Category: The Conversation – USA

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Elizabeth A. Logan, Associate Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and The West, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

On Jan. 7, 2025, people across the Los Angeles area watched in horror as powerful winds began spreading wildfires through neighborhood after neighborhood. Over three weeks, the fires destroyed more than 16,000 homes and businesses. At least 31 people died, and studies suggest the smoke and stress likely contributed to hundreds more deaths.

For many of us who lived through the fires, it was a traumatic experience that also brought neighborhoods closer together. Neighbors scrambled to help each other as burning embers started spot fires that threatened homes. They helped elderly and disabled residents evacuate.

As the LA region rebuilds a year later, many people are calling for improvements to zoning regulations, building codes, insurance and emergency communications systems. Conversations are underway about whether rebuilding in some locations makes sense at all.

But managing fire risk is about more than construction practices, regulations and rules. It is also about people and neighborliness – the ethos and practice of caring for those in your community, including making choices and taking steps on your own property to help keep the people around you safe.

As LA-area residents and historians who witnessed the fires’ destruction and have been following the recovery closely, we believe building a safer future for fire-risk communities includes increasing neighborliness and building shared knowledge of the past. Much of that starts in the schools.

Neighborliness matters in community fire safety

Being neighborly means recognizing the connectedness of life and addressing the common good, beyond just the individual and family network.

It includes community-wide fire mitigation strategies that can help prevent fires from spreading.

During the Southern California fires, houses, fences, sheds, roofs and dry vegetation served as the fuel for wind-blown fires racing through neighborhoods miles away from forested land. Being neighborly means taking steps to reduce risks on your own property that could put your neighbors at risk. Following fire officials’ recommendations can mean clearing defensible space around homes, replacing fire-prone plants and limiting or removing burnable material, such as wood fencing and sheds.

Neighborliness also recognizes the varying mental health impacts of significant wildfire events on the people who experience them. Being neighborly means listening to survivors and reaching out, particularly to neighbors who may be struggling or need help with recovery, and building community bonds.

Neighbors are often the first people who can help in an emergency before local, state and federal responders arrive. A fast neighborhood response, whether helping put out spot fires on a lawn or ensuring elderly residents or those without vehicles are able to evacuate, can save lives and property in natural disasters.

Fire awareness, neighborliness start in school

Community-based K-12 schools are the perfect places for learning and practicing neighborliness and providing transformative fire education.

Learning about the local history of wildfires, from the ecological impact of beneficial fire to fire disasters and how communities responded, can transform how children and their families think about fires and fire readiness.

However, in our view, fire history and safety is not currently taught nearly enough, even in fire-prone California.

California’s Department of Education Framework and Content Standards for K-12 education offer several opportunities to engage students with innovative lessons about wildfire causes, preparedness and resilience. For example, fourth grade history and social science standards include understanding “how physical environments (e.g., water, landforms, vegetation, climate) affect human activity.” Middle school science standards include mapping the history of natural hazards, though they only mention forest fires when discussing technology.

Schools could, and we believe should, include more fire history, ecological knowledge and understanding of the interconnectedness of neighborhoods and neighbors when it comes to fire safety in those and other classes.

Elementary schools in many states bring in firefighters to talk about fire safety, often through programs run by groups like the California Fire Prevention Organization. These efforts could spend more time looking beyond house fires to discuss how and where wildfires start, how they spread and how to make your own home and neighborhood much safer.

Models such as the U.S. Fire Administration’s collaboration with Sesame Workshop on the Sesame Street Fire Safety Program for preschool kids offer examples, blending catchy phrases with safety and science lessons.

Including knowledge from Indigenous tribal elders, fire management professionals and other community members can provide more robust fire education and understanding of the roles people play in fire risk and risk reduction. Introducing students to future career pathways in fire safety and response can also help students see their roles in fire safety.

As LA recovers from the 2025 fires, fire-prone states can prepare for future fires by expanding education about fire and neighborliness, and helping students take that knowledge home to their families.

Remembering, because it will happen again

Neighborliness also demands a pivot from the reflexive amnesia regarding natural and unnatural disasters to knowing that it will happen here again.

There’s a dangerous, stubborn forgetfulness in the vaunted Land of Sunshine. It is all part of the myth that helped make Southern California such a juggernaut of growth from the late 19th century forward.

The region was, boosters and public officials insisted, special: a civilization growing in the benign embrace of the environment. Anything grew here, the endless Los Angeles Basin could absorb everyone, and if there wasn’t enough water to slake the thirst of metropolitan ambitions, engineers and taxpayers would see to it that water from far away – even very far away – would be brought here.

The Southland is beautiful, but a place can be both beautiful and precarious, particularly in the grip of climate change. These are lessons we believe should be taught in K-12 classrooms as an important step toward lowering disaster risk. Living with fire means remembering and understanding the past. That knowledge, and developing more neighborly behavior, can save your life and the lives of your neighbors.

Elizabeth A. Logan receives funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the WHH Foundation.

William Deverell receives funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the WHH Foundation.

– ref. LA fires showed how much neighborliness matters for wildfire safety – https://theconversation.com/la-fires-showed-how-much-neighborliness-matters-for-wildfire-safety-272505

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jake Scott, Clinical Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, Stanford University

The Trump administration’s overhauling of the decades-old childhood vaccination schedule, announced by federal health officials on Jan. 5, 2026, has raised alarm among public health experts and pediatricians.

The U.S. childhood immunization schedule, the grid of colored bars pediatricians share with parents, recommends a set of vaccines given from birth through adolescence to prevent a range of serious infections. The basic structure has been in place since 1995, when federal health officials and medical organizations first issued a unified national standard, though new vaccines have been added regularly as science advanced.

That schedule is now being dismantled.

In all, the sweeping change reduces the universally recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. It moves vaccines against rotavirus, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease from routine recommendations to “shared clinical decision-making,” a category that shifts responsibility for initiating vaccination from the health care system to individual families.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has cast doubt on vaccine safety for decades, justified these changes by citing a 33-page assessment comparing the U.S. schedule to Denmark’s.

But the two countries differ in important ways. Denmark has 6 million people, universal health care and a national registry that tracks every patient. In contrast, the U.S. has 330 million people, 27 million uninsured and a system where millions move between providers.

These changes follow the CDC’s decision in December 2025 to drop a long-held recommendation that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B, despite no new evidence that questions the vaccine’s long-standing safety record.

I’m an infectious disease physician who treats vaccine-preventable diseases and reviews the clinical trial evidence behind immunization recommendations. The vaccine schedule wasn’t designed in a single stroke. It was built gradually over decades, shaped by disease outbreaks, technological breakthroughs and hard-won lessons about reducing childhood illness and death.

