the territory and that the local…
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The Sri Lankan Organic Farming Crisis: An Abandoned Nationwide Experiment
Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst economic crisis since the country gained independence in 1948. Huge piles of foreign debt, a series of lockdowns, soaring inflation, shortage in fuel supply, fall in foreign currency reserves and devaluation of the currency have adversely impacted the country’s economic growth. In the face of a worsening economic…
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Climate Change, Conflict and the Middle East’s Misery
Of all the regions of the world that will face severe devastation as a result of climate change, perhaps none seems as destined to suffer as the Middle East, already the planet’s hottest and driest. With temperatures expected to rise more than twice the global average by 2030, this region of highest water scarcity may…