The events of the Arab Spring took the world by surprise: there were no obvious signs of an approaching storm in the Levant and the Maghreb. Objective measures—used on a regular basis—showed that…

Elena Ianchovichina, Martijn Burger, Efstratia Arampatzi |

The agreement reached by 196 countries at Paris to collectively work to limit the growth of global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is a landmark…

Charles Cormier |

The Climate Change conference in Paris only confirmed what we already knew—that increasingly, there’s an overlap between conventional security threats of a military nature, which are focused on…

Mohamed Abdallah Youness |

Defense budgets are not publicly available, oversight is weak, and information about hidden spending is non-existent, says Transparency International-UK (TI-UK) of defense spending by the 17…

Christine Petré |

  According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), full implementation of countries’ submitted pledges for low-carbon development will require USD 13.5 trillion in investments in energy…

Abhishek Bhaskar, Rafael Ben |

  While responsible for only a small share of global emissions, the country is taking big steps to curb them.In the next few weeks, Morocco is preparing to commission the first phase of what will…

Sameh Mobarek |

The city of Ouarzazate in Morocco will host what will become one of the largest solar power plants in the world. Photo: CIF / World Bank The investment needs for low-carbon, climate-resilience…

Rachel Stern |

Over 25, 000 people have descended on the Bourget in the suburbs of Paris to attend the much anticipated 21st Conference of Parties on climate change, or “COP21”. The first meeting today is due to…

Maria Sarraf, Martin Heger |

  Modern factories, seaport terminals, and technical schools, plus priceless cultural monuments: Tangier, Morocco In late 2014, the World Bank’s Competitive Cities team visited the Moroccan city…

Z. Joe Kulenovic |

Also available in: Español In the run-up to the COP21 climate conference, one question becomes central: where will we find the solutions on the ground—and the people to implement them—to realize…

Jonathan Coony |