How did an extraordinary act of espionage open the way for the creation of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company?

Stellantis is giving China’s Leapmotor access to a plant in Spain to build an EV together One of the first instances of a major Western automaker relying on Chinese technology to bolster its lineup in Europe. Production of the SUV could begin in 2028 www.msn.com/en-us/mo...

A few years ago my brother, who is into trees, decided to make prints from trees. It took him time to master the process but now the product is gorgeous. The next step requires money. Check out the crowdfunding page – donate and he'll send you a print. 🌲 🌳 🌴 www.startnext.com/en/konkrete-...

Elke krant: 'Shell veel meer winst door Iran-oorlog' Telegraaf: aandelen kopen? Stem van het volk.

Where did the EU’s €577bn Covid recovery money go? Auditors say it’s hard to tell >>> @euobserver.com

In a world of fossil price shocks and Chinese cleantech dominance, carbon shock therapy emerges as the default stance of states unwilling, or unable, to support their industries through a green transformation. New with @danielagabor.bsky.social on green macrofinancial regimes in the Hormuz crisis.

The ADB issued two $80m three-year catastrophe bonds that pay out if predefined rainfall or earthquake thresholds are breached, regardless of actual losses.

The authors estimate that almost $800bn of Chinese ownership is taken via the Cayman Islands 🫣

American capitalism makes money. Chinese capitalism makes things. Go read my new essay, Capacity Returns (gift link), in The BREAK—DOWN. www.break-down.org/capacity-ret...

Trump's petrowars threaten to unleash carbon shock therapy around the world - disorderly decarbonization and deindustrialisation. The answer, we argue w @benbraun.eurosky.social, is decarbonised sovereignty, a pathway for the Santa Marta coalition. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/aga...

3/5 The point is that if German infrastructure is bad enough to be a constraint on productivity growth (and most agree that it is), borrowing to fund infrastructure investment will both accelerate productivity growth and create more than enough additional real income to service the additional debt.

Why the Middle East war is accelerating the destruction of demand for fossil fuels, and why the US won’t become the new provider of "geopolitically secure” oil and gas.

FT: China poised to restart exporting jet fuel, diesel and gasoline – ‘a move that could significantly ease the worldwide shortages caused by the Iran conflict.’ ‘[…] said Beijing wished to supply mostly jet fuel to Asian countries that are now running dangerously low’

Where are the profits of the war going? With the rise in oil prices, the profits of extractive companies surge—and a significant share ends up funneled through tax havens. But it’s not too late to tax war profiteers effectively. open.substack.com/pub/gzucman/...

Holy sh.. The cover of Germany‘s very pro-business Manager Magazin about Minister Reiche‘s irresponsible decision to double down on gas power plants. Illustrates once more that old journalistic frames of there being such a monolithic thing as ‚the business community‘ are outdated.

German industry has for years been shrinking under carbon shock therapy (energy price shock + cleantech competition shock). Merz: “Climate protection must not jeopardize the industrial base of our countries”. A man of limitless delusion. He's wrong about literally everything. Boggles the mind.

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batteries batteries batteries batteries batteries batteries, via @jordischroeder.bsky.social

@danielagabor.bsky.social: "We're now in the age of gaslighting central bankers, who look you straight in the eye waving a Milton Friedman 'independence or death' crumpled manifesto while lowering interest rates cause the President told them to."

There's a global race to secure EV battery gigafactories & reduce reliance on China. But not all clean-tech projects are created equal. Some generate good jobs & domestic capacities, others produce ecological harm & low value-added enclaves. New paper & thread 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Grim but useful read. Global energy markets are on the verge of a disaster economist.com/finance-and-...

Major energy companies in the Netherlands are lodging a series of objections against “windfall taxes” they were ordered to pay in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Amazing long read about the death of the Florida orange, which also feels obliquely like a commentary on the extinction of long reads, like John McPhee’s magnificent “Oranges”, which it mentions.

Coal use fell in China, India, Africa and the EU, but grew in the US due to high gas prices 3/10

There’s a real disconnect in anglosphere discourse because a lot of it centres in the US where people aren’t seeing Chinese EVs at all, while much of the rest of the world is

Republicans know they are about to lose the House and are trying to give Big Oil its holy grail: legal immunity from any futures actions that would hold the industry responsible for the climate crisis it knowingly caused and is making worse every day. climateintegrity.org/news/view/br...

