Countries must match their rhetoric with action to solve pressing problems such as climate change and the regulation of artificial intelligence. Despite paralysis at institutions like the United Nations, organisations like the Arctic Council and International Seabed Authority are making progress.

UN Tourism forecasts a full recovery this year but the data is skewed by the robust recovery in Europe; across Asia, arrivals remain well below 2019 levels.

The mess Hong Kong has made of its waste management is unlikely to improve with the waste charging scheme and single-use plastic ban on the horizon. Rather than charging ahead, it might be wiser to further delay enactment until there is greater clarity of purpose and the plans could be improved.

By 2050, it’s projected only a quarter of countries will have above-replacement birth rates; by 2100 there will be just six. This will reconfigure the world economy and require societies to be reorganised.

The Clarion-Clipperton zone in the Pacific is believed to hold more cobalt and nickel than all the world’s terrestrial mines combined. The International Seabed Authority is under increasing pressure, caught between mining interests and environmentalists.

The rise of such crimes, sometimes violent, has been made easier by social media and cryptocurrency. Best to keep your luxury watch in a safe, or better still, not have one at all.

It’s not just how we can produce and afford the electricity, but also how we ensure we don’t aggravate global warming and squeeze domestic water supplies.

Chocolate will stay expensive as the cocoa crop faces existential challenges while demand continues to surge, including from China. The most urgent task is to grow cocoa without harming the environment, and ensure that cocoa farmers can lift themselves out of poverty in the process.

Little was expected of the thousands of trade officials gathered in the UAE for the WTO ministerial conference, and they delivered just that. At a time when pressure for reform and the need for global cooperation are mounting, the WTO is still struggling to get out of its own way.

Hongkongers cashing out their Mandatory Provident Fund last year and this year are likely to get less than they put in. Such forced savings should at least provide a minimum of financial security into old age

The face of the 1 billion-strong obesity epidemic is changing, with rates surging across the developing world and growing faster globally for the young than for adults.

As about half the world’s population goes to the polls this year, it’s worth asking exactly how democracy is delivering better than autocracies. Human rights and civil liberties are nice, but the true value of democratic politics must ultimately be judged by whether it delivers a full stomach.

While generative AI holds transformative promise for some, for others it heralds large-scale job losses and widespread ethical and security challenges. Even if this technological revolution lives up to its potential, it is clear its benefits will take years to reach consumers and firms in poorer countries.

The city has had a rough ride and some things have faded, like the dominance of Western business leaders in Hong Kong’s executive suites, but the city is stepping up Greater Bay Area integration and making new connections with formerly neglected markets. Dramatic change is afoot.

While many Hong Kong families decide to skip buying home insurance, people around the world may soon not have a choice. Climate change is causing insurance premiums to rise and, in the more vulnerable places, private insurers have stopped underwriting policies.

Donald Trump’s threat to encourage Russia to attack alliance members which are failing to ‘pay their bills’ has horrified leaders across the West. As the need for increased defence spending rises, pressure is being piled on national budgets that are already stretched thin.

The recent explosion of outrage over widespread illegal development in Hong Kong is a reminder of the extent of disdainful disregard for the law. Such abuse undermines respect for the rule of law, attracts corruption and calls into question the government’s integrity.

An International Energy Agency report highlights the progress made in the capacity of green energy sources to meet growing electricity demand. Increased electrification, if underpinned by renewable and nuclear power, could drive economies while limiting carbon emissions.

With prospects of a Trump 2.0 looming, the WTO zombified and experts warning of mega threats and a ‘polycrisis’, the absence of cooperation makes one fear the worst.

Global crisis in trust in governments, the media and even NGOs means mounting difficulties in garnering public support for economically important innovation and often-controversial social change.

Innovation has allowed the Jockey Club to remain competitive and retain and glamour of the sport, despite three terrible pandemic years and the decline in horse racing betting globally.

At a time when climate change, pandemic threats and technological changes are compounding the disruptive force of more conventional risks such as demographic change and political turmoil, there is good reason to marshal the serendipitous forces that surround us.

With industrial policy interventions growing, the transparency provided by a new global tracker will enable organisations like the IMF and WTO to distinguish between the good and bad.

While Hong Kong has been unfriended by a West concerned about the city’s democratic freedoms and legal system, Dubai, an absolute monarchy, attracts less hand-wringing. The emirate seems to have borrowed the freewheeling spirit of Hong Kong of old, more crucial to progress than its specific political architecture.

2023 ended without the technical recession economists expected, but their warning of stagflation and a potentially crippling debt crisis should not be easily dismissed.

The social media revolution has delivered a host of problems which appear to be damaging students’ capacity to learn. This is a concern as tech-driven smart jobs will require stronger literacy, numeracy and scientific competencies.

The 2019 unrest and three pandemic years have delayed Hong Kong’s integration, diminished its importance and left much of its part in the bay area development plan unfulfilled. Time to dust off the plan and use it.

Like previous climate conferences, Cop28 seems to revolve around missed targets, unfulfilled commitments and the increasingly grave consequences of our failures. But China, while still the worst polluter, is quietly and steadily making a planet-leading energy transition.

Modern tyres are a chemical cocktail and scientists are realising that the microparticles they shed are actually quite harmful – to wildlife, the food chain and us.

The sight of steadily falling rents in Hong Kong’s top shopping districts and high-end stores closing bodes ill. For Hong Kong to thrive requires a significant restructuring of the economy with less reliance on tourists and their retail spending interests.