MUNICH — The world is divided over how, and how aggressively, to respond to climate change.

MUNICH — Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the European Union needs money. And given that Paolo Gentiloni, the bloc’s economy commissioner, cannot get it directly from the EU’s member states, he wants to borrow it. The purpose does not seem to matter.

MUNICH  —  Say what you will about Russian President Vladimir Putin, but his war on Ukraine did open European eyes to some long-underrated truths.

MUNICH  —  Inflation is galloping in the eurozone, as the euro tumbles. In August 2022 annual eurozone inflation reached 9.1 per cent, and rates exceeding 20 per cent are now being registered in the Baltic countries.

MUNICH  —  Until recently, the European Central Bank (ECB) could simply throw money at the eurozone’s problems.

MUNICH  —  The war in Ukraine has led to an explosion in global food prices.

MUNICH  —  Germany long regarded its energy transition as cutting edge, compared to other Western industrialised countries.

MUNICH  —  With its 2020 “taxonomy for sustainable activities”, the European Union found a way to use the European Central Bank (ECB) to steer capital markets by directly subsidising interest expenses for “green” investment projects.

MUNICH — The European Union is one of the few signatories to the 2015 Paris climate agreement that initially committed to binding limits on its carbon dioxide emissions, having promised to reduce them by 40 per cent (and now 55 per cent) from 1990 levels by 2030.