Daily Archives: September 22, 2022

As part of Pollution Prevention (P2) Week, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) encourages Michiganders to incorporate activities into their daily routines that reduce, reuse, and recycle waste. The annual P2 Week also provides an opportunity to reflect and see the progress made in Michigans Solid Waste Policy, first adopted in 1988. At that time, there were fears that Michigan would run out of landfill space.

Todays challenges are different. Laws and regulations have changed; technology has changed; and Michigans economy has changed. All of these changes and the desire to improve how Michigan manages solid wastes prompted stakeholders to recommend bold policy changes in 2007 and to reaffirm those changes in 2017, along with suggested revisions to update the current solid waste laws. The pending legislative changes are available on the Solid Waste and Recycling Advisors web page.

The updated Solid Waste Policy presented a fundamentally different approach to making solid waste management decisions. The policy was updated to promote viewing unwanted materials as a resource available for use in a global economy, rather than prescribing disposal options. It was updated to challenge each of us to make decisions based on three key principles of sustainability:

The accompanying graphic illustrates the hierarchyof Michigans sustainable materials management approach and provides a simple roadmap to making more sustainable choices.

P2 Week (Sept. 19 to 25) is an opportunity for individuals, schools, communities, and businesses to showcase or share ideas about how they reduce waste, are more efficient, or reduce energy. Promoting P2 activities at home, work, and school helps to protect the local economy, improve health, and reduce energy costs.

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Pollution Prevention Week highlights ways to reduce, reuse and recycle waste - Michigan (.gov)

Pressure group United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) has today (22 September) published the findings of its research into English incineration capacity and feedstock availability. The report asserts that the country could see an overcapacity of up to 14 million tonnes.

This figure is based on the total incineration projects already granted planning permission which the report says could see capacity grow to more than 27 million tonnes at a time and feedstock data which illustrates a potential decrease of around 13 million tonnes.

UKWIN is pushing for an immediate moratorium to prevent the granting of new permits, an action it says would cap incineration overcapacity at around 8.5 million tonnes. The pressure group is urging the public to write to local MPs to encourage action on the issue.

The group says the moratorium would:

UKWINs campaign follows a petition from Greenpeace and Everyday Plastics Big Plastic Count calling on the UK Government to ban new incinerators being built, which was signed by 124,000 people.

Pressure on the Government to assess incinerator overcapacity has also come from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which has called for an up-to-date assessment of residual waste treatment capacity needs for the UK out to 2050, consistent with committed and proposed targets.

UKWIN says that it opposes the incineration of waste, including via gasification and pyrolysis, because incineration depresses recycling, destroys valuable resources, releases greenhouse gases, and is a waste of money. It therefore concludes that incineration has no place in the circular economy towards which we should be working.

Shlomo Dowen, UKWIN's National Coordinator, said: "To support the circular economy, both Wales and Scotland have already called a halt to further incineration capacity. A moratorium on new incinerators in England would send a clear signal that investment should target reduction, reuse, and recycling".

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England headed for incineration overcapacity, warns UKWIN - Resource Magazine

Our vision for the futureSystem change for the entire economy, ensuring we have an economic system that benefits people and planet.

Over the past decade, major crises including climate change, nature loss, pollution and social issues have climbed the international policy and business agenda. From the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to the gathering speed of the net zero financial alliances, and global movements to further gender and racial equality, we have seen the world come together to tackle these crises.

Banks across the world have the collective power to drive impactful change. Through their lending and investment activities, and their relationships with clients across the global economy, the banking community can accelerate the transition to a system that benefits people and planet, while maintaining a high level of profitability.

The Principles is a mechanism that enables banks to align their core strategy, governance, lending and investment with what the world needs as identified by international agreements and norms such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. By signing up, banks are committing to align their strategy and business practice with global and local climate and sustainability goals. They set and deliver on SMART and ambitious targets to align their lending portfolio, products and services with the vision society has set out for its future. By sharing learnings, resources and guidance, members are accelerating action on important issues that benefit communities and the environment.

Since its inception in 2019, membership of the Principles has doubled to 300 signatory banks, collectively representing nearly half of global banking assets. This makes it the worlds foremost sustainable banking framework.

Through collaboration, knowledge sharing and innovation across multiple geographies and economic contexts, banks are making meaningful progress that is already delivering real change in our economy and society.

