Alessio Patalano is professor of war and strategy in East Asia at King's College London and a visiting fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Center. Two of the Asia-Pacific's newest informal security groupings have made milestone advances this month. Two weeks ago, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined British counterpart Rishi Sunak and U.S. President Joe Biden in San Diego, California, to announce details of how Canberra will build a nuclear-powered submarine capability under the AUKUS agreement. Later the same week, British, Japanese and Italian defense ministers met in Tokyo to set plans for jointly developing a sixth-generation fighter jet in what is now known as the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP). The efforts have each drawn criticism. From a technical perspective, both are high-risk, ambitious programs. They are set to push the boundaries of existing models of export-control regulation, technology transfer, production capacity and international collaboration on highly sensitive capabilities.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.