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142. NEW TECH, NEW DEAL: Mining Policy Options in the Face of New Technology
- Author:
- Isabelle Ramdoo, Aaron Cosbey, Jeff Geipel, and Perrine Toledano
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Throughout the history of mining, technological innovation has played a vital role across all cycles of mining projects. The new wave of technological adoption is a combination of evolutionary and revolutionary technologies, with an increasing focus on the latter. An acceleration in investments in disruptive technologies in recent years has seen the large-scale mining sector finally catching up with a dynamic that has already advanced in many other sectors. The reasons for this shift include more difficult geology, declining ore deposits, the need to reverse a secular decline in productivity, the need to improve safety for mine workers, a need to manage environmental impacts, and—more recently—a reaction to pressures from the COVID-19 crisis.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Mining, Automation, and Machine Learning
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
143. The Digital Decide: How to Agree on WTO Rules for Digital Trade
- Author:
- James Bacchus
- Publication Date:
- 08-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- After more than 20 years of unsuccessful negotiations, WTO member countries may be able to agree on global digital trade rules if they look to the new Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) among Chile, New Zealand and Singapore as a model. As the first “digital only” trade agreement, the DEPA offers a modular approach that allows members to pick and choose which modules work best for them today while enabling them to adopt more legal commitments on digital trade in the future. As cross-border trade becomes increasingly digital, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the free movement of goods and services is essential to the global economy.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, and Digital Economy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
144. 2020 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention: Rapporteur's Report
- Author:
- Alex Vandermaas-Peeler
- Publication Date:
- 02-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Abstract:
- On June 10, 2020, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum brought together scholars, practitioners, and civil society representatives to discuss possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global risk of mass atrocities and efficacy of mass atrocity prevention. This seminar was the first in a series designed to stimulate new policy-relevant research and begin building a network of scholars and practitioners focused on global trends and their implications for mass atrocities and atrocity prevention. Future seminar series topics include the global distribution of power, new technologies, demographics, climate change, and resource competition, and norms and ideologies. This rapporteur’s report summarizes major observations raised during the workshop.
- Topic:
- Genocide, Risk, Atrocities, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Atrocity Prevention
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
145. The Future of Mass Atrocities and Atrocity Prevention: Report from the 2020 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention
- Author:
- Lawerence Woocher and Jonathan Strauss
- Publication Date:
- 02-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Abstract:
- This report compiles essays from several leading experts who participated in the seminar series. We asked them to reflect on one or more key themes and offer recommendations for research and/or policy initiatives that could help current and future leaders address mass atrocities. The collection of essays reflects the breadth and diversity of issues that are likely to affect mass atrocities and their prevention over the next decade. Reflecting on changes in the distribution of political power and weakening anti-atrocity norms, Scott Straus identifies four significant challenges for the atrocity prevention agenda. Dara Kay Cohen highlights an often-neglected factor--sex and gender inequalities-- and argues that it is likely to worsen over the next decade in ways that will exacerbate risks of mass atrocities. Roudabeh Kishi discusses how monitoring and early warning initiatives must adapt to changes in the information environment and the changing nature of atrocities. Dismas Nkunda focuses on how COVID-19 has affected civil society efforts to address mass atrocities. Finally, Jennifer Welsh discusses war crimes, “extreme atrocity,” and political barriers to effective prevention—three key issues for the prevention of mass atrocities over the coming decade.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Politics, War Crimes, Inequality, Norms, Atrocities, COVID-19, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
146. Solidarity in Isolation? Social Cohesion at a Time of Physical Distance
- Author:
- Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Aliyyah Ahad
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- In addition to its widespread public-health and economic impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged social cohesion in many countries by forcing changes in how people interact. Physical connection, the most human response to collective adversity, has been largely out of reach during long periods of lockdown, social distancing, and remote work and learning. The temporary closure of public spaces such as libraries and schools has also limited the spontaneous, casual encounters that can build bridges between disparate groups. This MPI Europe report explores ways to assess the pandemic’s effects on social capital and social infrastructure in Europe and North America. It also presents an initial analysis of how and where social cohesion is in peril and where it may actually be gaining strength, and highlights the importance of governments taking an inclusive approach and prioritizing social cohesion as societies move toward recovery. The authors identify three trends: Bridges between groups are weakening, even as new forms of connection may be strengthening bonds within existing networks. Immigrant integration programs have worked hard to move their offerings online, but digital tools may capture only a fraction of what in-person programming can and they may leave behind some people who most need assistance overcoming integration barriers, such as those with limited access to and familiarity with technology. A wide range of volunteering, mutual aid, and other grassroots forms of solidarity have emerged during the pandemic, but it remains to be seen which can make the switch from emergency response to longer-term engagement.
