When I stepped into the bustling exhibition hall at Enlit Africa in Cape Town in May 2024, I was surprised by the riot of colorful banners featuring Chinese characters. A whopping 40% of the exhibitors at one of Africa’s largest energy and power conferences in Cape Town from China—more than any other country. 

“The size and power output of China’s new offshore wind turbines are remarkable. We are talking about turbines almost 200 meters tall, with blades spanning the length of a football field. The amount of electricity they can generate is staggering.” enthused Cosimo Ries from Trivium China, who is a clear “fan” of offshore wind. And China’s turbines are getting bigger. The Dongfang Electric Corporation just rolled the world’s largest single-capacity offshore turbine (26MW) off the production line in Fujian Province this October.

Norway recently announced that electric vehicles (EV) now outnumber gas-powered ones on its highways for the first time—and that these vehicles comprise 80 percent of its current new car sales. While internal combustion engines (ICE) will not disappear for several years, Norway’s sales of ICE-powered vehicles will end abruptly in 2025.

Escalations in Middle East Spur Oil Security Concerns (Reuters)  

One year on from the brutal reignition of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on October 7, 2023, the situation in the Middle East has escalated drastically. Hamas’ attack on Israel has been followed by Israeli strikes across the region, which have killed tens of thousands of civilians, displacing millions in Gaza and in Lebanon. Now, tit for tat attacks between Israel and Iran have made Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), worry about oil security in the region. 

A window into what we’re reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program 

Member States Adopt Pact of the Future (United Nations)

The United Nations hosted the Summit of the Future earlier this week, which led to a new agreement between member states which acknowledged the shortcomings of the UN’s current role and abilities. The Pact of the Future encourages member states to reaffirm, reestablish, and renew global cooperation—and create new solutions to address today’s escalating polycrises.

While standing on the banks of the Mahakam River in Samarinda on the island of Borneo, I watched an unending parade of coal barges sail slowly down the river. I was here in East Kalimantan to give a presentation at the Vulnerable Deltas Workshop—a joint project of the East-West Center and the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum.

The Pacific Institute recently updated its Water Conflict Chronology—a database of water-conflict events that began to take form in the 1980s. The recent updates include the addition of 300 new entries to the database, highlighting the alarming rise of water-related conflicts in the last few years. Despite this overwhelming evidence of a growing trend in water-related conflicts, global attention toward addressing them remains negligible.