By Vijay Jayaraj As host of the Sept. 9 G20 summit, India is ready to defend its use of fossil fuels despite the hostility of some of its guests toward the energy source. Speaking at a pre-summit conclave organized by local media, Union Power Minister R.K. Singh answered criticism that his country is a large emitter of… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj President Donald. J. Trump’s seismic shift in energy policy will be felt far beyond U.S. borders. His withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, expanding American oil and gas exports, terminating the Green New Deal and eliminating the prospect of carbon tariffs offers a lifeline to developing nations grappling with chronic energy poverty. When… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Climate policy being given to financial imprudence, Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement is not only a geopolitical shift likely to have positive effects abroad but also a monetary relief for American taxpayers. The pecuniary implications of Trump’s withdrawal are substantial: The United States has shouldered an… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Methane emissions have become a focal point of the climate debate, triggering absurd agricultural regulations negatively affecting farming communities worldwide. Targets for abuse are ruminant animals, including cattle and sheep, that produce methane (CH4) through enteric fermentation — a natural digestive process that converts grass into protein-rich meat and milk for human… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj For years, climate activists like Al Gore and John Kerry have made bold, headline-grabbing predictions that have failed to materialize. Gore’s 2007 assertion that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2013 stands in stark contrast to reality: Arctic ice has not disappeared despite seasonal fluctuations, and Antarctica sea ice has rebounded from record low… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj On a frigid January morning, the fruit of the U.K.’s overreliance on wind energy was reaped when its contribution to the national grid plummeted to a pitiful zero. Solar output, meanwhile, was a paltry 1% of power generation. This wasn’t just a fluke but rather a stark illustration of the dangers of… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Today, African leaders and policymakers will gather at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – East Africa’s most populous city – for the highly anticipated “Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit.” Mission 300 is an initiative to provide electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030. Success would have profound implications for a continent that has… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj A few hundred years ago, coffee was almost an unknown commodity with hardly a handful of countries consuming it at a commercial scale. But today, it is a sought-after drink that drives multiple companies to compete for the world’s best beans. An estimated 21 billion pounds of green coffee are produced annually across more… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj The winter of 2025 has been brutal for Europe, exposing the severe flaws of its over-reliance on wind and solar energy. As temperatures plummeted, countries grappled with electricity shortages, soaring energy prices, and the grim specter of blackouts. In the United Kingdom and Germany, two countries that have positioned themselves as global… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Fanciful dreams of green hydrogen powering the future have met reality. The cost of producing this much-hyped fuel will remain prohibitively high for decades to come, crushing hopes of its rapid adoption across industries. Green hydrogen start-ups are shuttering operations, major projects are being shelved, and investors are retreating from what was… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj and Ananya Bhatia South Korea has long been a radiant mosaic of industrial might, technological innovation, and global ambition. Yet, beneath the gleaming skyline of Seoul and the industrious hum of Ulsan’s refineries lies a delicate but indispensable thread: Energy. As South Korea faces mounting pressure to bridge its energy supply-demand gap,… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj When it comes to global energy policy, few narratives are as instructive — and as cautionary — as Europe’s. Why? Their ill-fated experiment with wind and solar energy. The continent’s self-inflicted woes contain lessons that should be taken to heart by those formulating U.S. energy strategy for the incoming administration. Europe’s Misplaced… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj The climate movement’s annual showpiece, the United Nation’s Conference of Parties (COP), held this year in Baku, Azerbaijan, has been exposed to an unprecedented level of disinterest – even dissent – from developing nations. Leaders of some of the world’s most resource-rich, economically aspiring countries have opted to sit this one out,… Continue Reading
By Ananya Bhatia and Vijay Jayaraj From my residential perch overlooking Ho Chi Minh City, I embrace the tranquillity of daybreak. Quickly, the idyllic morning transforms into a pulsing canvas of vitality as middle-class ambitions surge through the arteries of this burgeoning metropolis – Vietnam’s largest city known to some as Saigon. It is an… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Modern warming of the climate, contrary to the popular – though waning – narrative, has contributed to the flourishing of human civilization to unprecedented levels. About 10,000 years ago at the end of the last glacial advance, our relatively warm Holocene era began and allowed for the development of agriculture and ever… Continue Reading
12.2.2024
November’s Energy Earthquake: A World Reshaped by Politics, Power, and Pragmatism
By Vijay Jayaraj As the global energy landscape pivots in the shadow of November 2024’s seismic political developments, the world finds itself navigating a complex web of geopolitics, market maneuvers and environmental debates. In recent weeks, we have seen the return to world leadership chief climate skeptic Donald Trump and the conspicuous absences of key… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj When a purported climate crisis dominates much of the discourse of public policy, the trap of attributing every ecological issue to climate change easily ensnares anyone who fails to note the abundant evidence to the contrary. Over the past few decades, we have witnessed remarkable success stories of species being brought back… Continue Reading
By Samuel Furfari On November 12th, the Court of Appeals in The Hague handed down a historic judgment, rejecting climate activists’ demands that Shell drastically reduce its carbon emissions. The decision marks a major turning point in the balance between climate policy and humanity’s basic energy needs, and sets an important precedent for the future… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj A farmer in South Korea’s Gyeongbok Province carefully tends to his potato field, while halfway across the world the engines of a thousand cars idle on an American interstate highway. These seemingly disconnected scenes share a bond through the fertilization effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which has been greening the Earth for decades. Yes,… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Gathering in the Russian city of Kazan and hosted by that country’s “alienated and sanctioned” leader Vladimir Putin, the heads of some of the world’s most powerful nations made clear that the so-called climate emergency was a secondary priority for them. Attendees of the 16th annual BRICS summit represented more than 45%… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj Fossil fuels are destroying our planet. Big oil is evil. Coal is an addiction. These are hyperbolic statements uttered without basis in the public square as we continue with lifestyles dependent on hydrocarbons and their derivatives. This dissonance exists cognitively in individuals whose choices are inconsistent with their thinking. Another dissonance manifests… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj While much of the Western world clamors about renewable energy and “carbon neutrality”, a different story is unfolding in the East. Asia — led by economic powerhouses like China, India and Japan – is doubling down on fossil fuels, recognizing their irreplaceable role in powering economic growth and improving living standards for… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj European colonialism that methodically extracted wealth from Africa until the system’s collapse in the last century has been replaced by a climate colonialism that stifles the economic development that the Dark Continent desperately needs. A highly political climate industrial complex enables Western governments and international bodies like the United Nations to exert… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj The archipelago nation of Indonesia represents just 1% of Earth’s land area, but it has set the stage for global geopolitics surrounding fossil fuels and climate policies. As a part of climate negotiations between G-7 nations, Indonesia was expected to be the first among developing countries to announce early closures of coal… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayarj Before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, the media chorus linked “an historic” storm to climate change and warned of even greater catastrophes in the future. For all the noise, Hurricane Milton was downgraded to a Category 3 storm that was bad enough if not apocalyptic for most. Nonetheless, the media rant… Continue Reading
By Vijay Jayaraj As we gaze at the verdant fields of Saskatchewan or the salmon-rich waters of British Columbia, it’s easy to forget that merely 12,000 years ago much of Canada lay under miles of ice. The Canada we know today—a mosaic of thriving ecosystems and bountiful farmlands—is the product of a remarkable transformation that… Continue Reading