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President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement. Cue the leftwing meltdown. Though everyone knew the withdrawal was coming, the left and the “international community” are still decrying America’s alleged abdication of leadership on climate. But toothless agreements window dressed with international summits and photo ops are not the same as leadership. The truth is America has led the world in reducing emissions for years not because of the Paris Agreement, but because innovation and the free market facilitate the…
In 2023, Georgia’s government banned the re-export of automobiles to Russia, a move intended to align with international sanctions against Moscow. But recent trade data is buttressing suspicions that Georgia is still serving as a key waypoint in a network used by Russia to import goods, especially automobiles. According to figures released by the National Statistics Office of Georgia, for the second year in a row, cars were the most exported item from Georgia in 2024, totaling more than $2.4 billion and accounting for 37 percent of…
A Scottish court has ruled the government approval of two new oil and gas projects in the North Sea was unlawful, putting an end to hopes there was still a future for hydrocarbons in the UK. It might be temporary, or it might be permanent—making the UK’s transition experiment purer. The saga began when the previous Tory government gave the go-ahead to the Rosebank and the Jackdow projects, led by Equinor and Shell, respectively. Climate activists immediately filed a lawsuit against the projects. They won. The court battle moved to a…
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Western nations have accused China of supplying Moscow with microchips and other critical dual-use technologies that are “powering Russia’s brutal war of aggression.” In response, Washington and Brussels have hit hundreds of Chinese companies and individuals with sanctions in a pressure campaign to stem the technology flow to the Kremlin’s war machine. But left untouched by these Western sanctions are some two dozen Chinese companies supplying…
Following up on last year’s referendum that endorsed the pursuit of nuclear energy in Kazakhstan, the government is moving quickly to lay the groundwork for at least two reactors. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has expressed a desire to eventually construct a “nuclear cluster” in the country to power economic growth. The government is working to finalize an agreement on the construction of an initial nuclear plant in the Almaty region “in the near future,” according to a report published by the Kazakh news outlet…
Shell paid out more than £18.7bn to shareholders in 2024 while cutting spending on renewable energy according to its full year results. The FTSE 100 giant reported a dip in earnings from £23bn in 2023 to £19.1bn in 2024 amid weaker oil prices and lower demand for fossil fuels. Despite the drop-off in earnings, Shell said on Thursday it had hiked dividends by four per cent in the fourth quarter and announced a £2.8bn share buyback programme, which it expects to be completed by its first quarter results for 2025. Chief executive…
One of the biggest talking points in Brussels this year is European defense and how to boost it. This discussion has gained momentum due to Russian advances in Ukraine and the pressure from a new U.S. administration. U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated that 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) should be the new benchmark for defense spending -- a target that no EU nation is currently meeting. It is therefore no surprise that Poland -- which, with 4.7 percent, is the bloc's highest defense spender in terms of the share of its national…
Small modular reactor (SMR) technology has improved immensely in recent years, as several nuclear power companies around the globe aim to launch small-scale nuclear projects to provide clean energy within the next decade. SMRs are advanced nuclear reactors with a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, equivalent to about one-third the generating capacity of a conventional nuclear reactor. SMRs are much smaller than traditional reactors and are modular, making it easier to assemble them in factories and transport them to the site. Because of…
Growth in the oilfield service industry seems to be leveling off. After strong and steady growth in 2022 and 2023, the industry posted a more modest 2.4% increase last year and is forecast to shrink by 0.6% this year. Binny Bagga, Vice President Service Market at Rystad Energy Market volatility, heightened geopolitical tensions and cost and capacity challenges set the scene for a mixed outlook for the oilfield services industry this year, with the effects unevenly distributed across segments and regions – all against the backdrop of the continuing…
Coal is still king in China despite the renewables boom with record additions of solar and wind power generation. Thermal power generation, which is overwhelmingly dominated by coal, rose by 1.5% in 2024 from a year earlier, to a record high of 6.34 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed. Growth in thermal power generation was the weakest in nearly a decade, excluding the pandemic years 2020-2022 when China was under lockdowns. Nevertheless, coal consumption in the electricity…
It seems like the mining sector is following in the footsteps of oil and gas with the era of the megamerger in full swing. There is great speculation about the potential merger between industry giants Rio Tinto and Glencore and expectations for more mergers across the board. Last week, it was widely reported that the British-Australian multinational Rio Tinto and Switzerland-based Glencore were in discussions over a potential merger. Rio Tinto is the world’s second-largest mining company, and Glencore is a major coal and copper miner, meaning…
Plans for Europe’s largest cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) centre near the M25 in Hertfordshire have been approved, in wake of the UK launching its so-called ‘action plan’. The state of art facility will be built near the Elstree substation, 30 minutes from central London, and will span up to two million square feet, carrying a projected £3.75bn in construction costs. Once completed, it will be one of the largest data centres in Europe, with the potential to serve major tech giants like Google, Amazon or Microsoft.…