Signatories of the Principles have begun to analyse their impact in key topic areas and are starting to address these impacts by setting targets aligned to global norms and expectations. Action is most advanced in climate mitigation and financial inclusion. Signatories are analysing the carbon intensity of their activities and portfolios and setting science-based targets that align their operations and assets to a 1.5C warming scenario. The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), established last year, now has 43 member banks and is already leading work on climate mitigation. The first annual report on the Alliances progress and its target setting protocol will be published at COP27. Examples of action already taken by member banks is listed in the guidance document.

Signatories of the Principles are also collaborating to take action in other areas, exploring and defining the role of banks in addressing complex topics that were not previously considered material to the financial sector. Together, they are exploring how banks can meaningfully address biodiversity loss, improve resource efficiency and promote social impact, developing guidance and new frameworks that inform action on these topics across the sector.

What makes the Principles particularly unique is the robust framework that continuously reviews both its members achievements and its working process. This ensures the Principles are constantly evolving and are fulfilling the needs of people and planet. On an annual basis, signatories receive individual feedback from UNEP FI on their strategy and compliance with the Principles aims, with areas for improvement identified for each member. Alongside this, the framework itself is also reviewed, with the first review process having been undertaken this year. Led by UNEP FI, review processes also incorporate the views and expertise of a Civil Society Advisory Board and banking board to ensure subsequent actions are appropriate for banking and societal needs.

The Principles and its signatories will be accelerating the pace and scale of action to deliver real change within our economic system. The launch of the Principles for Responsible Banking Academy by UNEP FI in October will be a unique training academy to enable signatories and banks from around the world to stay at the cutting edge of sustainable finance as well as upskilling their employees and stakeholders.

This will be complemented by the release of a discussion paper addressing adaptation to a changing climate, aiming to accelerate action by banks in this area. The paper will provide guidance to member banks to operationalise adaptation measures, aligning to best practice. It will also include an anonymised, aggregate view of the state of play, having surveyed and interviewed signatories.

With the Framework review incorporating human rights as a social issue, measurement and action to address these issues will be an increasing focus for signatories. The Framework review has also resulted in common indicators for measuring signatories progress addressing financial health and inclusion.

Nature is an increasingly important topic for the financial sector, and the launch of the Principles Biodiversity Community will enable signatories to learn more about the intersection between biodiversity and their core business. This community will share insight and best practice to enable banks to be at the cutting edge of action in this area.

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3 years of the Principles for Responsible Banking: our vision for change United Nations Environment Finance Initiative - UNEP Finance Initiative

At the end of July, the International Monetary Fundwarnedof a gloomy outlook for the world economy. It was doing so not because of a spike in poverty, a widening of inequality, or a surge in carbon emissions. Quite the contrary: the IMF was making its pessimistic assessment because it was revising down its forecast for global GDP growth for 2022 from 3.6 percent to 3.2 percent. In other words, the global economy was growing,but not enough, and that for the IMF was cause for concern.

At the same time that the IMF was making its announcement, the U.S. government wastrying to dispelconcerns that a second successive quarter of economic contractiona decline of .9 percent that followed a 1.6 percent decrease in the first quarter of 2022meant that the country was on the verge of a recession. The U.S. economy was not growing, and that for the government was cause for even greater concern.

Economic expansion remains the yardstick of success at the global and national levels. Robust growth garners positive headlines; anemic growth and contraction generate anxious forecasts. This remains the case despite the widely acknowledged link between economic growth and the climate crisis, a connection reinforced during the COVID pandemic when carbon emissions dropped considerably as a result of the economic shutdowns in many countries.

The goal of almost all economists and politicians is continued economic growth, explains Josh Farley, a professor in Community Development & Applied Economics and Public Administration at the University of Vermont, ina Zoom seminarsponsored by Global Just Transition. For anyone who knows anything about complex systems, exponential growth is always ephemeral. It cannot be sustained in any finite system. Exponential growth must always collapse.

One way of postponing collapse, and to combine growth and environmental protection, has been sustainable development. But as Ashish Kothari, the co-founder of Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group in India, points out, even sustainable development is a very superficial way of trying to deal with the multiple crises that we are in. It doesnt address the structural roots of the crises, which can be found in much older systems of racism and patriarchy or new systems of capitalism and nation-state domination.

More recently, the Green New Deal has been an effort to combine decarbonization with an economic shift to clean energy that nevertheless promises a growth in jobs and benefits to disadvantaged communities. The Green New Deal faces opposition and also resistance from movements and governments in the Global South because it is seen as a northern approach, says Dorothy Guerrero, the head of policy and advocacy at Global Justice Now in the United Kingdom. It is indeed a big task for Green New Deal politics to counter that view that its a northern alternative and break down the prevailing neo-liberal politics that pits workers and jobs against environment.

