The Board of Whatever
World diplomacy reduced to a curtain-raiser. That's how one could sum up the first meeting of Donald J. Trump's Board of Peace, held on Thursday, February 19, at the Donald J. Trump United States of...
Stopping the rise of the lakes in the Rift Valley
Last year, around five thousand people were displaced by the rising water level of Lake Naivasha, 50 kilometres from Nairobi. Similarly happened on Lakes Nakuru and Lake Baringo, located further nor...
Trump revokes scientific ruling on greenhouse gas emissions
"Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, ...
Massimo Labra: “Biodiversity is Italy's real productive asset”
Biodiversity is not just about agriculture, fishing or forests. It affects every business, even ones that don't realise it. This is one of the clearest messages from the new Business and Biodiv...
Introducing: The Carbon Observer
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer. Subscribe to the newsletter or update your preferences. The CO₂ market has moved into a new phase: no longer a business for ...
The secret weapon of timber construction
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer. Subscribe to the newsletter or update your preferences. The construction sector is one of the most polluting in Europe. Accord...
Will the Board of Peace replace part of the United Nations?
Is Donald Trump creating a new international organisation in his own image, as an alternative to the United Nations? Over the past few days, the US president has sent invitations to a number of worl...
Crisis
Misinformation, social polarisation, extreme weather events, inequality, erosion of human rights, armed conflicts, pollution. According to the highly influential analysis of systemic risks publ...
My Rivers
My childhood memories are tied not only to strolls under the porticoes of Saronno, a small town in the Milanese hinterland, but also to the local stream, the Lura. Largely covered over, the peculiar...
Critical Raw Materials, the complex European challenge
Strategic critical raw materials are the Achilles heel of European industrial recovery. Commonly known by the acronym CRM, they are essential for the EU's competitiveness, as well as for clean energ...
The US pulls out of the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The Trump administration has launched yet another onslaught on international law and the fight against climate change. In a deeply troubling and unprecedented move, on Wednesday 7 January, Secretary...
7 Transition Economy Stories to Follow in 2026
The year 2026 is shaping up to be a year of transition, in which major economic shifts will enter a harsher and less ideological phase. Between technology, climate, raw materials and finance, the sy...
Offshore wind power, an industrial opportunity to be unlocked now
If onshore wind projects are slowing down in areas such as Sardinia, it is the MASE (Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security) that is blocking the development of several GW at sea: for month...
The Paris Climate Agreement marks its first ten years
Ten years ago, the Paris Agreement united the world in the fight against climate change at the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference. With this historic agreement, 195 countries pledged to t...
Affordable batteries for solar energy when needed
The issue with solar energy has never been generating electricity, but rather utilising it when needed. For years, photovoltaics have concentrated supply during daylight hours, leaving evening peaks...
COP30, awaiting a negotiation reform
COP30 comes to an end as a mirror of the current times. Multilateral cooperation on climate change barely survives, notwithstanding geopolitical tensions. Growing are the divisions between countries...
The new channel The Social & Governance Observer is launched
‘A just ecological transition is inclusive and leaves no one behind,’ declared Marina Silva, Brazil’s combative Minister of the Environment and Climate, at the opening of COP30, th...
COP30, how does the future look for the negotiations?
Climate negotiations are celebrating their 30th anniversary, with the start of the COP in Belém, Brazil, today, Monday 10 November. For the first time in years, I will be following a UNF...
Tropical Forest Forever Fund: the controversial Brazilian project at the core of COP30
It is Lula's crowning achievement, his political legacy for the Amazon: a mega forest fund, the first of its kind, superior to any previous initiative, including the REDD+ carbon credit mechanism. I...
Feltrin (FLA): Tariffs and EUDR are a Damocles sword; let's revive the sector with EPR and the circular economy
The wood-furniture supply chain is one of the pillars of the Italian industrial system, with a positive trade surplus of €7.9 billion. The sector employs almost 300,000 people and counts over 6...