South Korea has much to gain by taking on a leadership role on building a low-carbon future—and even more to lose by standing by and watching, writes Kate Gordon.

The Pacific Council has published our annual report for the year ending December 31, 2016, highlighting our collective work and impact as an foreign affairs organization over the past year.

This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow; thousands of Venezuelans protest in the streets of Caracas for nearly two weeks; China orders a fleet of North Korean cargo ships carrying coal to return to North Korea because of that country’s repeated missile tests; and more.

This week, the Assad regime carries out a chemical attack in a rebel-held Syrian province, leading to a U.S. military airstrike; an explosion in a subway in St. Petersburg kills 14 people; North Korea fires a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on the eve of first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping; and more.