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As the world bumps toward energy…

Progress on the UN’s sustainable development goals — aimed at achieving peace and prosperity for all people and the planet — has been slow. However, fellow Harris A. Eyre and his co-authors explain how applying a brain capital framework could change the trajectory.

“Green brain capital” places a central emphasis on the brain to deliver a healthy environment, and likewise on a green environment to safeguard brain health. The authors look at the existing literature and explain how this concept can help us build a sustainable future.

Decentralized finance is charting a path toward increased transparency and efficiency in the financial services sector. But do the benefits outweigh the risks?

How durable is the Saudi-Russian relationship, and what are its implications for the longstanding energy-for-security arrangement between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.?

Among the U.S. citizens migrating to Mexico in recent years are an unknown number of Americans who married Mexican citizens and were co-deported or departed voluntarily with their undocumented spouses, the authors report. Without improved consular services and a diaspora policy that anticipates the likely return of these Americans in the future, the authors worry that the United States risks re-inheriting a sizable U.S. population that may well require critical government services to reintegrate after a prolonged period abroad.

Author Julie Cohn traces historical trends and experiences with the U.S. electrical grid to help frame choices as more renewables are brought into the system.

This report is the culmination of a 16-month-long survey of residents in Houston's Third Ward. The data aims to inform strategies and investments that support resident access to health care, transportation and other quality-of-life concerns while maintaining the community's character and affordability. The authors thank the Houston Endowment for its generous support.

Iran is on the brink of “water bankruptcy” in large part because the Iranian government’s aspirations for wheat self-sufficiency are driving high agricultural water use, fellow Gabriel Collins writes in this research paper. The paper analyzes Iran’s water situation and proposes policy solutions to slow the rapid depletion of the country’s groundwater.

Under long-established Texas law, the surface estate owner clearly owns oilfield produced water. However, the law does not address how, if at all, the producer would need to split revenues with the surface owner for a sale or a for-value transfer of produced water. Fellow Gabe Collins analyzes the ambiguity related to revenues from this commodity and discusses potential transaction structures for produced water in Texas.