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Air pollution concerns are leading China's National Development Reform Commission to set a higher goal for cleaner energy. The NDRC plans a 52 gigawatt increase in installed capacity for green energy in 2013, an increase from 36 gigawatts in 2012. This includes 10 gigawatts for solar energy. Clean energy will take up 57% of additions to installed capacity in 2013, compared to 35% in 2010, according to Tian Miao, an energy anayst at NSBO.

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During 2012 and 2013 the U.S. put pressure on China and India to cut oil imports from Iran to increase the effectiveness of sanctions. As negotiations eased the sanctions, China increased oil imports in 2014 by 30% in 2014 over the prior year. China's Foreign Ministry sees a "win-win spirit" in the nuclear deal that opens up economic relations with Iran. Analysts say China has setup three new storage facilities on its eastern coast with about 45 million barrels of new capacity, which could be filled with new supplies as its growth slows and demand decreases. China's imports were about 7 million barrels a day in June 2015.

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The Ukraine war could go on for months in a prolonged war of attrition now that Russian strategy is to withdraw its forces near Kviv and concentrate its forces in the east - on Donbas and Luhansk- says this report in the WSJ. US, Britain and other allied nations in Europe are increasing assistance to Ukraine in the conflict which could result in a long conflict. The result could be lasting changes in how the world was perceived pre covid and pre Ukraine. As in past conflicts in Europe there may be no winners in this war, just lasting changes in economic structures, more refugees integrated into the Eastern European economies, and accelerated changes in supply chains, renewable energy investment. Russia's people are not fully engaged, with use of younger less motivated and trained soldiers, leading to a conflict similar to that of the earlier period in European history where kings in Europe fought wars for geopolitical advantage, small territorial gains, and wars ended in small shifts in the balance of power between England, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Russia. German chancellor Scholz is said to be reading Cambridge historian Brendan Simms account of this in a book titled- "Europe." The book is appropriately subtitled "Europe- The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present." Simms sees Germany as critical to what happens in Europe.  One of the key changes is the reintegration of Germany and European Union with the US as happened during the years after world War II. The policies pursued by former chancellor Merkel in relation to China and Russia and the integration of the German and European economies with China and Russia is likely to be reversed for stronger US-EU ties under the Scholz and Biden leadership of the alliance, and stronger economic ties with Japan and India in Asia.     ...

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David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he is quite worried about the steadily declining participation of men 16-64 in the labor force from 85% in the decade after World War II to less than 65% today. This is a blow to the men, their families , government revenues and the economy.