More radical attempts have been made to identify economic models that are not predicated on exponential growth. Some of these are national-level models of a steady-state economy. Others focus on local alternatives that stress more democratic politics and a more integrated approach to nature. But as Katharine Nora Farrell, an associate professor in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, notes, the challenge is not just theoretical or even practical, but moral as well.

We need to take responsibility in social and economic contexts for our role in stipulating how systems function, she notes. The failure to face up to this is part of the problem. Its embarrassing to say that I have these good things because you are being exploited. Its hard to be moral toward someone when you discover that you have your heel on their neck.

Unsustainable economic growth relies on just such a heel: on the necks of workers, marginalized communities and nature itself. But that growth is now coming under enhanced scrutiny and greater criticism, from within the status quo and from those who have suffered the most from its effects.

For 3,000 years, until 1750, economic growth per personaveragedabout .01 percent per year. After 1750 and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, however, that rate went up to 1.5 percent. To express this radical change a different way, the global economy took 6,000 years to double before 1750. Afterward, the economy doubled every 50 years.

When the World Bank says that theres 3.2 percent economic growth, that doubles the size of the global economy every 24 years, Josh Farley notes. In the past 100 years, weve quadrupled the human population and increased the per capita consumption nine-fold for a 36-fold increase in the size of the economy. That cant be sustained.

One popular image of economic growth is a rising tide that lifts all boats. But in reality, economic growth lifts yachts much higher than dinghies. All forms of monetary wealth grow much faster than the economy as a whole, Farley continues. Not only is this unsustainable, were systematically transferring our resources to the owners of capital. Similarly, the growth in interest-bearing debt shifts resources from debtors to creditors, the people that the government gave the right to create money out of thin air.

Farley uses two comparisons to drive home the unsustainability of growth. If your lilies are doubling in a pond every few days so that in 30 days its full, when is the pond half full? In 29 days. So, if we use up half our oil, its all used up after one more doubling period, he says. I was growing exponentially until I reached 18 and then I stopped growing. Weve all reached maturity and we need to stop growing,

Economic growth is also unsustainable because it requires enormous inputs of resources, and those resources are limited. The climate crisis is one indication of many that economic growth has outstripped the resource capacities of the planet. The Biden administrations plan calls for a shift to electric cars, Ashish Kothari points out. That sounds good but where will all the mining take place to get all the materials for those cars? Again, this is based on the inequality between north and south, including patterns of consumption.

Yet, as Dorothy Guerrero adds, a consensus is emerging that humanity has to reduce its reliance on these resources. The idea of leaving fossil fuels in the ground has gained legitimacy as the most viable response to climate change, she explains. The political consensus among climate activists and scientists is that renewable energy must now be fast-tracked and developed where it is not developed.

We need to develop an economy whose main goal is not growth but secure sufficiency for all, concludes Josh Farley. Our planet is too small to achieve much more than sufficiency. More and more consumption can no longer be our goal. We should instead be focusing on systems in which production is fun. Collaborating with others to meet our basic needs should be our reward.

Economic growth is at the heart of capitalism, and markets have played a central role in generating growth.

Capitalism is defined by private property rights, individual choice, competition, and pursuit of individual profit, Josh Farley points out. But for the social dilemmas that were facingglobal climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of the ozone layerprivate property rights are not worth talking about, and individual choice is impossible. I cannot choose how stable a climate I want. We are faced with situations in which the physical characteristics of the resources are no long compatible with a capitalist system. This isnt to say that we necessarily eliminate capitalism altogether, but we cant rely on it to solve certain problems.

The capitalist system encompasses much of the world, north and south. But markets, despite the ideology of a disinterested invisible hand, favor certain parts of the world over others.

In addressing the current climate emergency, who will reap the benefits and who will pay for the costs of the adjustment? asks Dorothy Guerrero. There has been an unequal ecological exchange between core countries and countries on the periphery. We need to address the issue of monopoly capitalism where, in the case of vaccines, corporations have introduced life-saving vaccines for their own profit. The transition to clean energywhether its orderly or destructive, peaceful or violent, market-led or regulatedwill be determined by the conflicts between north and south, between core and periphery as well as the balance of forces within societies.