The early years

For the first half of the 20th century, most states required that students be vaccinated against smallpox to enter the public school system. But there was no unified national schedule. The combination vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, known as the DTP vaccine, emerged in 1948, and the Salk polio vaccine arrived in 1955, but recommendations for when and how to give them varied by state, by physician and even by neighborhood.

The federal government stepped in after tragedy struck. In 1955, a manufacturing failure at Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California, produced batches of polio vaccine containing live virus, causing paralysis in dozens of children. The incident made clear that vaccination couldn’t remain a patchwork affair. It required federal oversight.

In 1964, the U.S. surgeon general established the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, to provide expert guidance and recommendations to the CDC on vaccine use. For the first time, a single body would evaluate the evidence and issue national recommendations.

New viral vaccines

Through the 1960s, vaccines against measles (1963), mumps (1967) and rubella (1969) were licensed and eventually combined into what’s known as the MMR shot in 1971. Each addition followed a similar pattern: a disease that killed or disabled thousands of children annually, a vaccine that proved safe and effective in trials, and a recommendation that transformed a seemingly inevitable childhood illness into something preventable.

The rubella vaccine went beyond protecting the children who received it. Rubella, also called German measles, is mild in children but devastating to fetuses, causing deafness, heart defects and intellectual disabilities when pregnant women are infected.

A rubella epidemic in 1964 and 1965 drove this point home: 12.5 million infections and 20,000 cases of congenital rubella syndrome left thousands of children deaf or blind. Vaccinating children also helped protect pregnant women by curbing the spread of infection. By 2015, rubella had been eliminated from the Americas.

Hepatitis B and the safety net

In 1991, the CDC added hepatitis B vaccination at birth to the schedule. Before then, around 18,000 children every year contracted the virus before their 10th birthday.

Many parents wonder why newborns need this vaccine. The answer lies in biology and the limitations of screening.

An adult who contracts hepatitis B has a 95% chance of clearing the virus. An infant infected in the first months of life has a 90% chance of developing chronic infection, and 1 in 4 will eventually die from liver failure or cancer. Infants can acquire the virus from their mothers during birth, from infected household members or through casual contact in child care settings. The virus survives on surfaces for days and is highly contagious.

Early strategies that targeted only high-risk groups failed because screening missed too many infected mothers. Even today, roughly 12% to 18% of pregnant women in the U.S. are never screened for hepatitis B. Until ACIP dropped the recommendation in early December 2025, a first dose of this vaccine at birth served as a safety net, protecting all infants regardless of whether their mothers’ infection status was accurately known.

This safety net worked: Hepatitis B infections in American children fell by 99%.

A unified standard

For decades, different medical organizations issued their own, sometimes conflicting, recommendations. In 1995, ACIP, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians jointly released the first unified childhood immunization schedule, the ancestor of today’s familiar grid. For the first time, parents and physicians had a single national standard.

The schedule continued to evolve. ACIP recommended vaccinations for chickenpox in 1996; rotavirus in 2006, replacing an earlier version withdrawn after safety monitoring detected a rare side effect; and HPV, also in 2006.

Each addition followed the same rigorous process: evidence review, risk-benefit analysis and a public vote by the advisory committee.

More vaccines, less burden

Vaccine skeptics, including Kennedy, often claim erroneously that children’s immune systems are overloaded because the number of vaccines they receive has increased. This argument is routinely marshaled to argue for a reduced childhood vaccination schedule.

One fact often surprises parents: Despite the increase in recommended vaccines, the number of immune-stimulating molecules in those vaccines, called antigens, has dropped dramatically since the 1980s, which means they are less demanding on a child’s immune system.

The whole-cell pertussis vaccine used in the 1980s alone contained roughly 3,000 antigens. Today’s entire schedule contains fewer than 160 antigens, thanks to advances in vaccine technology that allow precise targeting of only the components needed for protection.

What lies ahead

For decades, ACIP recommended changes to the childhood schedule only when new evidence or clear shifts in disease risk demanded it. The Jan. 5 announcement represents a fundamental break from that norm: Multiple vaccines moved out of routine recommendations simultaneously, justified not by new safety data but by comparison to a country with a fundamentally different health care system.

Kennedy accomplished this by filling positions involved in vaccine safety with political appointees. His hand-picked ACIP is stacked with members with a history of anti-vaccine views. The authors of the assessment justifying the change, senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration and at HHS, are both long-time critics of the existing vaccine schedule. The acting CDC director who signed the decision memo is an investor with no clinical or scientific background.

The practical effect will be felt in clinics across the country. Routine recommendations trigger automatic prompts in medical records and enable nurses to vaccinate under standing orders. “Shared clinical decision-making” requires a physician to be involved in every vaccination decision, creating bottlenecks that will inevitably reduce uptake, particularly for the more than 100 million Americans who lack regular access to primary care.

Major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have said that they will continue recommending the full complement of childhood vaccines. Several states, including California, New York and Illinois, will follow established guidelines rather than the new federal recommendations, creating a patchwork where children’s protection depends on where they live.

Portions of this article originally appeared in a previous article published on Dec. 18, 2025.

Jake Scott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. RFK Jr. guts the US childhood vaccine schedule despite its decades-long safety record – https://theconversation.com/rfk-jr-guts-the-us-childhood-vaccine-schedule-despite-its-decades-long-safety-record-272788

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alexander L. Metcalf, Associate Professor of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, University of Montana

Management of gray wolves (Canis lupus) has a reputation for being one of the most contentious conservation issues in the United States. The topic often conjures stark images of supporters versus opponents: celebratory wolf reintroductions to Yellowstone National Park and Colorado contrasted with ranchers outraged over lost cattle; pro-wolf protests juxtaposed with wolf bounty hunters. These vivid scenes paint a picture of seemingly irreconcilable division.

But in contrast to these common caricatures, surveys of public opinion consistently show that most people around the world hold positive views of wolves, often overwhelmingly so. This trend holds true even in politically conservative U.S. states, often assumed to be hostile toward wolf conservation. For example, a recent study of ours in Montana found that an increasing majority of residents, 74% in 2023, are tolerant or very tolerant of wolves.

Still, the perception of deep conflict persists and is often amplified by media coverage and politicians. But what if these exaggerated portrayals, and the assumptions of division they reinforce, are themselves contributing to the very conflict they describe? In a study published Jan. 6, 2026, we explored this question.

The human side of conservation

We are social scientists who study the human dimensions of environmental issues, from wildfire to wildlife. Using tools from psychology and other social sciences, we examine how people relate to nature and to each other when it comes to environmental issues. These human relationships often matter more to conservation outcomes than the biology of the species or ecosystems in question. Conservation challenges are typically people problems.