Indonesia was admitted as a full member of the BRICS group of major emerging economies on January 6, 2025. As Statista's Felix Richter shows in the following chart, the bloc’s footprint in the Global South has continued to expand, growing its economic and political clout on the world stage, establishing a real counterweight to the Western-dominated G7. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates formally joined on January 1, 2024. You will find more infographics at Statista Speaking on the expansion of the BRICS, South…
Will the Trump administration attempt to kill the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently promulgated standards designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants? Will the courts try to kill them? Will the electric industry continue its relentless effort to hold the title of the second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter in a nation that is itself the second-biggest greenhouse emitter? We suspect that the answer to those questions in the order asked is yes, yes, and, of course, yes. As consumers, shouldn’t we rejoice? After…
Bitcoin hit record highs on Monday, as President- Donald Trump, and First Lady-again Melania Trump launched their meme coins, days ahead of the inauguration. The cryptocurrency leader reached above $108,000(£88,668) for the first time ever on Monday morning, ahead of Trump’s official return to office. Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “With the writing on the wall so overwhelmingly pro-crypto as Trump returns to the White House, Bitcoin has surged again in value to a fresh record high.”…
The majority of British business leaders are optimistic about growth potential, despite also being concerned about Trump’s US tariffs and the impact of trade wars on their organisation. According to a new report by Capgemini, 63 per cent of business leaders in the UK are planning to increase investment this year, as the reported noted 6 in 10 are optimistic about their growth potential for 2025. Rob Walker, managing director UK business unit, Capgemini stated that “it’s encouraging to see that UK business leaders are feeling more…
Two months ago, Nigeria’s beleaguered energy sector witnessed a very significant event: the Dangote Oil Refinery began producing gasoline and selling it domestically to Nigeria's state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), marking the first time in decades Africa’s largest oil producer is refining its own crude. The state-of-the-art $20.5 billion refinery was launched in January 2024, but only began producing gasoline in September, expected to reach full operations in November. The giant refinery has a capacity to process…
Iraq is a developing democracy, but its location — between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria — means that it always faces pressure from outside its borders. The list of challenges it faced in 2024 ranged from ongoing security threats, including attacks on U.S. military bases by armed groups, political shifts and discussions about the presence of U.S. forces, and, perhaps above all, instability from the war in Gaza and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. To deal with these challenges, Prime Minister Mohammed…
State-connected energy and mining companies dominate the list of top tax-paying enterprises in Uzbekistan, according to data released January 15 by the country’s State Tax Committee. Overall, the government collected roughly 123.3 trillion Uzbek soums (about $9.5 billion) in corporate tax revenue from 949 major taxpayers in 2024, the committee reported. The top 10 highest paying entities contributed roughly 57 percent of the corporate tax revenue collected by the state. The top three tax-payers were the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant,…
The US power sector is undergoing a significant transformation this year, with electricity consumption projected to exceed 4,200 terawatt-hours (TWh) for the first time. Although just a 2% increase from 2024, this is a sign of things to come, highlighting the evolving power landscape driven by surging demand from data centers and a shifting energy mix integrating traditional and renewable sources. Data centers are at the heart of this transformation, with capacity standing at 22 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2023, representing nearly 40% of global…
The Aluminum Monthly Metals Index (MMI) remained consolidated, falling by a modest 1.29% from December to January. Meanwhile, LME aluminum prices continued to trend sideways during the first half of January. Aluminum Prices Sideways, Midwest Premium Futures Up The aluminum market remained uncertain during the first few weeks of the new year. Less than a week from Trump’s inauguration, markets appear tentative. Most analysts expect a new round of tariffs from the President, which poses a bullish risk to end-user prices. Source: MetalMiner…
Russia has captured two of Ukraine's four lithium deposits since it launched its all-out invasion in 2022, potentially depriving Kyiv of a key economic resource. On January 11, Russia claimed to have seized control of Shevchenko, a rural settlement in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. The settlement sits on top of one of Ukraine's biggest lithium deposits. Experts say Russia's seizure of Ukraine's lithium deposits could impact the rest of Europe and the Continent's efforts to shift to green energy. Described as "white gold," lithium is a critical…
After decades of competition over dwindling resources in Central Asia’s agricultural heartland, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are embracing a spirit of cooperation as they jointly confront global warming-related challenges. That spirit of cooperation was on display January 8, when the prime ministers of the three states gathered at a remote location in the FerghanaValley where the three nations’ frontiers meet, to mark progress on settling long-standing border disputes. Helping to pave the way for the gathering…
New England continues to rely on one of the dirtiest fossil fuels, fuel oil, for space heating in the harsh winters despite the climate and clean energy pledges of many of the states in the region. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine have ambitious renewable energy and emission-reduction targets. Some of these states have taken on Big Oil in lawsuits and state legislation to hold the large international oil and gas companies accountable for climate change. Yet, all of them continue to rely on…
