COAL ACCOUNTS for a staggering 39% of annual emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels. If global emissions are to fall far enough, fast enough, to limit global warming the use of coal must be phased out. Asia, currently home to nearly 80% of coal consumption, will have to replicate the West’s success in curtailing its use. Australia, where coal is the second-biggest export and fuels two-thirds of the country’s electricity generation, is already moving away from the stuff. Similarly, Alberta, a Canadian province grown rich on another polluting fossil fuel, crude from oil sands, is rethinking its economic future. But most important by far is China, accounting for 52% of global coal use. Even there concerns over pollution and a glut of generating capacity have seen a decrease in the construction of new coal-fired power stations.
The global health-care business has remained largely stuck in the pre-digital age. But the pandemic is changing that. In America, for example, more and more people are turning to the internet and mobile apps to meet their health-care needs. In Britain, too, covid-19 has unleashed a wave of innovation in the National Health Service. Freed from bureaucracy, and pressed by the need to keep patients out of hospital, medics and health officials have rethought how care is provided. This week has been a spectacular one for evidence of medical-scientific advance, with a breakthrough in the analysis of proteins powered by artificial intelligence, and the licensing in Britain of a covid-19 vaccine. To sustain a global revolution in health care, governments must stop powerful lobbies from blocking the innovation surge when the pandemic abates.
News of successful vaccines has been cheered around the world, but has met a surprisingly muted reaction on the world’s stockmarkets. And until a vaccine is widely available in America, there are growing concerns that the run of good economic news is over, as the virus extends its grip. Deaths lag behind cases, and the share of American counties with at least one death from coronavirus in the previous week is soaring. Joe Biden has been assembling an economic-policy team, whose overriding challenge will be to repair an economy battered by covid-19. Europe, too, is still grappling with the pandemic. Skiing, of which the continent is inordinately fond, and which played a significant part in spreading the virus last winter, provides a telling perspective into the difficulties in defeating it.
Ping An, a technology conglomerate built around an insurance business, is an example of how China is redefining global finance. China’s growing clout, and its penchant for bullying foreign countries that stand up to it, are making clashes with America ever more frequent. This week Congress passed a bill that might put Chinese businesses worth a combined $2trn at eventual risk of expulsion from the American stock exchanges where they are listed. The strength of China’s economy has allowed its firms to thrive through the pandemic, even those in sectors badly affected in the West, such as hotels. In America, some catering businesses are weathering the pandemic. Many sit-down dining chains are on track to emerge stronger after two quarters of pandemic-driven innovation.
At one end of Asia, Taiwan’s economy has come through the pandemic with growth remarkably strong. At the other, India has sustained the deepest economic decline during the pandemic of any big country. Yet its stockmarket has scaled record peaks. In the second quarter India’s GDP fell by 24% compared with the previous year. More than 21m jobs are estimated to have been lost since the pandemic struck. The Sensex, an index of the country’s biggest 30 firms, is up by around 72% since March. Companies’ profits rose in the third quarter, even though revenues fell. That has helped India’s super-rich get even richer. The share of wealth and income going to the top 1% has been rising rapidly in recent years in India. Last year they hoovered up 21.4% of earnings.