New: Beijing has issued a direct threat to retaliate against EU companies, should the EU move forward with its proposed cybersecurity act, which would hit Chinese firms

Some companies just don’t want to be saved

WEEKEND READ: What is the price of oil — the real one? "My attempt to shed light into the PHYSICAL and FINANCIAL oil markets, and why you can pick up a barrel of crude for $78 in Kansas or $286 in Sri Lanka." Terrific piece, TY @javierblas.bsky.social Gift Link: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

This could be big: BYD is in talks to join Europe’s car lobby group It would be ACEA's first Chinese member. ACEA lobbies the EU on behalf of the European car industry - so it would give China's biggest carmaker more influence over EU policy.

Bloomberg News was able to confirm that China targets a doubling of total non-fossil energy supply from 2025 to 2035. This is a substantially stronger target than raising the share from 22% to 30% as announced earlier, especially if energy demand growth slows down.

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A very generous review of THE ASSET CLASS in this week’s New Statesman from @duncanweldon.bsky.social, who really got what I was trying to achieve when he described it as a “detective story” that “reads more like a thriller”. In print today! www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

2026 will almost certainly be another year in which we here in Norway spend WAY more than the gov't forecasts we'll spend on building more fossil fuel infrastructure This is not healthy at all. It smacks of unplanned desperation, I think. ketanjoshi.co/2026/04/14/s...

If the world is witnessing a ‘coal comeback’ it means coal is in even bigger trouble then we already knew

there’s been a string of reports of a ‘coal comeback’ that suggest the world is turning back to coal in the wake of the Iran crisis. Early data from March tell a different story.

@westervangaal.bsky.social’s reality check on so-called ‘coal comeback’. When I’m reminded, esp. by renewables opponents, ‘how important coal is for the EU’, I ask to keep the full picture. Renewables are our future, as part of a sustainable energy efficiency mix; coal resurgence is not realistic.

Talk of a 'coal comeback' in the wake of the blockade of the Persian Gulf are disproven by data showing coal generation is down globally.

remarkable how every investor in this FT piece basically says: a state that heavily controls capital, with a central bank subordinated to government priorities, is a safer heaven in the new geopolitical reality of petrowars www.ft.com/content/7221...

The French government has announced the measures of its plan to accelerate electrification: - a ban on gas boilers in new houses from the end of 2026 - increased support for replacing old heating with heat pumps - 100 regions will pilot comprehensive heat transition plans to phase out gas by 2030

KLIMAATRECHTVAARDIGHEID | Journalist Wester van Gaal ziet hoe arme landen het meeste te lijden hebben onder een verstoring van de energiemarkt. Hij selecteerde vijf verhalen over de economische en ecologische gevolgen van de ontwrichting van de markt. f9udw.r.bh.d.sendibt3.com/mk/mr/sh/SMJ...

'Despite a possible pause in hostilities, "we should be under no illusion that this crisis that is affecting energy prices will be short-lived. It will not be,” said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, energy spokesperson for the EU Commission, on Wednesday'

The best thing EU governments can do is invest as much as possible in clean energy, and bite the bullet on high upfront costs despite debt burdens. But EU fiscal models used to map out nat spending plans ignores the effects of climate change and crises and degrades the strong case for clean energy.

Quand les choix politiques se dissimulent dans les paramètres économiques.

'Oil trading results were “significantly higher” than in the previous quarter.'

The best thing EU governments can do is invest as much as possible in clean energy, and bite the bullet on high upfront costs despite debt burdens. But EU fiscal models used to map out nat spending plans ignores the effects of climate change and crises and degrades the strong case for clean energy.

European policymaker writing in British newspaper that returns on sustainable energy are 2.2-4.1 per £ invested. Why not use these insights to update EU fiscal models? Every € spent is calculated to return only 60 cents in the EU, no matter if it's grid investments or tax cuts.

Fun that the entire bloc has had to 'deregulate' climate rules because German administrators still use fax machines.