Insights

A core lesson across infrastructure projects is all too often the attention has been on ambitious targets, rather than the nitty-gritty of delivery. This is timely as we look ahead to the European Commission’s “REPowerEU” plan published on Wednesday. Updating a previously hastily-assembled package in March, this will accelerate plans to reduce and stop fossil fuel imports…

Last week’s price collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra has highlighted regulatory concerns surrounding stablecoins as U.S. policymakers have continued to examine potential policy frameworks for the growing asset class. As of this writing, Terra continues to trade well below its $1 target peg while sister token Luna has also plummeted in value, catalysed by a downdraft…

The modern internet runs on the free flow of data across the Atlantic ocean. But as policymakers push toward different systems for the regulation of data collection, what are the implications of a decoupling of data between the US and EU?

As technology advances and the world pushes to reduce emissions, are we entering a new age of nuclear power?

While the “greenness” of nuclear energy continues to be debated across Southeast Asian nations, energy security concerns are driving countries in the region to revisit their nuclear energy programmes.

The war in Ukraine has set out - in stark relief - the challenges of the UK’s current energy mix. In response to the conflict and rising energy prices, the UK government released its Energy Security Strategy with proposals for a fourfold increase in offshore wind and an ambition to have at least a quarter of Britain’s electricity provided by nuclear power by 2050.

The lustre of carbon-free nuclear energy was tarnished after the highly publicised and impactful human-error-related accident at Ukraine’s Chornobyl No. 4 reactor in 1986 and more recently in Japan after a tsunami cut power from critical backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. In Europe, the current dependence on Russian oil and natural gas exports is…

“Onshoring” chip production is a red herring: the UK should double down on its competitive advantage in R&D and IP to create a secure semiconductor supply chain, new report finds.

As part of their efforts to tackle climate change, businesses are increasingly relying on the buying and selling of credits to offset emissions. This approach was developed at COP26 last year to create new market mechanisms underpinning Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Amid rising concerns that the lack of transparency and oversight of offsets might lead to greenwashing,…

The first meeting of an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) for an international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, was held on 24th February 2022. The first of its kind, the instrument will be rooted in the World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution, thereby offering high-level mandates to its signatories. While strengthening global…

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term in the French elections. But his victory is complicated by the record showing of his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen. With legislative elections looming in June and the intensifying Russia-Ukraine war threatening European cooperation, what did Sunday night tell us about the future of France?

The last year has seen intellectual property (IP) play an increasingly central role in several policy areas, including the BEIS’s Innovation Strategy and DIT’s post-Brexit trade strategy.

As the world’s biggest international finance institutions, the IMF and World Bank, gathered for their annual Spring Meetings, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, warned of the compounding crises affecting the world. Africa, Georgieva said, was “particularly vulnerable” to the economic upheaval following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

It was the must-have accessory for the chattering classes through the early days of the pandemic, but Peloton, the producer of pricey exercise bikes and the poster child of the connected fitness industry, has suffered a post-lockdown fall from grace. 

States set to reap the benefits from federal PFAS infrastructure bill funding 

‘Top in tech’ is a monthly episode from the GC tech policy team. Each month, the team lift the lid on the latest in Europe’s ‘techlash’, identifying where the debate is heading in London and Brussels, the politics behind it, and what this might mean for the apps and online services we use every day. 

UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’ announcement that the government will proceed with plans to privatise Channel 4 has reignited the smouldering debate around the role of Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) in the UK. Her assertion that privatisation is necessary to ensure Channel 4’s long-term viability against Video-on-Demand (VoD) streaming platforms, like Netflix,…

As the Biden administration inches towards a revived deal with Iran, it is worth reflecting on what the difficult history of this agreement should remind us about US foreign policy. Both the architects in the White House and their counterparts in Tehran in 2015 failed in a vital task: ensuring the agreement’s sustainability beyond the Obama administration. Because of the…