Developers of green hydrogen have scaled back investments and scrapped projects globally as elevated production costs and weak demand for the low-carbon fuel have made many ventures unviable. Here are some projects that have been cancelled, postponed or scaled back. EUROPE ** Energy company LEAG’s plans to build one of Europe’s largest green energy hubs on […]
Green hydrogen developers are cancelling projects and trimming investments around the world, raising the prospect of longer than targeted reliance on fossil fuels. The challenges facing the sector have exposed its initial ambitions as unrealistic. Hard-to-electrify industries that were seen as ideal candidates for green hydrogen, such as steelmaking and long-distance transportation, have found that transition to […]
Over the past year, I’ve seen a growing interest in, and a stronger demand for, better tools to prepare for and respond to crises. Our partners in government, the private sector, civil society, foundations, and other development organizations send us the same message time and time again: In the face of crisis, we need greater […]
Stanley Fischer, the World Bank’s chief economist from January 1988 to August 1990, passed away on May 31, 2025. Stan Fischer’s immense professional contributions to modern macroeconomic and monetary policy, both as faculty at MIT and in the positions he held thereafter—as the first deputy managing director of the IMF (1994-2001), in running the Bank […]
In a world saturated with research and policy recommendations, it’s more important than ever to synthesize evidence well. A single study in a single setting may not yield estimates of impact that can be generalized to other contexts; we may worry about spurious effects. Aggregating results across multiple studies can give us more confidence in […]
The global development landscape is undergoing seismic shifts. Foreign aid, a critical lifeline for billions, is shrinking, after becoming fragmented at an alarming rate over the last two decades. At the same time, more than half of low-income countries are deep into or teetering on the brink of debt distress, with median public debt soaring from 20 […]
The global development landscape is undergoing seismic shifts. Foreign aid, a critical lifeline for billions, is shrinking, after becoming fragmented at an alarming rate over the last two decades. At the same time, more than half of low-income countries are deep into or teetering on the brink of debt distress, with median public debt soaring from 20 […]
The competition being fought between the US and China in cutting-edge technology fields friction is also affecting basic research activities at universities and other public institutions. This column examines how innovation processes in Japan compare with those in the US and China, and argues that Japan must improve the incorporation of cutting-edge international research results […]
Strengthening existing safe assets should be a strategic priority for any new joint borrowing. Europe’s looming defence spending needs will put new demands on public policy and the public purse. To meet these demands, European Union member states and regional allies will need to work together for collective security. As new ways of building and […]
The success of ChatGPT has raised fears that the excessive concentration of generative AI technology within one or two leading US companies could reduce market dynamism. This column presents novel empirical evidence which suggests that the supply of AI has been more open than initially expected in various segments of the AI value chain, driving […]
