Natural Resources

In April 2007, on my first day as vice president at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington D.C., I received an informal visit from Thomas E. Lovejoy, a celebrated American environmental scientist who died last year. He spoke to me of a “turning point” in deforestation in the Amazon, beyond which the consequences would be irreversible. He was interested in knowing how the IDB could help in the fight against deforestation. Thomas and the Brazilian environmental scien ...

The 2021 judgment of the EU General Court holds that ‘Western Sahara’ is separate from Morocco, imposing on Morocco a responsibility to secure Polisario’s consent to its exploitation of natural resources in ‘Western Sahara’ and its adjacent waters, allegedly based on the UN Friendly Relations Declaration, which states that a non-self-governing territory has “a status separate and distinct from the territory of the State administering it.” The phrase is originated in the General Asse ...

The North Sea has been an important energy hub for many European countries for centuries. It is home to many natural resources, from oil and natural gas, to wind and wave energy, making it a powerhouse of energy production. In recent decades, the North Sea has seen significant investment in energy infrastructure and innovation, allowing many of these resources to be harnessed and used to supply energy to much of Europe. Furthermore, the North Sea has become more important for Europe ...

The fundamental role that water resources play in human development has been highlighted in multiple ways; the United Nations SDGs underline 17 different goals and over a hundred targets to be achieved by 2030. Out of 169 SDG targets, 59 were found to have direct links and synergies with the water goal SDG6 (UN Water, 2016). Careful policy making and interventions need to be implemented to avoid conflict among sectors and tradeoffs must be well established. The Integrated Water Reso ...

La plupart des écosystèmes arides et semi-arides d’Afrique sont dédiés à différents types d’élevage extensif. Ces systèmes sont des acteurs majeurs dans la valorisation des espaces, et des ressources naturelles. En plus de nourrir les humains et les animaux, l’élevage pastoral fournit un revenu de subsistance à des populations qui ne pourraient survivre autrement dans ces régions. Ce pastoralisme est menacé depuis plusieurs années. Dans la quasi-totalité des zones agro ...

As the introductory textbook to economics by Nobel Prize Paul Samuelson, who served several generations of students, including mine, said: “It is easy to teach economics to a parrot. Two words are enough: supply and demand”. These two factors suggest 2023 will be a year of upward trend for most commodity prices. Last year was marked by shocks and volatility in commodity prices, with two distinct moments. After the sharp rise in the first half, due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russ ...

Humanity is losing the climate battle, and existing international institutions are not delivering on climate change. Hence, there is a need for a new international institution that would be a repository for global knowledge on climate change, and would advise governments on climate policies, develop green projects across the Global South, mobilize financing for those projects, and support project implementation. The proposed Green Bank would be different from existing multilateral d ...

A rapidly-expanding market Water desalination is gradually emerging as the leading solution to cope with increasing water stress: i.e., the imbalance between water demand and quantities available. The United Nations estimates that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will be affected by such challenges. The causes of water scarcity are multiple, including climate change, intensive agriculture, and population growth. This requires states to rethink their water policies, whi ...

Le marché de l’hydrogène vert1 est appelé à connaitre de grands bouleversements dans les années à venir avec l’émergence de nouveaux acteurs de la transition énergétique. Néanmoins, ce marché est encore tributaire du développement de la demande, de la baisse des coûts de production, de transport et de stockage, du développement d’une chaîne logistique très compétitive et de la mise en place de cadre juridique et règlementaire approprié. Malgré les différents de ...