One of the most powerful yet underappreciated forces in these dynamics is social identity, the psychological force that compels people to sort themselves into groups and take those group boundaries seriously. Social identity theory, a foundational concept in psychology, shows that once people see themselves as members of a group, they are naturally inclined to favor “us” and be wary of “them.”

But strong group loyalties also come with costs: They can distort how people see and interpret the world and exacerbate conflict between groups.

When identity distorts reality

Social identity can shape how people interpret even objectively true facts. It can lead people to misjudge physical distances and sizes and assume the worst about members of different groups. When this identification runs deep, a phenomenon called identity fusion can occur, when someone’s personal identity becomes tightly linked to their group identity.

This phenomenon can lead people to act in questionable ways, even ways they might otherwise find immoral, particularly when they believe their group is under threat. For example, it’s possible these forces contribute to high-profile cover-ups of reprehensible behavior.

In our recent research, we tested how activating people’s political identities – simply reminding them of their own political party affiliations – affected their perceptions of wolves in the U.S.

Across two studies involving over 2,200 participants from nine states with wolf populations, we found a striking pattern. When we activated people’s political identity, their attitudes toward wolves became more polarized. Democrats’ affinity for wolves increased, as did Republicans’ aversion.

On the other hand, when our particants’ political identities were not activated, they generally liked wolves, regardless of their politics. In a follow-up experiment where we had people guess their fellow and rival party members’ attitudes toward wolves, we found this identity-based polarization was driven by people’s assumptions about their in-group but not their out-group. People incorrectly assumed others in their party held extreme views about wolves, and those assumptions in turn shaped their own attitudes toward the species.

In other words, the caricatures themselves created the conflict.

This is an ironic and tragic outcome: A situation where many people actually agree became polarized not because of deep-seated differences but because of how people imagined others feel.

Bridging the gap

Fortunately, the same psychological forces that divide people can also bring them together. When we showed our research participants the actual views of others, specifically that most of their fellow political party members held positive attitudes toward wolves, their own attitudes moderated.

Other strategies for uniting people involve activating “cross-cutting” identities, or shared identities that span traditional divides. For instance, someone might identify both as a rancher and a conservationist, or a hunter who is also a wildlife advocate. More broadly, our respondents are all Americans and community members who share a common humanity. Highlighting these blended and shared identities can reduce the sense of “us vs. them” and open the door to more productive conversations.

The debate over wolves may seem like an intractable clash of values. But our research suggests it doesn’t have to be. When people move beyond caricatures of conflict and recognize the common ground that already exists, we can begin to shift the conversation and maybe even find ways to live not just with wolves, but with each other.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Americans generally like wolves − except when we’re reminded of our politics – https://theconversation.com/americans-generally-like-wolves-except-when-were-reminded-of-our-politics-267511

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Shelley Inglis, Senior Visiting Scholar with the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University

The U.S. military operation in Venezuela and capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026, topped off months of military buildup and targeted strikes in the Caribbean Sea. It fulfills President Donald Trump’s claim to assert authoritative control over the Western Hemisphere, articulated in his administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy.

Some national security experts say U.S. military action in Venezuela – taken without U.S. congressional approval or U.N. Security Council authorization – is unlawful. It may violate domestic and international law.

The Venezuela attack represents the clearest example during Trump’s second presidency of the shift from traditional American values of democratic freedom and the rules-based international order to an America exerting unilateral power based purely on perceived economic interests and military might. Autocratic leaders are unconstrained by law and balance of power, using force to impose their will on others.

So, what does this transition from a liberal America in the world to an autocratic U.S. look like? After decades of working internationally on democracy and peace-building, I see three interrelated areas of long-standing U.S. foreign policy engagement being unraveled.

1. Peace and conflict prevention

The Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela reflect its “peace through strength” approach to international relations, which emphasizes military power. The actions also follow the emphasis the administration places on economic pressure and wins as a deterrent to war and a cudgel for peace.

This approach contrasts with decades of diplomatic efforts to build peace processes that last.

Foreign policy experts point out that the Trump administration’s emphasis on business deal-making in its conduct of foreign relations, focused on bargaining between positions, misses the point of peacemaking, which is to address underlying interests shared by parties and build the trust required to tackle the drivers of conflict.

Trump’s focus on deal-making also counters the world’s traditional reliance on the U.S. as an honest broker and a reliable economic partner that supports free trade. Trump made it clear that U.S. interest in oil is a key rationale for the Venezuela attack.

Before Venezuela, the limits of the Trump administration’s approach were already showing in the global conflicts Trump claims to have halted. That’s evident in ongoing violence between Thailand and Cambodia and in ceasefire violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Moreover, U.S. expertise and resources for sustainable peacemaking and preventing conflict are gone.

The entire Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations in the U.S. Department of State was dismantled in May 2025, while funding for conflict prevention and key peace programs like Women, Peace and Security was cut.

Trump’s unilateral military action against Venezuela belie an authentic commitment to sustainable peace.

While it’s too soon to predict Venezuela’s future under U.S. control, the Trump administration’s approach is likely to drive more global conflict and violence in 2026, as major powers begin to understand the different rules and learn to play the new game.

2. Democracy and human rights

Since the 1980s, U.S. national security strategies have incorporated aspects of democracy promotion and human rights as U.S. values.

Trump has not highlighted human rights and democracy as rationales for capturing Maduro. And, so far, the administration has rejected claims to the Venezuelan leadership by opposition leader María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, widely considered the legitimate winner of the 2024 presidential election.

Much of the U.S. foreign policy to build democracy globally and promote human rights was delivered through foreign assistance, worth over US$3 billion in 2024. The Trump administration cut that by nearly 75% in 2025.

These funds sought to promote fair elections, supporting civil societies and free media globally. They were also meant to help enable independent and corruption-free judiciaries in many countries, including Venezuela.

Since 1998, for example, the U.S. has funded 85% of the annual $10 million budget of the U.N Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. The fund, now imperiled, helps survivors recover from torture in the U.S. and around the world.

The congressionally mandated annual Human Rights Report issued by the State Department in August signaled the Trump administration’s intent to undermine key human rights obligations of foreign governments.

However, the White House has used tariffs, sanctions and military strikes to punish countries on purported human rights-related grounds, such as in Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa. Equally concerning to democracy defenders is its rhetoric chastising European democracies and apparent willingness to elevate political parties in Europe that reject human rights.

3. International cooperation

A major aim of U.S. foreign policy has traditionally been to counter threats to America’s security that require cooperation with other governments.

But the Trump administration is ignoring or denying many transnational threats. They include terrorism, nuclear proliferation, pandemics, new technologies and climate change.

