Skip to main content
The Interpreter

Interpreter - Menu Links

  • Articles
  • Debates
  • Contributors
  • About

Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 2 days ago
    • India
    • European Union
    • Climate change

    Climate diplomacy has moved beyond the days of a single grand bargain

    Sharon Sarah Thawaney
    Environmental governance is fragmenting into trade deals and beyond, and the Global South is adapting.
  • 9 Feb 2026
    • European Union
    • Energy
    • Climate change

    Rebranding Europe’s energy transition from climate policy to survival

    Imran Khalid
    Brussels is turning climate policy into industrial strategy, hoping to step beyond populist anger over costs.
  • 30 Jan 2026
    • Climate change

    Climate change is a shared problem that needs shared solutions

    Jawad Khalid
    A just climate transition requires fossil fuel companies and state-owned emitters to move together on climate finance.
  • 29 Jan 2026
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    Pacific Islands: The hidden mental health costs of climate change

    Connor Graham
    The region bears the psychological toll of the climate crisis but without the healthcare force to address it.
  • 27 Jan 2026
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

    The last nautical mile: Pacific Islands’ path to energy resilience

    Aquila Van Keuk , Deepak Chand , Poiongo Lisati
    Remote Pacific communities are pioneering renewable power solutions that prioritise local partnerships.
  • 22 Jan 2026
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Japan’s net zero bet needs an Australian hedge

    Ryan Neelam , Reuben Finighan
    Australia can offer Japan what it desperately needs to realise its energy ambitions.
  • 22 Jan 2026
    • China
    • Maritime Security
    • Russia
    • Climate change
    • International law
    • United Nations
    • United States

    The truth about Arctic "strategic competition"

    Saxon Wright-Casanova
    The region is far less important, and less contested, than commonly claimed.
  • 20 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Poverty
    • Asylum seekers and refugees
    • Climate change
    • Human rights
    • Migration
    • Sex and Gender
    • United States

    A rearview mirror on America’s year of foreign aid cuts

    Melissa Conley Tyler
    The ripple effects of global USAID cuts will be generational – and everyone will lose.
  • 8 Dec 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Climate change

    Sumatra floods: Indonesia stuck in a cycle of crisis management

    Hilman Palaon
    President Prabowo must address years of institutional neglect to tackle the structural failures fuelling disasters.
  • 3 Dec 2025
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Climate change

    Japan lost its climate leadership – and now Australia can help

    Richard Neumann
    Japan’s largest supplier of coal and LNG has just pledged to transition from fossil fuels – creating both tension and opportunity.
  • 28 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    Can the Pacific still shape COP31 after Australia’s compromise?

    Georgia Hammersley
    Even without a co-hosting arrangement, Canberra can still push outcomes that matter for the region.
  • 26 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    Redirecting COP31 funds could deliver Australia’s most important climate contribution yet

    Alexandre Dayant
    The $1 billion saved from not hosting could deliver more impact through Pacific infrastructure than any summit.
  • 25 Nov 2025
    • Energy
    • Climate change

    The world proves thirstier than ever for energy

    Robert Walker , Georgia Hammersley
    But the Trump administration is trying – and failing – to play a spoiler role while China focuses on the long game.
  • 21 Nov 2025
    • India
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    India and the Blue Pacific: A partnership for climate security

    Namrata Kabra , Ambika Vishwanath
    Pacific Island countries demand respect for sovereignty and self-determination. Can India help build that vision?
  • 20 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    Climate change: Compromise and progress in the heart of the Amazon

    Ryan Neelam
    Though outcomes might be less than hoped, important deals are being done at COP30.
  • 20 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    COP that: Australia trades hosting for climate talks presidency

    David Dutton
    Dreams of holding global climate negotiations in Adelaide may be dashed, but the compromise gives Pacific voices a lift.
  • 20 Nov 2025
    • Energy
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    China built the energy transition while democracies debated

    Cristina Talacko
    From solar panels to batteries, the industrial spine of decarbonisation runs through factories the West does not control.
  • 14 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    The world is getting on with tackling climate change. Australia can’t afford to be left behind

