In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we hear about an ongoing battle to relax intellectual property rules around coronavirus vaccines and new research on why China is closing down coal-fired power stations faster in some places than others. While some of the world’s richest countries are racing ahead with large-scale programmes to vaccinate their populations, for much of the developing world, the first doses of the vaccines remain a long way off. For the past few months, a group of countries has been pushing for the intellectual property rules around coronavirus vaccines to be waived temporarily, arguing this would help expand supply and push down costs. But a small group of countries – many of them home to the companies which hold the patents for those vaccines that have been licensed – are trying to block it. The issue is likely to be discussed at the World Trade Organization’s General Council in early March.