Indonesia’s economy is on a roll. The archipelago nation harbors ambitions for 8% growth a year on its growing strength as an exporter of coal, palm oil, LNG, and stainless steel made from its booming nickel mining industry.

Investments from China are driving this growth—and run the gamut from traditionally dirty industries (mining, steel, and aluminum) to the crown jewels of Chinese clean energy tech: batteries,  electric vehicles (EVs), and solar panel production. In 2023, Xinyi Glass, the world’s largest solar PV panel maker, announced an 11.5 billion USD investment in a quartz sand processing plant in Indonesia. 

Cobalt, lithium, and copper are the critical minerals necessary to produce rechargeable lithium-ion-based batteries, and they are central to the electric vehicle (EV) supply chains in the energy transition. The importance of these minerals—and China’s strategic control of them—now compels the United States and its allies to diversify their supply chains for this essential resource.

The Wutongshan River flows through the east suburbs of Shenzhen and the basin is an important ecological zone for Shenzhen, which is often referred to as the “lungs of Shenzhen.” Rich in plant and animal resources, this area is the city’s natural museum and a genetic reservoir for flora and fauna. The river importantly provides 70% of Hong Kong’s and 40% of Shenzhen’s water. 

Fifty-three years have passed since the 1972 United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment that led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Yet a recent UN report describes the global efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) created to articulate aims and track progress over the past decade as “alarmingly insufficient.”

As an economic model that emphasizes the continual use of resources by rethinking waste and product design and promoting a shared economy mindset, the “circular economy” (CE) now resonates across a wide range of stakeholders—including key players in the private sector, major environmental groups, individual countries, multilaterals, and donors. Yet progress in adopting CE among developing nations has been slow and uneven.

In recent weeks, users of the social network Bluesky were able to watch a compelling video featuring Jessica Newberry Le Vey—a Climate Change and Health Policy Fellow at Imperial College’s Climate Cares Centre. The video begins with Le Vey’s direct-to-camera assertion that the climate crisis is a health crisis affecting people around the world. Then Le Vey’s image disappears—yet we hear her (or someone who sounds eerily like her) speak over a compendium of combat footage that includes video of ATACAM missiles being fired and larger strategic missiles on the move. Climate is important, declares the speaker, but there are more serious problems that threaten our security.

In April 2024, Thai government officials traveled to the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong with a single-point agenda – convincing the leading Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery makers to invest in their country. Two months later, the global leader in the EV battery industry, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), announced an initial investment of over $100 million to set up an assembly plant in collaboration with a local Thai state-owned company.

At the recent G20 meeting in June 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres gave an ominous warning: “Unless we limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, spiraling disasters will devastate every economy.” Guterres implored governments to “speed-up the just transition from fossil fuels to renewables,” and declared that “the end of the fossil fuel age is inevitable.”