    Ryan Neelam
    While ambition at COP30 is still a long way from what’s needed, most countries are maintaining their commitments to act.
  • 13 Nov 2025
    • Philippines
    • Vietnam
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Preparing for when disaster and conflict converge

    Melissa Jardine , Jarrett Blaustein , Hai Thanh Luong
    What Australia must learn for its defence posture following record flooding and typhoons in Vietnam and the Philippines.
  • 11 Nov 2025
    • Climate change

    Why COP30 may disappoint – again

    Melanie Pill , Georgia Hammersley
    Ten years after Paris, climate talks are bogged down by insufficient action, unfinished business, and declining global trust.
  • 10 Nov 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    A new model for forest finance or just more debt?

    Jawad Khalid
    The Tropical Forests Forever Facility promises billions for conservation but ties conservation funding to the debt burdens already crushing developing economies.
  • 10 Nov 2025
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific Islands: Without literacy, climate resilience is nigh on impossible

    Serena Sasingian
    Strategic competition has left gaping holes in regional health and education goals. The parameters need to be reset.
  • 7 Nov 2025
    • Climate change

    The COP30 and COP31 summits must be a display of southern hemisphere stewardship

    Izabela Pereira Watts
    Brazil hosts but Australia must prove its climate credentials – leadership is earned through action, not hosting rights.
  • 6 Nov 2025
    • Climate change

    COP30 and COP31 will test middle powers in a climate of opportunity

    Martin Geissdoerfer , Trang Nguyen
    Brazil and Australia must prove they can pivot from commodity extraction to clean industrial innovation.
  • 31 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Global Economy
    • Climate change
    • Coronavirus
    • Diplomacy
    • Technology

    Resilience diplomacy: The quiet contest shaping the Indo-Pacific

    Shameek Godara
    For middle powers, the ability to help partners withstand shocks may prove more valuable than raw strength.
  • 30 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • Türkiye

    Crunch time for Australia and COP31

    David Dutton
    Hosting the 2026 summit demands enormous effort and commitment from the top that only the PM can provide.
  • 28 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Indonesia values the forests, but can it fund the trees?

    Mohd. Yunus
    Jakarta is buying influence in the new climate order.
  • 27 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    Pacific development: The essential local ingredient for sustainability

    Jack Whelan
    Donor agencies are discovering what should have been obvious: Pacific islanders are best placed to solve Pacific problems.
  • 21 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Laos
    • Malaysia
    • Thailand
    • Energy
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability
    • United States

    The sun is setting on Southeast Asia’s solar exporters

    Robert Walker
    US tariffs are testing whether ASEAN is all talk on regional integration for renewable energy generation.
  • 17 Oct 2025
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • United States

    A new multilateral green trade pact is the antidote to growing economic nationalism

    Ryan Mulholland , Natalie Baker
    Linking decarbonisation with trade policy could offer an alternative to rising protectionism.
  • 13 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Energy
    • G20
    • Poverty
    • Climate change

    COP30: Is the bioeconomy the answer to equitable prosperity?

    Mohd. Yunus
    The Brazil meeting will need to confront old tropes of competition and control over the world’s natural resources.
  • 10 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • Migration

    The Liberal Party’s coming foreign policy split

    Hugh Piper
    Immigration, climate, trade and China are fracturing the conservative side of politics into rival camps with competing worldviews.
  • 9 Oct 2025
    • Global Economy
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Sustainability matters when economic shocks hit

    Adam Arian
    New global evidence shows responsible business is risk insurance.
  • 3 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Climate change
    • United Nations

    Indonesia’s green industrial policy ahead of COP30

    Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara , Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
    Jakarta is playing a balancing act between business wins and climate objectives. Can it work?
  • 2 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • International law
    • Pacific Islands

    Applying a national security lens to the International Court’s climate change opinion

