Insights

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Terra’s collapse has intensified U.S. regulatory scrutiny surrounding stablecoins. What’s next?

Financial Services

Max Mandich
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Last week’s price collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra has highlighted regulatory concerns surrounding stablecoins as U.S. policymakers have continued to examine potential policy frameworks for the growing asset class. As of this writing, Terra continues to trade well below its $1 target peg while sister token Luna has also plummeted in value, catalysed by a downdraft…

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Russian conflict, Gazprom cut-offs, and climate concerns raise prospects for long-shunned nuclear energy

Energy & Commodities

Stephanie Grumet
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The lustre of carbon-free nuclear energy was tarnished after the highly publicised and impactful human-error-related accident at Ukraine’s Chornobyl No. 4 reactor in 1986 and more recently in Japan after a tsunami cut power from critical backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. In Europe, the current dependence on Russian oil and natural gas exports is…

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Small modular reactors: the answer to the UK’s nuclear ambitions?

Energy & Commodities

Saskia Giraud-Reeves
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The war in Ukraine has set out - in stark relief - the challenges of the UK’s current energy mix. In response to the conflict and rising energy prices, the UK government released its Energy Security Strategy with proposals for a fourfold increase in offshore wind and an ambition to have at least a quarter of Britain’s electricity provided by nuclear power by 2050.

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What’s stopping Southeast Asia from going nuclear-powered?

Energy & Commodities

What’s stopping Southeast Asia from going nuclear-powered?
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While the “greenness” of nuclear energy continues to be debated across Southeast Asian nations, energy security concerns are driving countries in the region to revisit their nuclear energy programmes.

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General Politics

Blockchain and carbon markets: successful union or missed opportunity?

General Politics

Giulia Pasquali
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As part of their efforts to tackle climate change, businesses are increasingly relying on the buying and selling of credits to offset emissions. This approach was developed at COP26 last year to create new market mechanisms underpinning Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Amid rising concerns that the lack of transparency and oversight of offsets might lead to greenwashing,…

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The geopolitics and implications of an international pandemic instrument

Health and Life Sciences

Seon Jae Crystal Choi
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The first meeting of an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) for an international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, was held on 24th February 2022. The first of its kind, the instrument will be rooted in the World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution, thereby offering high-level mandates to its signatories. While strengthening global…

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Defining and delivering the UK’s IP diplomacy strategy

Trade & Manufacturing

Stephen Adams
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The last year has seen intellectual property (IP) play an increasingly central role in several policy areas, including the BEIS’s Innovation Strategy and DIT’s post-Brexit trade strategy.

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General Politics

A crisis on top of a crisis: Africa feels the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

General Politics

Isabelle Trick
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As the world’s biggest international finance institutions, the IMF and World Bank, gathered for their annual Spring Meetings, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, warned of the compounding crises affecting the world. Africa, Georgieva said, was “particularly vulnerable” to the economic upheaval following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

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The future of connected fitness

Health and Life Sciences

Johnny Luk
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It was the must-have accessory for the chattering classes through the early days of the pandemic, but Peloton, the producer of pricey exercise bikes and the poster child of the connected fitness industry, has suffered a post-lockdown fall from grace. 

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2022 to mark a tipping point for US federal and state PFAS regulatory actions

Sustainability

Stephanie Grumet
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States set to reap the benefits from federal PFAS infrastructure bill funding 

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General Politics

How efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal expose the limits of America’s international commitments

General Politics

Ross Nugent
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As the Biden administration inches towards a revived deal with Iran, it is worth reflecting on what the difficult history of this agreement should remind us about US foreign policy. Both the architects in the White House and their counterparts in Tehran in 2015 failed in a vital task: ensuring the agreement’s sustainability beyond the Obama administration. Because of the…

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Can anyone win the ‘streaming wars’?

TMT

Bart Myners
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UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’ announcement that the government will proceed with plans to privatise Channel 4 has reignited the smouldering debate around the role of Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) in the UK. Her assertion that privatisation is necessary to ensure Channel 4’s long-term viability against Video-on-Demand (VoD) streaming platforms, like Netflix,…

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Highlighting Commerce’s new ICTS Rule – A Little-Known Process with Major Headwinds for Tech

TMT

Michelle Ryang
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Last month, Chinese technology company Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) was added to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) provisional watchlist, the latest development in a longstanding clash between the U.S. and China around audit oversight of foreign companies. The purview of the SEC and other regulatory bodies such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the…

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US regulators get serious about going after the tech sector’s algorithms

TMT

Sonia Vasconcellos
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The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been ramping up scrutiny of Big Tech companies ever since Chair Lina Khan – an avowed critic of Big Tech – arrived in June 2021. To date, the FTC has struggled to find ways to combat the rising influence of the technology industry using its limited set of enforcement tools. However, a recent new settlement with WW International,…

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What does the takeover of a semiconductor firm say about the British government’s approach to China, tech and foreign investment?

TMT

Max von Thun
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You might not have heard of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF) before reading this article. In global terms it is not a major player in the semiconductors sector, but the south Wales-located manufacturer now finds itself at the heart of a heated political debate about the UK’s technological competitiveness, openness to foreign investment and relationship with China.

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What’s next for the drone industry in Europe?

TMT

Alexander van der Wusten
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This year’s Amsterdam Drone Week and EASA High Level Conference wrapped up last week, bringing together the annual gathering of policymakers and industry to discuss unmanned aircraft regulation and the technology’s roll-out in Europe. It has been a number of years since the last one was held, due to covid, so the conference was a flurry of activity. The conference hall…

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What’s at stake in Central Asia from the war in Ukraine?

General Policy

Alexander van der Wusten
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The Russia-Ukraine war was the elephant in the room at the inaugural Tashkent International Investment Forum in late March. While not mentioned directly by the speakers, it was clear to anyone that the conflict will impact Uzbekistan as it tries to position itself as a gateway for foreign corporates and investors to the rest of Central Asia.

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What new US rules mean for fossil-fuel power costs and the future of emissions trading

Energy & Commodities

Stephanie Grumet
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The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Transport Rule was published in the Federal Register on April 6th. Also known as the “Good Neighbor Rule”, it is sweeping in its geographic scope and breadth. The rule would affect 26 US states; set lower emissions standards for coal and gas fired electricity generators, create new emissions standards for multiple…

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