When the world gathers in Antalya in November 2026 for the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference, the man at the center of the negotiations will be Murat Kurum, Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. Appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kurum will serve as president of COP31,
In early 2026, Nepal experienced one of the most dramatic political shifts in its modern history. At the center of it stood Balendra Shah, a former underground rapper, structural engineer, and mayor of Kathmandu who rose to become the country’s prime minister following a landslide election victory driven largely by
Leadership in a Moment of Global Disruption As war in Iran disrupts critical maritime routes and sends shockwaves through global supply chains, the importance of steady leadership in the shipping industry has rarely been clearer. The conflict has strained shipping routes across the Middle East, including the Strait of Hormuz,
Her departure marks the end of a tenure defined by global upheaval, institutional reform and a renewed effort to keep hunger at the center of world affairs. Rome — Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, said she will step down later this year, citing health concerns
In the Congo Basin, the argument is no longer whether forests matter. It is whether they can pay. For more than a decade, Lee White helped position Gabon not only as a conservation success story, but as a country determined to translate forest protection into fiscal leverage. Now, as Congo
In N’Djamena, climate policy is measured less in pledges than in resilience. Hassan Bakhit Djamous, who became Chad’s Minister of Environment, Fisheries and Sustainable Development in October 2024, has assumed his portfolio at a moment when environmental governance is inseparable from fiscal stability and national security. Drought, flooding and desertification
In New York, the architecture of climate capital markets is still under construction. Green Impact Exchange (GIX), one of only ten licensed stock exchange operators in the United States, has appointed Alexis Levenson as Chief Communications Officer and Executive Vice President, a newly created role as the exchange builds infrastructure
As the Munich Security Conference concluded this week, one message cut through the noise of competing crises and clashing narratives: the global security order is fragmenting faster than the institutions designed to hold it together. In that context, the role of Jens Stoltenberg—Norway’s current Minister of Finance and newly appointed
When Barbados went to the polls on February 11, 2026, the result was not just a domestic landslide. It was a reaffirmation that one of the most influential reform agendas in global development finance will continue to have a political mandate behind it. PM Mia Mottley won a third consecutive
When governments moved to restart stalled negotiations on a global plastics treaty in Geneva earlier this month, they turned to a diplomat shaped not by a single issue, but by the slow accumulation of trust, credibility, and experience across climate, oceans, and multilateral governance. Julio Cordano, newly elected Chair of