    Danielle Ireland-Piper
    When islands sink, do nations disappear? The Court says no.
  • 26 Sep 2025
    • Global Economy
    • G20
    • Trade
    • WTO
    • Global Issues
    • Climate change
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • Space exploration
    • United Nations

    Why we need international institutions…

    Jenny Gordon
    …and how to rebuild them in an era of great power competition.
  • 24 Sep 2025
    • Climate change

    History’s warning: Climate chaos can expose the fragility of world order

    Terrence Mullan
    Past empires fell when environmental stress met political weakness – today’s global warming poses an unprecedented test of resilience.
  • 19 Sep 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    The psychology behind climate policy paralysis

    Isabella Henderson
    Our brains are wired to ignore the climate issue so policy must speak to the gut.
  • 18 Sep 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change

    Climate disasters aren’t natural – and calling them that makes things worse

    Junli Lim
    Our language puts a mask on human responsibility. This is one change that could make for a better environment.
  • 18 Sep 2025
    • Singapore
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Climate change
    • Diplomacy
    • Sustainability

    The ambitious SunCable project hinges on good neighbours and secure seas

    Pornomo Rovan Astri Yoga
    An Australia–Asia green energy transmission link will test sovereignty, diplomatic leverage, and maritime security.
  • 17 Sep 2025
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    Is the Green Climate Fund starting to deliver for the Pacific?

    Georgia Hammersley
    Early signs of progress are emerging, but a drive for scale risks sidelining the region.
  • 16 Sep 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Nauru
    • Samoa
    • Tonga
    • Tuvalu

    Reality bites: Why the global dengue epidemic matters to Australia

    Philippa Nicole Barr
    The mosquito-borne disease is more than a health emergency – it symbolises the injustice of climate change.
  • 27 Aug 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • India
    • Pakistan
    • Climate change

    Kashmir’s double burden: Climate change and conflict

    Leoni Connah
    Recurring floods in disputed Kashmir highlight how geopolitical tensions compound climate vulnerabilities and hinder long-term solutions.
  • 26 Aug 2025
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Why future wars will be fought over water supply

    Patrick Yeager
    Droughts and water shortages are likely to jeopardise global security far sooner than we think.
  • 25 Aug 2025
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    The roots of statehood: Why coastal ecosystems matter for sovereignty

    Mohd. Yunus
    Who are the true protectors of territory, and how much is their service worth?
  • 8 Aug 2025
    • Asean
    • China
    • Climate change

    ASEAN and China need their own climate compact

    Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
    Southeast Asian nations could transform from climate-vulnerable bystanders into unified diplomatic leaders.
  • 8 Aug 2025
    • Climate change
    • International law

    The world court tightens the tap on fossil fuels

    Melanie Pill , Meg Keen
    Climate cases against major polluters might become more successful after the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
  • 4 Aug 2025
    • BRICS
    • Climate change

    How BRICS could become the Global South’s climate voice

    Sharon Sarah Thawaney
    As US withdraws from Paris Agreement and EU shifts focus, developing nations seek new multilateral forums for climate action.
  • 22 Jul 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Asia
    • Climate change

    Climate disasters drain Southeast Asia’s shrinking aid budgets

    Grace Stanhope , Alexandre Dayant
    The 2025 Lowy Institute Southeast Asia Aid Map reveals relief spending has soared while prevention investment stagnates, forcing hard choices for development partners.
  • 21 Jul 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • AUKUS
    • Energy
    • Poverty
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • Migration
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • Sustainability
    • United States

    Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill: A domestic deal with Indo-Pacific consequences

    Shameek Godara
    America’s new act reinforces the reality that internal choices are rarely contained within borders.
Pagination
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Next page ››

Subscribe to The Interpreter

Get the latest commentary and analysis on international events from experts at the Lowy Institute and around the world.

The Interpreter features in-depth analysis & expert commentary on the latest international events, published daily by the Lowy Institute.

© Copyright 2025 Lowy Institute

  • Debates
  • Contributors
  • Articles
  • About
  • Terms of Use
  • Log In
  • My bookmarks