In this working paper, Ahmed focuses on the V20, a group of finance ministers representing 58 climate-vulnerable countries, home to 1.4 billion people. She documents the massive wealth destruction from climate losses incurred over the last two decades— …
A new narrative needs to capture the interwoven nature of the world’s climate and economic development challenges, anchored in the evolving and diverse perspectives of developing countries themselves. An updated portrayal begins with the stark reality of …
How should countries with many people living in absolute poverty combat climate change and energy transition while addressing poverty, creating jobs, and making progress on other sustainable development goals? This working paper focuses on Nigeria, …
How should a climate-vulnerable coastal country heavily dependent on coal transition to a sustainable development path? In this working paper, Basri and Riefky discuss the climate transition in Indonesia. Basri and Riefky first assess Indonesia’s economic …
For most countries, urbanization has resulted in substantial productivity gains created by the agglomeration economies that cities generate. However, while Africa has the highest rate of urbanization in the world, the region’s cities are not realizing the …
Across the globe, the majority of people live in cities, which in turn drive national economies through agglomeration and innovation. But even with the vast wealth and resources these cities typically generate, stark inequities by income and wealth, race …
Buffalo Bayou, a slow-moving waterway that runs through the center of Houston, is widely considered the city’s most significant natural resource. Over the past decade, the Bayou’s sector west of downtown has experienced renewed vibrancy as a result of …
In December 2021, we asked Brookings Metro’s nonresident senior fellows what the most pressing built environment issues could be in the year ahead. Their responses were remarkably prescient. Many of their warnings came true over the past 12 months, such as …
Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina and former Ambassador to the United Nations announced this week that she was running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. She is the second to announce, after former President Donald Trump, but …
When forced to choose, [China] will prioritize their domestic audience over external audiences, above all, though, I sense that the Chinese are eager to move on. They would like to put the spy balloon issue behind them without appearing to offer any …
In recent months, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has adopted a series of measures to respond to the record number of migrants and asylum-seekers at the U.S. southern border last year. This has included expanding the controversial Title 42 …
Despite a series of blunders, miscalculations, and battlefield reversals that would have surely seen him thrown out of office in most normal countries, President Vladimir Putin is still at the pinnacle of power in Russia. He continues to define the …
As we laid out in a previous article, the process for the permitting of renewable energy generation and electric transmission projects in the United States is multi-layered and often extremely long. If the U.S. is to achieve its climate ambitions and fully …
As we approach the two-year anniversary of the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), new data from the Department of the Treasury has provided the fullest picture to date of how local, state, and tribal governments are investing the act’s $350 …
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has under review a draft revision of its 2012 resilience policy for fragile and conflict environments. As reported in the OECD’s “States of Fragility 2022,” fragility has been rising in recent years and …
In this episode of Reimagine Rural, host Tony Pipa visits the neighboring towns of Thomas and Davis, West Virginia, former resource-dependent economies that have reinvented themselves as destinations for art and outdoor recreation. Tony speaks with long- …
Since the 20th Party Congress in October 2022, China’s politics have produced surprises, from its abrupt exit from zero-COVID lockdowns to an overhaul of property sector regulations and an easing of restrictions on the technology sector. There also have …
The second anniversary of the February 2021 coup d’état in Myanmar has just passed, and the abysmal state of armed conflict, insurgency, chaos, and anarchy has only been deteriorating. Despite the repeated calls by regional organizations like the …
There were expectations that early 2023 would be a window of opportunity for Washington and Beijing to get to work on building the guardrails for the relationship that both sides recognize are vital for preventing confrontation.
“To err is to be human,” wrote Alexander Pope. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts,” Churchill proclaimed. An African proverb announces that “Only those who do nothing never make mistakes.” We know that in …
