Climate change will rank among the key elements driving news events around the world in 2023, predicts Mai’a Cross, director of the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures at Northeastern. Though some promising climate change news emerged in Europe at the end of 2022, Cross acknowledges that time is running short to address the warming of the planet. She joins her Northeastern colleague, Pablo Calderon Martinez, in his concern that the richer nations—which happen to be the biggest polluters—may fail to provide financial assistance to poorer countries as part of a comprehensive global strategy. “Which countries are going to offer support?” says Calderon Martinez, assistant professor in politics and international relations at Northeastern University London. “That is the real sticking point of the negotiations.”
The Northeastern experts foresee the global community grappling with a variety of issues across the new year, including the myriad difficulties facing China, the impact of a likely global recession, the ongoing women’s rights protests in Iran, and the continuing threat of far-right ideology.
