Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

• [New] Experts at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation were nearly correct when they projected Wisconsin would pass 5,000 deaths from COVID-19 just before the end of the year.
• [New] The global capacity of manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines is between two to four billion by the end of 2021: The world's largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute in India, predicts that there will not be enough doses for everyone in the world, until the end of 2024, at the earliest.
• [New] ILS investing in Germany will grow further in the coming years, with an increasing number of institutional investors looking to the asset class as an alternative investment.
• [New] The World Bank expects half of Lebanon's population to fall into poverty by 2021 unless it institutes reforms, improves social protection measures and widens the pension system.
• [New] Increasing equity of foreign institutions, immigration headaches in the United States, and now pandemic worries are steadily decreasing enrollments of full-tuition-paying foreign students, threatening almost $50 billion of revenue to US universities.
• Given the recent adoption of Bitcoin by financial institutions such as PayPal and Square, it is reasonable to say that 2021 will be the year that Bitcoin legitimizes itself as a main player in the digital financial industry.
• In 2015, the McKinsey Global Institute found advancing women's equality could add $12 trillion to global GDP in 10 years.
• The most severe social and economic crisis in nearly a century could then serve, paradoxically, as a turning point in global efforts to combat climate change, leading to action on an unprecedented scale, accelerating the transformational change that the world desperately needs.
• The majority of institutions surveyed expect interest rates in the US and the euro area not to start rising before 2023 as central banks maintain a very loose monetary policy stance in the post-Covid world.
• China's financial institutions saved enterprises 1.25 trillion yuan during the first 10 months, and are expected to save 250 billion yuan more in November and December.
• The introduction of mandatory Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures reporting for financial institutions should be brought forward to reflect the urgency of the climate crisis - not delayed until 2025, as recently proposed by the Treasury.
• Hong Kong financial institutions and listed companies will have to disclose the financial impact of climate change on their businesses, as outlined in a major global standard by 2025.
• NHS England has commissioned the National Institute for Health Research to undertake further research into 'long COVID-19' and will work with 10,000 patients to better understand it and to refine appropriate treatment.
• The Serum Institute of India is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world and it is producing the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and will also produce the Novavax vaccine.
• Defense Ministry-run Institute for Biological Research, in Israel, says it has been able to protect hamsters from COVID-19, hopes to have finished product for humans within a year
• In 2021 EC will initiate an EU police cooperation code, which will allow improve cooperation between law enforcement institutions, including against the fight against terrorism.
• The Commission will propose an EU police cooperation code in 2021 to enhance cooperation between law enforcement authorities, including in the fight against terrorism.
• Ransomware attacks are on the rise and they are estimated to cost global organizations $20 billion by 2021 with government agencies, healthcare providers, and educational institutions in the U.S. impacted by ransomware attacks at a cost of more than $7.5 billion in 2019 alone.
• The £62m of Tay Cities Deal funding that the James Hutton Institute secured will be the biggest single investment in Scottish agricultural science ever and will drive and power the green recovery we all need and want.

Last updated: 10 January 2021