During the Russia-Ukraine the EU has become a clear example of how substantial reliance on a single country to satisfy energy needs can threaten nations’ economic development, and how challenging the task of achieving energy security is while substantially depending on a single country in key energy products.

Excessive tobacco consumption is an important public health policy issue. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), 32% of the adult population in Georgia smoked tobacco in 2019 (WHO, 2021). The prevalence of smoking in men was 56.9 percent – the fourth in the world and first in Europe.

Circular economy and integrated waste management are both concepts we often hear when discussing issues of ecological well-being or climate change. This way of imagining the economy has already gained a foothold in many countries. The idea of the circular economy itself implies a different attitude towards patterns of production and consumption, that which aims to minimize wasted resources.

Today is 24 March, and it’s been snowing heavily in Tsavkisi for the past few days. My yard and street are covered by about a full meter of snow. Cars are stuck on the snow-covered streets and our small community is physically cut off from the rest of the world. Locals can’t remember such a snowstorm, especially in March.

The war in Ukraine had just begun when I wrote (on the ISET Policy Institute's website and in the Georgian Times) that the present events in Ukraine offer the world a chance to become better. I could not have predicted at the time that hostilities would unfold in such a disastrous fashion or scale, nor could I have anticipated that, following four weeks of the war, we would witness an even larger and, I would say unimaginable human and global catastrophe.