Aid & development links: COP 22, trading in cash, Africans on China and more

• COP 22 is underway in Marrakech. Carbon Brief provides a primer for what the latest UN Climate Change Conference expects to achieve.
• Despite concerns that it might back out, Australia announced last week at the summit that it will ratify the Paris climate agreement.
• Smoking cigarettes still causes more deaths in low- and middle-income countries than any single infectious disease. William Savedoff discusses the findings from a recent roundtable discussion on tobacco taxes.
• India is asking people to trade in 23 billion bank notes currently in circulation as it seeks to scrap high value notes in an effort to curb corruption. Ken Rogoff discusses why this would be a good idea for the US. (h/t IPA).
• Afrobarometer, a survey of almost 54,000 citizens spread across 36 African countries is steadily releasing the findings of its latest survey. Their latest dispatch on China shows that their growing presence is largely positively received.
• Devpolicy has released the latest in its Aid Profiles series, this time focussing on Australian philosopher Peter Singer.
• Finally, for some topical click bait, Robin Davies provides a roundup of what commentators think a Trump presidency will mean for US international development policy, noting that it will likely be less severe than that of the Abbott government’s legacy in Australia.

Photo courtesy of Friends of the Earth International

Jonathan Pryke