Moreover, the tools that America helped build to tackle shared global threats, like international law and multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, have been disparaged and undermined.

Even before the U.S. attack on Venezuela, scholars were warning of the collapse of the international norm, embedded in the U.N. Charter, that prohibits the use of force by one sovereign country against another, except in specific cases of self-defense.

Early in 2025, Trump signaled an end to much of U.S. multilateral engagement, pulling the country out of many international bodies, agendas and treaties.

The administration proposed eliminating its contributions to U.N. agencies like the fund for children. It is also allocating only $300 million this year to the U.N., which is about one-fifth of the membership dues it owes the organization by law. A looming budgetary crisis has now consumed this sole worldwide deliberation body.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration says migration and drug trafficking, including from Venezuela, pose the greatest security threats. Its solutions – continuing U.S. economic and military might in the Americas – ignore shared challenges like corruption and human trafficking that drive these threats and also undermine U.S. economic security.

There is also evidence that the Trump administration is not only disregarding international law and retreating from America’s long-standing respect for international cooperation, but it’s also seeking to reshape policy in its own image and punish those it disagrees with.

For example, its call to reframe global refugee protections – to undermine the principle that prohibits a return of people to a country where they could be persecuted – would alter decades-old international and U.S. domestic law. The Trump administration has already dismantled much of the U.S. refugee program, lowering the cap for 2025 to historic levels.

Even for those who work in international institutions, there could also be a price to pay for an illiberal America. For instance, the Trump administration has economically sanctioned many judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court for their work.

And the administration has threatened more sanctions unless the court promises not to prosecute Trump – a more salient challenge now with the apparent U.S. aggression against Venezuela, which is a party to the International Criminal Court.

Some democracy experts worry that the U.S. military action in Venezuela not only undermines international law, but it may also serve to reinforce Trump’s project to undo the rule of law and democracy at home.

Until July 1, 2025, Shelley Inglis served in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance at the United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D).

– ref. 2026 begins with an increasingly autocratic United States rising on the global stage – https://theconversation.com/2026-begins-with-an-increasingly-autocratic-united-states-rising-on-the-global-stage-271670

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Lisa Bosman, Associate Professor of Technology Leadership and Innovation, Purdue University

Many engineering and science undergraduates are approaching January application deadlines for prestigious summer internships and study abroad programs – or, in some cases, a spot in the National Science Foundation’s highly competitive Research Experience for Undergraduates, a specialized, paid summer research internship.

Roughly 6,000 American undergraduates take part in this internship each year. Landing this competitive research internship is a big deal. It can give young people interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers hands-on experience, real confidence and a clear picture of what to expect when enrolling in science and engineering graduate programs.

And even if a student decides graduate school isn’t for them, an REU, as it is often known, still shows young people that there are many exciting paths to consider in STEM professions.

A shift for REU internships

These in-person, 10-week summer research experiences mostly take place at approximately 150 to 200 universities in the United States, but also at schools in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany and other countries.

REU internships don’t always produce immediate research breakthroughs, but their real purpose is to spark students’ interest in science and prepare them for graduate school and research careers.

During the pandemic, many universities shifted to running REU programs online. Students participating in online REUs conducted research from home and met mentors online, rather than in person.

Surprisingly, this change not only saved money, but it also improved student outcomes in terms of what they said they learned, entrepreneurial skills they developed and the confidence they gained in applying to engineering and technology graduate programs.

Purdue University, where I work as a researcher and innovation professor, piloted one virtual and facilitated two in-person REU programs between August 2021 and August 2024. We found that the virtual model delivered the same – if not better – learning outcomes at a fraction of the cost.

The 14 students who participated in the virtual REU over the course of one or two semesters reported stronger gains in research skills than those who joined the full-time, in-person summer program.

Virtual learning

There are several reasons why this virtual REU approach likely worked.

First, the virtual students met with faculty mentors more often than students who participated in an in-person REU program.

While summer, in-person undergraduate researchers usually met with their mentors around 10 times over the course of 10 weeks, virtual students met weekly with their mentors over 16 to 32 weeks – sometimes having three times as many meetings.

That regular contact helped students stay on track and dive deeper into their renewable energy-focused projects.

Second, because they weren’t spending time in labs, virtual students spent more time doing the kinds of research activities that prepare them for graduate school, like reviewing academic literature, writing up results and thinking through complex problems. These are the kinds of skills that matter most when students make the leap from college to research careers.

Third, the longer, part-time structure of the virtual program gave students more time to absorb new information, reflect on what they were learning and connect ideas. Instead of cramming everything into a 10-week sprint, they took a marathon approach, which helped them learn more.

And finally, virtual REUs made it possible for more students to join the program – especially for those who couldn’t leave home for the summer due to family or other obligations. In our virtual program, we were able to accommodate 14 students, instead of the 10 students who had previously participated in a lab setting.

Cost-effective research

From a financial perspective, the contrast is striking between virtual and in-person research experiences for undergraduates.

The National Science Foundation recommends budgeting about US$1,550 per student per week for summer REUs. Of that, only $600 goes to the student as a stipend – the rest is spent on housing, meals and travel.

For the cost of offering an in-person summer program to two students, we could serve five in a two-semester virtual REU, or even 10 in a one-semester online version. The potential to reach more students, for longer periods, is undeniable.

In other words, virtual REUs are not just a pandemic-era stopgap. They’re a smarter, cheaper and more inclusive way to deliver on the promise of undergraduate research.

To be sure, there can be some downsides.

While virtual REUs still offer valuable research experience and guidance, students participating in remote programs do miss out on working directly in labs and building natural connections with mentors and peers. Because of this, students can feel less connected and less supported than they would in an in-person program.

Also, not everyone thrives with remote learning.

As the National Science Foundation and other agencies that do scientific research grapple with potentially steep budget cuts, I believe that they should take a hard look at what we’ve learned. Virtual REUs aren’t a compromise – they’re a proven, cost-effective strategy that stretches public dollars while giving students more of what they actually need: access, mentorship and real research experience.

I believe that if the U.S. wants to build the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators, the government needs to try to meet students where they are – and sometimes, that means meeting them online.

Lisa Bosman receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

– ref. Virtual National Science Foundation internships aren’t just a pandemic stopgap – they can open up opportunities for more STEM students – https://theconversation.com/virtual-national-science-foundation-internships-arent-just-a-pandemic-stopgap-they-can-open-up-opportunities-for-more-stem-students-257853

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Jenn Finders, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University

Colorado is the sixth-least affordable state for child care in the nation. Costs for center-based care average 14% of a two-parent household’s median income and 45% of a single parent’s median income. The federal affordability benchmark is just 7%.

