Lithuania-China trade dispute: what it means for the EU
Trade & Manufacturing
|Anikó Zsebik, Yi-Fang Lee and Alessandro Gangarossa unpack a recent trade squabble between Lithuania and China over the former’s new Taiwan-friendly policies.
Trade & Manufacturing
Anikó Zsebik, Yi-Fang Lee and Alessandro Gangarossa unpack a recent trade squabble between Lithuania and China over the former’s new Taiwan-friendly policies.
Sustainability
Private financing of green hydrogen projects is likely to gain traction in the US, galvanised by billions in federal funding forthcoming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), an infrastructure bill passed in the US Congress last year. The IIJA authorised $8 bn in grants to foster hydrogen hubs, accelerating both production and end-use applications that…
General Policy
In the four years that GC has run its annual ‘Politics of’ conference, no theme has generated more interest than this year’s theme of decoupling. We know only too well from working with a wide range of clients on the evolving risk landscape in relations between China and the rest of the world how uncertain and sensitive this issue can be. The sensitivity and the interest are surely linked.
TMT
In July 2020, the UK government authorised a series of pilot projects that saw e-scooters proliferate across the country. What had hitherto been a niche and novel technology quickly became commonplace. Yet in spite of their newfound prevalence, the question which policymakers are still asking a year and a half later is: what are e-scooters actually for, and who are they…
Health and Life Sciences
Mark Loughridge, Dr Rupert Lewis, Andrew Croydon and Miranda Lutz discuss the ‘science gap’ between government and scientists.
General Policy
On January 10th, the foreign ministers of four Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, concluded a first-of-its-kind Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) visit to China to consolidate ties with Beijing. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted his Gulf counterparts in the city of Wuxi in eastern China and subsequently hosted the foreign ministers of Turkey and…
General Policy
The US oil and gas industry is no stranger to criticism from Washington, and the Biden administration has only ramped up the inflammatory attacks. At a time where the industry is desperate for a narrative change, an unlikely partner has emerged – crypto miners. For both industries, which have been unable to free themselves from the shackles of political scrutiny, this…
General Policy
This episode is part of our annual conference 'The Politics of'. This year's edition, 'The Politics of Decoupling', will present a global perspective on China’s industrial and political strategy for the next decade, and how it will affect its relationship with western-aligned countries.
Sustainability
Whilst the number of companies and governments announcing net-zero pledges has soared over the past year, so too has scrutiny over the contents of these commitments and their founding intentions. Despite the private sector taking an unprecedented role at COP26, there is growing concern that there is no way to assess the quality and credibility of firms’ green commitments,…
TMT
Lithium’s role in the United States’ renewable energy transition and technological advancements is undeniable. Lithium is crucial to a successful increase in electric vehicle production that is necessary to meet net-zero goals, while the same can be said for meeting the ever-growing demand for wearable technology and augmented reality and virtual reality. However,…
General Policy
In late November, China’s flagship Africa summit, the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) took place in Senegal. In 2022, the EU, the US, Russia, and Japan have all planned major Africa-focused summits. This clustering of Africa + 1 summits has given rise to debates about whether we are witnessing a new intensification of foreign interest in the continent. But is…
TMT
‘Top in tech’ is a monthly episode from the GC tech policy team. Each month, the team lift the lid on the latest in Europe’s ‘techlash’, identifying where the debate is heading in London and Brussels, the politics behind it, and what this might mean for the apps and online services we use every day.
TMT
“The metaverse will present new markets and a range of different businesses. There will be a marketplace where someone may have a dominant position.” The comment this week from European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager marks a remarkable transformation in the metaverse from being a concept few in Brussels had heard of four months ago to an emerging priority in…
Sustainability
The covid-19 pandemic has created a hidden problem: the sheer volume of waste generated in response to the health crisis. The environmental cost of covid-19 has been enormous, with an estimated 25,000 tonnes of covid-19 PPE alone having entered the ocean.
TMT
Online clicks and webpage visits have been tracked for decades; now data collection has leapt from the screen to the physical world. In 2020, there were more than 11 bn connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices, from appliances to wearable health monitors. That figure is projected to more than double to 27 bn by 2025, according to IoT Analytics. Each one of these devices…
General Policy
Jon Garvie, Miranda Lutz, Stephen Adams and Jens Presthus take a deep-dive into the growing prominence of infrastructure spending, exploring how and why it is becoming a geopolitical fault-line between the West and China.
General Policy
At the end of each year, the Global Counsel team has a tradition of sharing among ourselves a selection of our favourite articles, books and podcasts. We also share the list with our network in what has become a staple of GC holiday communications. Some of this informs our day jobs, but most of it can also be filed against the (very) interesting times we live in.
General Policy
At the end of each year, the Global Counsel team has a tradition of sharing among ourselves a selection of our favourite articles (or podcasts) from the past year for Christmas consumption. We also share the list with our network in what has become a staple of GC holiday communications.