![China’s financing of overseas energy projects has declined and some of its decisions have run into opposition in recent years, including in 2020, when more than 20 NGOs called on Chinese banks to withdraw financial support for a coal-fired power plant under construction in Turkey [File: Kacper Pempel/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/coal.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The Chinese-backed coal-fired power plant in Chattogram, Bangladesh has been the site of deadly crackdowns on protests.
Fossil Fuels
![Child labour is on the rise for the first time in nearly two decades, and the coronavirus crisis threatens to upend progress made to get kids into school, the United Nations warned this week [File: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/child.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
Bitcoin Beach, child labour, Oman’s youth and an $18.9M coin
We gather the numbers to know from the week’s biggest economic news stories so you can impress your friends.
![Young people in Oman took to the streets last month just weeks afer the country introduced a new value-added tax as part of financial reform efforts [File: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/327602012.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Oman unrest is harbinger for other Gulf petrostates that need to diversify to create jobs for legions of young people.
![Shareholders of ExxonMobil pulled off a resounding win against the company’s management on Wednesday by electing at least two out of four candidates for board seats selected by activist investors [File: Jim Young/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/exxon.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Environmental defeats against ExxonMobil and Shell show energy giants could be forced to decarbonise more aggressively.
![The victory for Engine No. 1 is an embarrassment for Exxon, unprecedented in the rarefied world of Big Oil, and a sign that institutional investors are increasingly willing to force corporate America to tackle climate change [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/372033818.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Investor with a tiny stake in ExxonMobil scored historic climate victory when it won two seats on the oil giant’s board.
![Milieudefensie director Donald Pols, right, celebrates the outcome of the verdict in the court case of Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of the Friends of the Earth environmental organisation, against Royal Dutch Shell in The Hague, the Netherlands on Wednesday [Peter Dejong/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AP_21146493630393.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The ruling is a landmark victory in the battle against climate change and could set a precedent for other energy giants.
IAE calls for a ban on new coal, gas and oil projects to reach zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
![By 2025, China wants half its total generated power to come from renewable energy [File: Carlos Barria/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2013-09-22T120000Z_392695238_GM1E99M18TV01_RTRMADP_3_CLIMATE-IPCC.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
To meet its carbon goals, one major step that China needs to undertake is to upgrade its grid, the world’s largest.
![Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was at the centre of some of the most dramatic moments in OPEC’s recent history including in mid-2018, when he walked out of a meeting when he felt slighted by Khalid Al-Falih, the former oil minister of Iran’s arch-rival Saudi Arabia [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/371799084.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Iran’s Bijan Namdar Zanganehis the longest-serving oil minister in OPEC.
![Aramco confirmed it would deliver on a promised dividend payout of $18.75bn for its shareholders this quarter, nearly all of which goes to the Saudi government [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/oil-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Aramco is riding a wave of higher crude prices as COVID-ravaged economies spring back to life.
![After spending a night underground, breaking off, bagging and lugging coal, Bonginkosi Mhlanga filled up a truck full of the ore which he then delivered and sold to a resident of Ermelo for heating and cooking purposes. [Emmanuel Croset/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/000_98Y4XG.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Thousands of informal miners in South Africa make a dangerous living by chipping away at abandoned mine shafts.
![Gulf countries selling off oil assets have been careful to structure deals so they do not lose control over their energy empires [File: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/1a366b940c4247ceb4fede82da15e313_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait have all accelerated plans to sell billions in energy assets.
![Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is increasingly leaning on Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to help finance his plan to transform the economy [File: Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2019-12-10T162519Z_353744896_RC2GSD97UA82_RTRMADP_3_GULF-SUMMIT.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says Saudi Arabia is negotiating with a ‘leading global energy company’ for the sale.
![Cryptocurrency mining rigs can be comprised of thousands of computers labouring in unison and sucking up massive amounts of fossil-fuel-powered energy [File: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/367922756.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Pact seeks to shrink crypto’s carbon footprint, but critics say it could thwart more effective government-led policies.