Colorado also faces significant shortages in access to slots in licensed child care programs. In 2023, more than 40,000 Colorado parents reported quitting a job, turning down a job or significantly changing a job because of problems with child care.

Recently, several Colorado counties passed measures to subsidize child care through local taxes. Despite these advancements, Colorado’s child care system is facing a fiscal crisis that is likely to affect families and children for years to come.

Child care disruptions for families with infants and toddlers are estimated to cost the state more than US$2.7 billion in lost economic productivity and revenue. Ensuring access to affordable child care supports workforce participation and enhances the well-being of children and families.

I study early care and education policies and programs that promote children’s cognitive, behavioral and social-emotional learning. My research lab at Colorado State University has been investigating the consequences of a lack of access to high-quality, affordable child care on child and family outcomes.

Colorado’s Child Care Assistance Program

Since the late 1990s, the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program has subsidized the cost of child care for parents and caregivers with lower incomes who are working, searching for work or pursuing education. My research shows these subsidies are a critical lifeline that help lower-income families access child care.

Subsidies allow families to prioritize factors other than cost, such as location, in their search for child care. From 2023 to 2024, the Colorado subsidy program served more than 30,000 children in the state. That’s about 10% of those who qualified, which is typical for most states.

A federal March 2024 rule from the Administration for Children and Families caps family co-payments at no more than 7% of household income. It also requires reimbursement rates to reflect the full cost of care, whereas previously subsidy payments were based on what families could afford to pay.

Although intended to improve affordability for families and adequately compensate child care programs, the rule included no additional federal funding. In Colorado, meeting these new requirements is projected to cost the subsidy system approximately $43 million more per year.

These changes, combined with the expiration of COVID-19 relief funding that provided Colorado an additional $465 million to stabilize and expand child care assistance, has created growing financial instability for the subsidy system.

Approximately one-third of Colorado counties are experiencing an enrollment freeze for their child care subsidies. This means new applicants cannot access subsidized care until the freeze is lifted. There is no set timeline for when that will occur.

Without additional funding that would allow the freeze to be lifted, enrollment in Colorado’s Child Care Assistance Program is estimated to decline by 64%, falling from about 30,000 to just 10,000 enrollees. As children age out or families no longer qualify, spots that would normally open up for new enrollees will remain unfilled during the freeze.

Zooming in on Larimer County

I have been studying the impacts of the enrollment freeze in my hometown of Larimer County, Colorado. It’s a geographically diverse region that includes urban centers such as Fort Collins and Loveland, mountain destinations such as Estes Park, and rural agricultural communities. Like elsewhere in the state, child care costs pose a significant financial strain on local families.

A household in Larimer County with a median income of $64,919 and two children under the age of 5 spends approximately 37% of its income on child care. Due to budget constraints, Larimer County has had an enrollment freeze in the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program since February of 2024. The county has effectively paused the intake of new applicants for subsidies.

Recently, we administered surveys to 88 families in Larimer County. Approximately half of those surveyed were currently receiving a subsidy and half had applied but were unable to access it because of the freeze. We compared families using advanced statistical modeling that controlled for any differences between groups, allowing us to isolate the effects of the subsidy freeze on family outcomes.

In unpublished research that is being prepared for peer review, we found families affected by the freeze used fewer paid child care hours, faced higher costs, expressed greater concerns about costs, and reported more difficulty paying for care. They also had less reliable and stable arrangements, were less satisfied with their care, experienced higher child care-related stress and displayed greater risk of depression.

But that’s not all. Families without a subsidy reported missing twice as many workdays. When extrapolated across the 425 families in Larimer County affected by the freeze, this translated to over $2.2 million in lost annual earnings.

Local initiatives driving solutions

Recognizing the gaps in affordable child care, counties across Colorado introduced ballot measures to fund local solutions through tax revenue.

These measures come after the state established a universal preschool program in 2022. The following year, the program provided up to 15 hours per week of tuition-free, high-quality preschool for more than 85,000 children.

Measures in Larimer, San Miguel, Garfield, Pitkin and southwest Eagle counties will directly fund child care through sales or property taxes. Measures in Gilpin, Hinsdale, Ouray and Eagle counties will generate funds through lodging taxes.

In Larimer, voters passed a measure that established an additional countywide sales tax of 0.25%, or 25 cents per 100 dollars. The measure is expected to generate $28 million annually for child care assistance and workforce compensation.

In San Miguel, voters passed a measure to opt-out of a state limit on the existing property tax levy of 75 cents for every 1,000 dollars of assessed property value. This will allow the county to retain nearly $1 million annually to support local child care affordability.

In Eagle County, voters passed a measure approving a lodging tax increase from 2% to 4% on hotel stays and short-term rentals that will raise approximately $4.5 million annually to lower child care costs.

Revenue from these initiatives will provide child care tuition to families, expand child care slots, support quality improvement and raise wages for child care workers.

These local investments cannot by themselves resolve Colorado’s statewide child care funding deficit, but they have the potential to transform access and quality within communities where they are implemented.

Colorado is not alone in these issues. Many other states are facing subsidy enrollment freezes and are exploring regional solutions to stabilize funding.

For example, ballot measures in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Seattle, Washington, also recently passed, providing reliable funding for child care assistance, preschool quality and workforce compensation.

With the uncertainty of the state and federal funding landscape, municipalities across the country may look to Colorado as a model for locally driven strategies that address community needs.

Read more of our stories about Colorado.

Jenn Finders has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, and North Central Regional Center for Rural Development.

– ref. Colorado faces a funding crisis for child care − local communities hope to fill the gaps – https://theconversation.com/colorado-faces-a-funding-crisis-for-child-care-local-communities-hope-to-fill-the-gaps-270560

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Ray Madoff, Professor of Law, Boston College

Law professor Ray Madoff is the co-founder and director of the Boston College Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good. In an interview with Emily Schwartz Greco, The Conversation U.S. philanthropy and nonprofits editor, Madoff sums up some of the main points about charitable giving she makes in her 2025 book, “The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy.” This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How has charitable giving changed over the past 50 years?

Giving has pretty much remained flat as a percentage of personal disposable income. It’s been stable by that measure at about 2%. What’s changed is where that charitable giving is going.

In the early 1990s, about 6% of all giving was going to intermediaries, like foundations and donor-advised funds, and 94% was going directly to charities: hospitals, universities, churches, organizations curing diseases, all sorts of things.

Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, are charitable investment accounts that can serve many of the functions of a foundation – but with fewer rules and regulations.