- Topic:
- Immigration, Citizenship, Integration, Social Cohesion, Social Capital, COVID-19, and Civic Engagement
- Political Geography:
- Europe, North America, and Global Focus
147. Future Scenarios for Global Mobility in the Shadow of Pandemic
- Author:
- Meghan Benton
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniable and wide-ranging impact on human mobility of all kinds—from travel for work or study to family reunification to refugee resettlement. More than 18 months since the first round of travel restrictions were introduced, it remains to be seen when and how fully these different forms of mobility will recover. This report explores possible scenarios for what international mobility could look like in two to three years as an exercise to help national governments and international organizations think through the potential impacts of different policy choices and approaches to pandemic management. It also identifies critical questions to address in the coming months and years, such as: What tools should be used in conjunction with vaccines to safely reopen travel, given concerns that the uneven vaccine rollout will deepen existing inequalities in access to mobility? And how can countries better coordinate health screening requirements to minimize unnecessary duplication and costs to travelers? Returning to the pre-pandemic status quo for travel and migration seems highly unlikely, and the structures that are being built now will shape mobility systems and responses to future disease outbreaks for years to come. A key priority, the author writes, should be to outgrow the current picture of fragmented, frequently shifting policies in favor of transparent, equitable, and risk-proportionate rules.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, Migration, Governance, Mobility, Public Health, COVID-19, and Travel
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
148. Opportunities and Limits of CO2 Recycling in a Circular Carbon Economy: Techno-economics, Critical Infrastructure Needs, and Policy Priorities
- Author:
- Amar Bhardwaj, Colin McCormick, and Julio Friedmann
- Publication Date:
- 05-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Despite growing efforts to drastically cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and address climate change, energy outlooks project that the world will continue to rely on certain products that are currently carbon-intensive to produce but have limited alternatives, such as aviation fuels and concrete. Recycling CO2 into valuable chemicals, fuels, and materials has emerged as an opportunity to reduce the emissions of these products. In this way, CO2 recycling is a potential cornerstone of a circular carbon economy that can support a net-zero future. However, CO2 recycling processes have largely remained costly and difficult to deploy, underscoring the need for supportive policies informed by analysis of the current state and future challenges of CO2 recycling. This report, part of the Carbon Management Research Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Policy, examines 19 CO2 recycling pathways to understand the opportunities and the technical and economic limits of CO2 recycling products gaining market entry and reaching global scale. The pathways studied consume renewable (low-carbon) electricity and use chemical feedstocks derived from electrochemical pathways powered by renewable energy. Across these CO2 recycling pathways, the authors evaluated current globally representative production costs, sensitivities to cost drivers, carbon abatement potential, critical infrastructure and feedstock needs, and the effect of subsidies. Based on this analysis, the paper concludes with targeted policy recommendations to support CO2 recycling innovation and deployment.
- Topic:
- Economics, Energy Policy, Infrastructure, Carbon Emissions, and Decarbonization
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
149. Oil Intensity: The Curiously Steady Decline of Oil in GDP
- Author:
- Christof Ruhl and Titus Erker
- Publication Date:
- 09-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Oil is the largest primary fuel, and the trajectory of oil consumption is of great concern and consequence for economic, political, and, not least, for climate change reasons. Anticipating oil prices and production from year to year is not easy; identifying even basic ingredients of aggregate demand and supply schedules, such as price or income elasticities, is notoriously difficult. It’s an additional challenge to model the structure of a market that sometimes appears to be highly cartelized, and at other times populated by a large flock of peaceful price takers. But a remarkably steady metric—and possible tool for projecting consumption into the future—has been identified in this paper: oil intensity. Oil intensity is the volume of oil consumed per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). Measured simply in barrels per dollar, it is often viewed as a broad measure of oil efficiency; it certainly demonstrates the importance of oil in a society. The efficiency of oil use has improved, in other words oil intensity has declined, over the years and decades. In 1973, for example, when oil intensity was at its zenith, the world used a little less than one barrel of oil to produce $1,000 worth of GDP (2015 prices). By 2019 (the last data set before Covid) global oil intensity was 0.43 barrel per $1,000 of global GDP—a 56% decline. Oil has become a lot less important and humanity has become more efficient in making use of it. What is worth a closer look, and is the focus of this paper reporting on oil and gas related research at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, is the pattern by which this progress has been achieved. Since 1984, oil intensity has fallen every year in an almost perfectly linear fashion: the amount of oil used per dollar of global GDP has dropped by roughly the same amount each year. Wars and revolutions, booms and busts, OPEC successes and failures, and every other monumental event in the last 35 years left their imprint on oil markets but didn’t alter oil intensity’s steady, downward crawl. This kind of regularity is very rare in any long-time trend, in economics or in energy. Although oil intensity isn’t a new topic, an attempt to explain its curiously consistent downward progress—or even any discussion about it—is hard to find in the literature. For this paper, the authors explain the trend and cross-validate its predictive potential before delving into possible reasons behind the linear decline in oil intensity. It finally extrapolates what such a continuing trend might mean for oil consumption and policies around it going forward.
- Topic:
- Economics, Energy Policy, Oil, Natural Resources, and GDP
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
150. 2021 Guide to Women Leaders in International Affairs
- Author:
- Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG)
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG)
- Abstract:
- WFPG's Guide to Women Leaders in International Affairs highlights women shaping foreign policy around the world and the role that they play as leaders, diplomats, and policymakers. The Guide provides an index of prominent women from across the international community, including heads of state and government, government ministers and diplomats, and leaders of international organizations and corporations.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Women, Leadership, and Representation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus