Climate activists protest at top global energy gathering

Protesters gathered on Monday outside the world’s largest annual meeting of energy executives, where the U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that climate change was

Cities face ‘whiplash’ of floods, droughts as temperatures rise, study warns

 The weather in some of the world’s most densely populated cities is swinging from droughts to floods and back again as rising temperatures play havoc

Only seven countries met WHO air quality standards in 2024, data shows

Only seven countries met World Health Organization (WHO) air quality standards last year, data showed on Tuesday, as researchers warned that the war on smog

Can Germany afford to take most defence spending out of its debt brake?

Germany’s constitution contains a so-called debt brake – a constraint that keeps the structural deficit to 0.35 percent of GDP. This measure of fiscal prudence

Survey mode effects and youth mental health in Asia and the Middle East

There is growing evidence of a decline in the mental health of the young in Western developed countries such that, today, the young tend to

The perceived costs of business cycles and inflation

How costly are business cycles and inflation? This column reports on a survey that asked consumers across 13 countries how much consumption they would be

New developments in total factor productivity measurement reflecting innovative activities: Evidence from the productivity J-curve in advanced countries

Despite digitalisation in the 21st century, productivity growth rates in advanced economies seemed to stagnate in the 2010s. One hypothesis to explain this phenomenon is

On the effectiveness of the sanctions on Russia: New data and new evidence

There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of sanctions imposed in world over the past 70 years, raising questions over their effectiveness. This

Charting the uncharted: The (un)intended consequences of oil sanctions and dark shipping

Despite formal restrictions, untracked oil continues to reach global markets, calling into question the true effectiveness of oil sanctions. This column presents a novel ship

Will China’s economy follow the same path as Japan’s?

Since the bursting of China’s real-estate bubble in mid-2021, there has been a growing concern that the Chinese economy could end up like that of