David Fickling

The global trade in the cheapest foods is grinding to a halt. In April, Indonesia temporarily banned exports of palm oil, cutting off India from one of its biggest sources of imported nutrition. India, in its turn last month, set a ceiling on exports of sugar, helping to keep more calories in…

Talk is easy. Political change is hard. In Australia, it’s more than two centuries overdue. Claiming victory in last month’s election, new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first words were a vow to redress the unfinished business from the colonial invasion of 1788. His promise to “commit to…

What do you get when three pandemics coincide with a drought? The most expensive chicken we’ve seen in years. Prices for the world’s most consumed meat have been surging in recent months. Retail whole chickens in the US cost $1.79 per pound in April, the highest price in 15 years of records and…

From the way the public conversation was going, you might think renewable energy was firmly on the back foot as a result of the energy crisis that’s roiled the world since late last year. Transport fuel taxes have been cut to ease the pain of high crude prices in the European Union, India, the…

The power crisis of recent months has sent the prices of oil, coal and gas to multi-year record levels. It’s also given deep-pocketed energy transition advocates an opportunity that they haven’t had in years: to put their money where their mouths are. That’s the thinking driving the A$7.9…

Gold isn’t behaving quite as you’d expect right now. US interest rates have risen by half a percentage point so far this year, as measured by the yield on 10-year government debt. That’s typically bad news for precious metal. About two-fifths of gold demand comes from private investors and…

Think your life has been unadventurous over the past few years, as the pandemic and closed borders have kept you bottled up at home? Spare a thought for the mining sector. An industry built on the romance and horror of finding riches on the wild frontier — from the Klondike to Kimberley, Kolyma…

If you’re thinking of investing in obscure battery materials to take advantage of the energy transition, there’s one company you should be watching right now: Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. Shares in the Shanghai-listed business have soared four fold over the past three years, to the point that it’s…

Here’s a new obstacle that could prevent the world finally turning the corner on climate change: Imagine that over the coming decade a whole new economy the size of Russia were to pop up out of nowhere. With the world’s fourth-largest electricity sector and largest burden of power plant emissions…