Fast-forward to today, and there’s been a huge transformation with dramatic growth in giving to intermediaries. Today, around 40% of U.S. giving from individual donors goes instead to charitable intermediaries, and 60% of those donations go straight to charities.

When money donated to charity through intermediaries primarily went to foundations, those assets were subject to a 5% payout rule. It was imperfect, but still, at least 5% of those funds, for the most part, had to go to charity.

Now, due to the rise of donor-advised funds, none of this money going to intermediaries is subject to payout rules.

That’s because there are no payout rules that apply to donor-advised funds, and foundations can meet their payout minimum by giving to a donor-advised fund.

Charitable giving, in other words, used to be more connected to what I’d call “charitable getting.” Now, the money is often landing in what’s essentially a halfway house, with no obligation to get out.

What is the current state of play with respect to the tax rules governing charitable giving?

There’s a tale of two systems for charitable giving.

Most Americans have no ability to get any tax benefits for their charitable giving, while the wealthiest Americans can get benefits that are worth up to 74% of the value of their donations.

The reason most Americans get no tax benefits is that they can only offset their income tax if they itemize their tax returns, instead of taking the standard deduction.

Prior to the tax reform package that President Donald Trump signed into law in 2017, about 70% took the standard deduction and 30% didn’t. Once those reforms took effect, the share of taxpayers who were itemizing fell below 10%.

The more than 90% of taxpayers who claimed the standard deduction in 2022, for example, couldn’t get any tax breaks tied to their charitable giving.

What do you expect to see change due to provisions in the big tax and spending package that Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025?

The government is adding a new deduction for non-itemizers. Starting in 2026, they will be able to deduct up to US$1,000 of their taxable income when they file their taxes, if they give at least that amount to charity. That means some charitable tax benefits will be available for people who take the standard deduction.

It’s very hard to tell what kind of impact that is going to have.

If charities publicize this, it might encourage some people to give who might not otherwise give to donate. But it could also cause a lot of confusion and make other people think that there is a $1,000 cap on tax benefits for all charitable donations. I think it’s going to be a difficult messaging problem.

As a matter of policy, I also think it’s not very well drafted. I do think we should be giving charitable tax benefits to non-itemizers, but a better format would be to give everybody a tax credit so they have the same dollar-for-dollar benefit, regardless of their income bracket.

And rather than imposing a ceiling, we should impose a floor, as a certain amount of giving is going to happen even with no incentives.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

Are there other policy changes that you support?

I have two proposals.

First, I believe that private foundations and donor-advised funds should have to distribute their funds that are reserved for charity within some set time period.

Second, I think that just as other Americans are subject to limitations on their tax benefits, the wealthiest should be subject to limitations on their tax benefits too.

If it’s important for you and me to help pay down the national debt, then why isn’t it important for Warren Buffett to do so?

Is there a risk that giving might decline due to these changes?

If they had to spend it quickly, maybe there would be less money set aside in these charitable intermediaries.

But if someone has no intention to disburse those funds, then I think it wouldn’t matter that their money is no longer getting halfway to actually being received by charities.

Do you believe that the philanthropy of rich people is helpful?

Philanthropy is often used as shorthand for something that is great for society.

But philanthropy includes a lot of not-great things.

Sometimes people make mistakes. Just because someone is good at making money, it doesn’t mean they’re good at solving other people’s problems.

For example, actor Brad Pitt, maybe with good intentions, decided he was going to fix housing problems after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ 9th Ward. He got architects to build houses that are now falling apart. It’s a massive problem.

Sometimes their gifts aren’t so well-intentioned.

Rich philanthropists may donate to groups calling for lower taxes. Or they try to curry favor with the White house by helping pay for the construction of Trump’s new ballroom, which is going to be built with charitable money.

Charity expert Bill Schambra has brought to light what he calls “philanthropy’s original sin: Early U.S. foundations supported eugenics – the pseudoscience movement that sought to encourage “fit” people to have kids and to stop people deemed “unfit” from doing so, sometimes through forced sterilization.

Today, there’s another common problem: the philanthropy of whimsy.

One example is what happened with the nonprofit pre-K-8 school for low-income children in East Palo Alto, California, that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, funded. He was saying “Oh hey, I think I’m going to solve the problems of poverty in East Palo Alto.” And then, “Oops, I changed my mind.”

The school is slated to close at the end of the 2025-2026 year.

That’s why, generally speaking, I don’t think we should assume that what’s done with philanthropy is better than what’s done with tax dollars.

What about MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife? She’s given about $26 billion to charity since 2019.

I am a big supporter of how MacKenzie Scott does her philanthropic giving. She seems to be trying to do the right thing. She’s trying to build civil society, which I think is good. She’s giving to existing organizations, with no strings attached.

A lot of it is about power. If you give money to institutions, as Scott is doing, then the institutions have power. If you keep the money yourself, and you drip it out, then you have power.

Ray Madoff was an adviser to and supporter of the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving, a coalition of philanthropists, foundations and academics.

– ref. With less charitable giving flowing directly to charities, a tax policy scholar suggests some policy fixes – https://theconversation.com/with-less-charitable-giving-flowing-directly-to-charities-a-tax-policy-scholar-suggests-some-policy-fixes-271677

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Jaclyn L. Tanenbaum, Associate Teaching Professor, Florida International University

Imagine you are searching for a new mattress online and find something surprising. The retailer displays an ad featuring a “Mattress Comfort Scale” running from 1 (soft) to 10 (firm), followed by the message that if your firmness preference is at either end, this mattress is not for you. Wait … what? A retailer telling someone not to buy its product? No way!

Why would a company tell potential buyers that the product might not suit them? Our team of professors – Karen Anne Wallach, Jaclyn L. Tanenbaum and Sean Blair – examines this question in a recently published article in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Marketers spend billions trying to persuade consumers that a product is right for them. But our research shows that sometimes the most effective way to market something is to say that it isn’t for them. In other words, effective marketing can mean discouraging the wrong customers rather than convincing everyone to buy.

We call this “dissuasive framing.” Instead of saying a product is perfect for everyone, a company is up front about who it might not be for. Surprisingly, that simple shift can make a big difference.

We ran experiments comparing ads with dissuasive versus persuasive framing. For example, one coffee ad said, “If you like dark roast, this is the coffee for you.” Another said, “If you don’t like dark roast, this isn’t the coffee for you.” Most marketers assume the first version would work better. But for people who prefer dark roast, the second message outperformed it.

Across different products, from salsa to mattresses, and in a real Facebook campaign for a toothbrush brand, we consistently saw the same results. The dissuasive ad drove more engagement and clicks, making the brand feel more specialized and its product more appealing for the right customers.

