Dr Charles Ellinas

By Charles Ellinas Developments in Syria have been precipitous and momentous. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that deposed al-Assad last Sunday, has ...

One of the key subjects discussed at the Sustainable Future conference organised by Politico in Brussels this week was how the Green Deal will pan out under the new European ...

Climate summits are notorious for running into overtime and into the weekend and COP29 is no exception. We have a deal of sorts, but more iterations are expected during the ...

Intense negotiations continued until late on Thursday, but to no avail. All parties appear to be determined to hold onto their positions until the very last moment, with overtime beyond ...

Following the lead from the G20 meeting in Rio, discussions at COP29 on Wednesday were all about money. The amount that appears to be gaining momentum among developed countries is ...

In what is seen as a boost to COP29, the G20 backed a new climate finance goal. In their joint declaration on Tuesday, they said “We look forward to a ...

We have entered the second and final week of COP29, with the closing plenary session scheduled to take place on Friday 22 November. But given the status of negotiations so far, ...

We are entering week two at COP29 and progress is still painfully slow and often acrimonious. Too many issues are still open and require closure this coming week. Top priority ...

COP29 has completed its first week with some successes, but also with a series of controversies. France’s top climate official is not going to COP29 in Baku after Azerbaijan’...

By Charles Ellinas Much has been said about Donald Trump’s return to the American Presidency and his likely impact on world politics. The bewildering mixed-bag of views is a ...

The annual UN Climate Change Summit, COP29, has opened in Baku, Azerbaijan. As many as 50,000 delegates from 200 countries are expected to attend. But key world leaders from the US, Europe, ...

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO-2024) on October 16, warning that the world is failing to limit global warming to 1.5C. What is new this ...

By Charles Ellinas Eurostat has just published its report on EU electricity price statistics for the first half of 2024. A subject close to the heart of long-suffering Cypriot electricity consumers. ...

It has been over two-and-a-half years since ExxonMobil last drilled in Cyprus’ EEZ, but the company is about to come back. In an interview earlier this month the minister of ...

By Charles Ellinas Finally, some good news about the beleaguered LNG import project in Cyprus. Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou confirmed in parliamentary hearings that an agreement has been reached with ...

This is based on my presentation at Atlantic Council’s ‘Regional Conference on Clean and Secure Energy’ that took place earlier this week. Every international meeting, be it the COPs, ...

Barriers to decarbonising the regional economies was one of the subjects covered at the ‘Climate Crisis in the East Med and the Middle East’ conference organised by Cyprus Institute in ...

Good news on the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) front, but priority must now shift to implementing measures that will bring electricity prices down between now and 2030, when the GSI is ...

The issue of a ‘notice-of-breach’ to Chevron – the Aphrodite gasfield operator – and its partners by the minister of energy, George Papanastasiou, on August 25 took everyone by surprise. They have been ...

As we get closer to critical decision-making deadlines, there is no end to debates about the viability and future of the Great Sea Interconnector. But sadly, often these are not ...

With shocks following shocks of an unprecedented scale and gravity, and with the European Commission (EC) withdrawing its support for the LNG import project at Vasilikos and asking for its ...

By Charles Ellinas Earlier in July, the EU published its ‘European Innovation Performance Scoreboard 2024’ and in June the IMF published its new ‘AI Preparedness Index Dashboard’. Both put Cyprus in ...

During the last two months two major reports were released reviewing world energy. First was the Energy Institute’s (EI) ‘Statistical review of world energy 2024’ published in June, followed by ...

By Charles Ellinas Judging from the latest statements by the Energy Minister, George Papanastasiou, the negotiations with the Chinese-led consortium CPP-METRON Consortium Ltd (CMC) have probably been exhausted, with no ...