Rishika Pardikar

Devex Newswire: Africa’s bid to take charge of its critical minerals Devex Newswire: Africa’s bid to take charge of its critical minerals

Inside Africa’s high stakes push for mineral sovereignty; Liberia’s foreign affairs minister tells us why her country is pivoting to economic diplomacy; and how to run a smarter job search in 2026.

From the conversations I have had with industry folk and policymakers, there is a clear recognition that a shift is inevitable. Some people see more opportunities than costs (like building industrial competitiveness and reducing pollution) while others see high costs

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An example of machine learning used for down-scaled weather forecasting from an earlier report of mine (eos.org/articles/new...). Now compare the benefits to whatever one might call a benefit of LLMs

India’s next industrial shift — electrons over molecules The age of being powered by molecules, or oil, coal and gas, is now giving way to one where competitiveness is increasingly written in electrons in the form of clean and reliable electricity

Former chairperson of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (the country's largest government-owned oil and gas company) writes an op-ed calling for a focus on industrial decarbonisation

www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead...

And for the record, pre-Bezos Washington Post (same one that justified the invasion of Iraq in numerous reports) was not independent either

Good time to learn about and support truly independent media. And the hard work it takes to keep small media organisations running

Worries grow for Sulawesi farmers as nickel mining company plans expansion LOEHA RAYA, Indonesia — The road to the headquarters of the Loeha Raya Farmers’ Cooperative is inundated from the monsoon, and a baby cayman splashes around in a puddle formed in a natural crater by…

PT Vale Indonesia, operator of the country’s longest-running nickel mine, plans to expand as EV battery demand surges.

But in Sulawesi, farmers fear the move could swallow forests and farmlands rich in endemic wildlife.

Many developing countries rely on coal to provide energy to their populations. Australia, on the other hand, relies on coal to generate export wealth

Bowen set for COP31 as Australia hits coal export record The latest update from the department of industry shows that the September quarter in 2025 saw Australia’s highest volume of thermal coal exports, ever. it is a remarkable comeback for thermal coal af...

Good headline.

thepoint.com.au/off-the-char...

A Day for Gaza Today, The Nation is turning over its website exclusively to stories from Gaza and its people. This is why.

Today, as Gaza continues to be stuck in a bloody limbo, we are turning our website over to Gaza and its people in an initiative we are calling “A Day for Gaza.” There will be no pieces published on our website today that do not come directly from Gaza.

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Clear, sunny skies are common in the winter across India. One might see some fog in some places (particularly North India and a few hilly regions) but these are also limited to early mornings

From the new 2026 draft of the National Electricity Policy powermin.gov.in/sites/defaul...

Around 2/3rd of fossil fuels produced in Australia are exported. So, from a climate perspective all the talk about RE generation and a clean grid matters less

thank you!

A 60% jump in EU LNG imports from the U.S. in 2025 managed to drive up greenhouse gas emissions on both sides of the Atlantic - in the EU from the burning of the gas, and in the U.S. by prompting a shift to coal-fired generation as prices rose.

Accounting for methane from natural gas infrastructure in United States greenhouse gas emission estimates The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that United States net greenhouse gas emissions have declined over the last two decades and are no…

Methane pollution from US oil and gas infrastructure causes more climate change than the entire economies of all but seven nations on earth.

(This is with methane's climate impacts conservatively evaluated over a 100-year time frame. Evaluated over shorter time frames, methane's impacts are worse.)

Coal power plants in India, which take a long time to ramp-up because they were historically designed to provide baseload power, will likely take on a new, variable role in the future. Analysis based on the new draft National Electricity Policy (NEP) shreyajai.substack.com/p/is-this-th...

wow

IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...

I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.

Biden himself said they were fabricated!

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Why carbon offsets may fail in complex systems: A causal inference perspective Social-ecological system dynamics present a fundamental challenge to the attribution of changes in carbon stocks to actions taken by carbon offset sel…

In our latest article we argue that the problems with carbon offsets can't be fixed. The problem is causal complexity which observational methods can't sort out. open access link in the second post. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Critical social media posts linked to retractions of scientific papers Online discussions can catch errors or fraud in articles that can be missed in peer review.

Posts on X that are critical of scientific research can act as early warning signs of problematic articles

go.nature.com/4qGhiCq

New from us: EU CO2 emissions fell only 0.8% in 2025, the second year in a row that the bloc has fallen short of its targets. Adverse weather played a big role but underlying issues are slow progress on transport and buildings electrification and wind power buildout.

One of the many benefits of working with a global team @drilledmedia.bsky.social is learning so much from climate reporters in other parts of the world. This story was fascinating!

Debt and import dependency in Japan’s fossil financing for Bangladesh With promises of Singapore- and Shanghai-style ports and businesses, Japan’s development agencies are pushing fossil fuel projects in Bangladesh

Japan is not getting nearly enough attention in the global media for locking in fossil fuels in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. Here, @rishpardikar.bsky.social looks at the latest megaproject Japanese development agencies are pushing in Bangladesh drilled.media/news/japan-b...

How Bangladesh engineered a power crisis it can no longer afford BPDB's annual losses have exploded from Tk5,468 crore in FY15 to Tk50,565 crore in FY25, nearly a tenfold increase in a decade.

Sharp analysis. Enjoyed the sass too. Many lessons here for other developing countries. Simply building power capacity does not guarantee energy security (or even supply, in this case). And when politics-business nexus is strong, it encourages rent-seeking behaviour www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/pow...

Yes, some people in Bangladesh asked why they're being left behind and saddled with fossil debt

Australia’s Clean Energy Transition Partnership a ‘huge win’ on climate Australia will soon seal an agreement with a group of Western nations to end public subsidies for fossil fuel export projects, drying up a key source of finance for new oil, gas and coal fields.

It's worth a mention to that this is part of a pattern, with Japanese and South Korean public finance critical to massive new fossil fuel developments in Australia, including Santos' Barossa gas development.

Important story from @rishpardikar.bsky.social about how Japan continues to finance massive fossil fuel developments with promises of wealth - even when the reality is somewhat more sour.

Debt and import dependency in Japan’s fossil financing for Bangladesh With promises of Singapore- and Shanghai-style ports and businesses, Japan’s development agencies are pushing fossil fuel projects in Bangladesh

Mega infrastructure projects that include high-capacity gas and coal plants and entail large land acquisitions, all financed via foreign loans. A ground report from Bangladesh about the various perils. For @drilledmedia.bsky.social

drilled.media/news/japan-b...