Why? You might think it’s about fear of missing out, or reverse psychology, but we ruled out those explanations. Instead, we found that what really drives the effect is the perception of a stronger match between personal preference and product attributes.

When a message signals that a product may not suit everyone, consumers see it as more focused on a specific set of preferences. This sense of focus, which we call “target specificity,” makes the product feel like a better match for customers whose preferences align with it. For others, it feels less relevant, which helps companies reach their goal of attracting those who are most likely to buy.

Our results show a clear trend: When companies set boundaries in their messages, products appear more focused. This messaging strategy makes the intended customer feel like the product is a better match for them. People assume that if a product isn’t meant for everyone, it must be more specialized. That sense of specificity makes those in the target audience feel the product was designed just for them.

Why it matters

These findings challenge one of marketing’s most enduring assumptions: that effective marketing comes from directly persuading customers that a product matches their needs. In today’s crowded marketplace, where nearly every brand claims to be “for you,” dissuasive messaging offers an alternative. By clearly signaling that a product may not be right for customers with different preferences, brands can communicate focus and specialization. Consumers see this as a sign that the company understands its own product and who it will best serve.

Our work also helps explain how people make what psychologists call compensatory inferences. This means consumers often believe that when a product tries to do too many things, it ends up doing each of them less well. Think of an all-in-one tool that can cut, twist, open and file – but few would say it performs any of those tasks better than the dedicated tool.

From a practical standpoint, dissuasive framing helps marketers communicate more effectively by defining the boundaries of their product’s appeal. In doing so, brands can build trust, strengthen connections with the right customers, and avoid spending their marketing dollars on those unlikely to purchase.

What still isn’t known

Our research focused on products with clear attributes, such as taste or comfort, and on consumers who already knew their preferences. Future work could test how this approach works when people are less certain about what they like or when choices reflect self-expression rather than product fit.

Even with these open questions, one conclusion stands out. Defining whom a product is not for can help the right customers see that it truly fits them. By focusing on preference matching rather than universal appeal, brands can make their messages more targeted, more efficient and ultimately more effective. In other words, telling the wrong customers “This isn’t for you” can actually help the right ones feel that it is.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. ‘If you don’t like dark roast, this isn’t the coffee for you’: How exclusionary ads can win over the right customers – https://theconversation.com/if-you-dont-like-dark-roast-this-isnt-the-coffee-for-you-how-exclusionary-ads-can-win-over-the-right-customers-269080

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Laura Baehr, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, Drexel University

One in five Philadelphians are age 60 or older, and the city’s senior population has been growing for at least the past decade.

I’m a Philly-based physical therapist and researcher who studies how to boost physical activity for seniors and people with disabilities. Patients, participants in the studies I conduct, and older community members alike often ask me: “What should I do to stay healthy?”

My answer is simple: Movement is one of the most powerful tools we have to support our bodies and minds, and to stay independent as we grow older.

The World Health Organization recommends that all adults, no matter their age, should aim for at least 150 minutes of cardio activities per week, and strength training twice a week. Older adults should also practice balance training through activities like tai chi, yoga or dance to prevent falls.

But most older adults don’t meet all these metrics. In fact, in Philadelphia, 30% of seniors report having difficulty with mobility activities like walking or climbing stairs.

While staying active is key to aging independently, the environments where we live also influence these outcomes. Think about “blue zones,” places where some of the healthiest and longest-living people in the world reside. They usually live longer because of a combination of social connections, movement opportunities and diets.

Philly is definitely not a blue zone, but there are pros to moving through your golden years here … and some cons.

Urban infrastructure

Philadelphia’s regular street grid, close neighborhoods and the fact that much of Center City is accessible by foot help explain why Philly was named the most walkable city in the U.S. by USA Today for the past three years.

If you’re taking in the city on foot, you’re very likely to stumble upon a public park like one of the five historic squares designed by William Penn in the 1680s, the massive Fairmount Park – which is over 10 times the size of Central Park in New York – or the bustling Clark Park in West Philadelphia, among others.

In fact, 95% of all Philadelphia residents – and 94% of those 65 and older – live within a 10-minute walk of a public park. However, those parks tend to be smaller and lower-quality for people in low-income neighborhoods.

Philly’s public transit system, however, tends to receive less praise.

In the beginning of 2025, over 700,000 people rode some form of Southeastern Pennsylvania Public Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, public transit daily. But this year was marked by dramatic service cuts – though they were quickly reversed – funding uncertainty and fare increases.

Public transportation is directly linked to the overall health of a city and its residents. Healthy public transportation can stimulate local economies, improve air quality and increase access to work, school and health care for everyone, whether they own a car or not.

And the physical activity often required to get to and from a bus, train or trolley stop can provide some extra movement for riders.

Since older adults make up a significant portion of SEPTA riders, service cuts mean that some seniors cannot get where they need to go, are less physically active and may become lonelier.

Of course, Philly’s historic cobblestone streets, narrow alleyways and uneven sidewalks aren’t wheelchair- or cane-friendly, and are a challenge for people with mobility limitations. However, in 2023, Philadelphia settled a class action lawsuit over inaccessible sidewalks and curb ramps that resulted in a federal mandate that requires the city to install or fix 10,000 curb ramps by 2038. Philly has installed or fixed about 25% of that total so far.

Philadelphia also has many historic buildings, and this designation allows for a loophole to Americans with Disabilities Act compliance laws. These buildings are often inaccessible to people who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices.

Services for seniors

In 2011, Philly launched the Mayor’s Commission on Aging to support policies and projects that aim to improve the quality of life of older adults.

At the time, the U.S. was experiencing a massive shift in demographics. The number of adults age 65 and older grew by nearly 40% from 2010 to 2020. According to research from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philly experienced a similar, albeit less dramatic, upward trend. The city’s senior population grew by 22% from 2013 to 2023.

The Mayor’s Commission on Aging advocates for older residents and often partners with agencies like the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging that focus on seniors. PCA offers several programs to support senior independence and wellness, such as the Senior Housing Assistance Repair Program and the Caregiver Support Program, which provides help for the family and friends who support seniors.

PCA also oversees 28 senior community centers throughout the city. Each of the centers offers a variety of free or low-cost classes, including nationally recognized physical activity programs that improve strength, balance, quality of life and other important health metrics for older adults.

The Salvation Army Kroc Center of Philadelphia in North Philadelphia is another great resource for older Philadelphians. The state-of-the-art health club offers fitness, swimming and gardening opportunities. An annual membership is US$451 for adults over age 62, and the club accepts some insurance wellness benefits.

In 2026, I will partner with the Kroc Center to launch Bingocize, an evidence-based physical activity program for older adults, as part of a research study funded by the Arthritis Foundation. We hope to find out if the new program boosts physical function and physical activity, and improves arthritis symptoms and quality of life. We’re also looking at what factors will make the program sustainable at the Kroc Center long after the study is over.

I believe Philly has more work to do when it comes to providing seniors access to physical activities that promote healthy aging. But the seeds planted over a decade ago to protect and support the city’s rapidly growing aging population demonstrate a commitment to positive change, and an understanding that where we live affects individual and collective health.

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack.

Laura Baehr receives funding from the Department of Defense, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Clinician-Scientists Transdisciplinary Aging Research Coordinating Center (a National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging funded center).

Laura Baehr has worked with the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Aging and with Philadelphia Corporation on Aging.

– ref. Philly’s walkable streets and public parks offer older residents chances to stay active – but public transit and accessibility pose challenges – https://theconversation.com/phillys-walkable-streets-and-public-parks-offer-older-residents-chances-to-stay-active-but-public-transit-and-accessibility-pose-challenges-270038

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Jennifer Morgan, Senior Fellow, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy and Climate Policy Lab, Tufts University

Two years ago, countries around the world set a goal of “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” The plan included tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency gains by 2030 – important steps for slowing climate change since the energy sector makes up about 75% of the global carbon dioxide emissions that are heating up the planet.

The world is making progress: More than 90% of new power capacity added in 2024 came from renewable energy sources, and 2025 saw similar growth.

However, fossil fuel production is also still expanding. And the United States, the world’s leading producer of both oil and natural gas, is now aggressively pressuring countries to keep buying and burning fossil fuels.

The energy transition was not meant to be a main topic when world leaders and negotiators met at the 2025 United Nations climate summit, COP30, in November in Belém, Brazil. But it took center stage from the start to the very end, bringing attention to the real-world geopolitical energy debate underway and the stakes at hand.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began the conference by calling for the creation of a formal road map, essentially a strategic process in which countries could participate to “overcome dependence on fossil fuels.” It would take the global decision to transition away from fossil fuels from words to action.

More than 80 countries said they supported the idea, ranging from vulnerable small island nations like Vanuatu that are losing land and lives from sea level rise and more intense storms, to countries like Kenya that see business opportunities in clean energy, to Australia, a large fossil-fuel-producing country.

Opposition, led by the Arab Group’s oil- and gas-producing countries, kept any mention of a “road map” energy transition plan out of the final agreement from the climate conference, but supporters are pushing ahead.

I was in Belém for COP30, and I follow developments closely as former special climate envoy and head of delegation for Germany and senior fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. The fight over whether there should even be a road map shows how much countries that depend on fossil fuels are working to slow down the transition, and how others are positioning themselves to benefit from the growth of renewables. And it is a key area to watch in 2026.

The battle between electro-states and petro-states

Brazilian diplomat and COP30 President André Aranha Corrêa do Lago has committed to lead an effort in 2026 to create two road maps: one on halting and reversing deforestation and another on transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner.

What those road maps will look like is still unclear. They are likely to be centered on a process for countries to discuss and debate how to reverse deforestation and phase out fossil fuels.

Over the coming months, Corrêa plans to convene high-level meetings among global leaders, including fossil fuel producers and consumers, international organizations, industries, workers, scholars and advocacy groups.

For the road map to both be accepted and be useful, the process will need to address the global market issues of supply and demand, as well as equity. For example, in some fossil fuel-producing countries, oil, gas or coal revenues are the main source of income. What can the road ahead look like for those countries that will need to diversify their economies?

Nigeria is an interesting case study for weighing that question.

Oil exports consistently provide the bulk of Nigeria’s revenue, accounting for around 80% to over 90% of total government revenue and foreign exchange earnings. At the same time, roughly 39% of Nigeria’s population has no access to electricity, which is the highest proportion of people without electricity of any nation. And Nigeria possesses abundant renewable energy resources across the country, which are largely untapped: solar, hydro, geothermal and wind, providing new opportunities.

What a road map might look like

In Belém, representatives talked about creating a road map that would be science-based and aligned with the Paris climate agreement, and would include various pathways to achieve a just transition for fossil-fuel-dependent regions.

Some inspiration for helping fossil-fuel-producing countries transition to cleaner energy could come from Brazil and Norway.

In Brazil, Lula asked his ministries to prepare guidelines for developing a road map for gradually reducing Brazil’s dependency on fossil fuels and find a way to financially support the changes.

His decree specifically mentions creating an energy transition fund, which could be supported by government revenues from oil and gas exploration. While Brazil supports moving away from fossil fuels, it is also still a large oil producer and recently approved new exploratory drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River.

Norway, a major oil and gas producer, is establishing a formal transition commission to study and plan its economy’s shift away from fossil fuels, particularly focusing on how the workforce and the natural resources of Norway can be used more effectively to create new and different jobs.

Both countries are just getting started, but their work could help point the way for other countries and inform a global road map process.

The European Union has implemented a series of policies and laws aimed at reducing fossil fuel demand. It has a target for 42.5% of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2030. And its EU Emissions Trading System, which steadily reduces the emissions that companies can emit, will soon be expanded to cover housing and transportation. The Emissions Trading System already includes power generation, energy-intensive industry and civil aviation.

Fossil fuel and renewable energy growth ahead

In the U.S., the Trump administration has made clear through its policymaking and diplomacy that it is pursuing the opposite approach: to keep fossil fuels as the main energy source for decades to come.

The International Energy Agency still expects to see renewable energy grow faster than any other major energy source in all scenarios going forward, as renewable energy’s lower costs make it an attractive option in many countries. Globally, the agency expects investment in renewable energy in 2025 to be twice that of fossil fuels.

At the same time, however, fossil fuel investments are also rising with fast-growing energy demand.

The IEA’s World Energy Outlook described a surge in new funding for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, projects in 2025. It now expects a 50% increase in global LNG supply by 2030, about half of that from the U.S. However, the World Energy Outlook notes that “questions still linger about where all the new LNG will go” once it’s produced.

What to watch for

The Belém road map dialogue and how it balances countries’ needs will reflect on the world’s ability to handle climate change.

Corrêa plans to report on its progress at the next annual U.N. climate conference, COP31, in late 2026. The conference will be hosted by Turkey, but Australia, which supported the call for a road map, will be leading the negotiations.

With more time to discuss and prepare, COP31 may just bring a transition away from fossil fuels back into the global negotiations.

Jennifer Morgan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The battle over a global energy transition is on between petro-states and electro-states – here’s what to watch for in 2026 – https://theconversation.com/the-battle-over-a-global-energy-transition-is-on-between-petro-states-and-electro-states-heres-what-to-watch-for-in-2026-272205