Like it or not, globalized capitalism is the system we are dealing with today, Katharine Nora Farrell points out. Unregulated markets can and do generate enormous damage, human and environmental. But its a poor musician that blames their instrument. Markets are created by human societies, relying on norms and customs established by humans. Sometimes those norms are consolidated into law, sometimes not. Rather than say that markets are all bad or all good, we have to determine when and how and under what conditions markets work or do not work.

The market economy is not the only game in town. I ask my students, what type of economy has most affected your life, and they say, Oh, were a market economy, says Josh Farley. And I reply, Oh, really? Your parents charge you for room and board? Your main experience is the core economy, the economy of reciprocity and gifting and providing for your close kin and community, which is totally outside the market.

The market with its emphasis on self-interest, he continues, is not well-suited to the social dilemmas that humans currently face. If I catch all the fish, I get all the benefits even if I wipe out the population and future generations suffer, he continues. If I spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, I get the benefit while others suffer. Instead of the invisible hand that Smith talked about, social dilemmas create an invisible foot that kicks the common good to pieces.

Many of the proposed solutions to the climate crisis are market-driven, such as carbon trading systems. Some are even predicated on growth strategies.

We are confronting so-called solutions that are coming to us from the systems that created the problems in the first place, explains Ashish Kothari. These are mostly Band-Aids, such as techno-engineering solutions or the net zero that most countries have said that they will achieve in terms of carbon emissions by 2050 or 2060 or 2070. These so-called solutions tend to sustain these structures and even greenwash them.

The origin of many transformative solutions, on the other hand, come from resistance on the ground to mining, large-scale hydroelectric plants, and similar efforts to generate the electricity and inputs to sustain economic growth at unsustainable levels. Kothari recalls the movement in central India 30 years ago against two large hydroelectric projects. We didnt want these projects not just because they would displace our villages and destroy our livelihoods, but because the river on which these dams are built is our mother and we wont let our mother be shackled by your dreams of progress, he says. You can see in this resistance movement alternative ways of being, acting, dreaming, and relating to each other and to nature.

This alternative way of relating to nature challenges the anthropocentrism that lies at the heart of unsustainable economic growth. In Western modernity, there is a divide between humans and nature, he continues. You can see it even in the way we speak. We dont say humans and the rest of the nature. At school we learned about a pyramid in which humans are on top. Actually, there is a circle of life in which all species have equality.

This different approach to nature, he continues, can be found in the solidarity economy, in movements for food and energy sovereignty, and among those fighting for self-determination like the Zapatistas who say that we will be the ones who will govern our communities in ways that are more equitable and just.

The challenge is to inject this kind of thinking into the efforts to address global challenges.

What we lackand what ecological economics is trying to promoteare economic institutions that preserve, enhance, and restore the biotic community of which humans are a part, Josh Farley adds. Over the last 50 years, we have been through a neoliberal revolution that has taken everything from the care economy and the public sector economy and put it all into the market. Were now trying to put the natural resource base into the market. This is the wrong approach because of the physical characteristics of the resources. We need to flip the dialog around and start taking things out of the market economy and put them into other sectors of the economy.

The current economic system is ill-suited to handle challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss. Worse, it is directly responsible for these problems in the first place. Alternatives exist, but are they replicable and scalable?

While we have amazing examples of alternatives around the world, we need to create scale to challenge the mega-problems, Ashish Kothari explains. We need much greater horizontal networking among these amazing initiatives. Its not about upscaling but outscaling across horizontal networks of solidarity, then creating the critical mass to affect those larger problems.

Alternatives like the Zapatista struggle, he adds, are not replicable. You cant copy them in India and make them successful. But we can learn and exchange these values and ethics and principles and create horizontal solidarity networks around the world. We can become more resilient based on the understanding that there is a pluriverse of politics, ideologies, ecologies, and economies, all of which are important and worth respecting in so far as they do not undermine other ecologies, ideologies, and so on. These are expressed in different languages asswaraj, ubuntu, buen vivir, and so on.

The role of cooperationas opposed to the competition fostered by marketswill prove critical in any response to the climate crisis. Mainstream economists argue that humans are inherently selfish, that we always act in our own self-interest and cant cooperate, which is absolutely absurd, Josh Farley argues. Humans are the most cooperative species ever to evolve. Think about what you had for breakfast. How many people were involved in getting the food to your plate, between truckers and farmers and producers of fertilizers and farm machinery. Think about how many people were involved in developing the knowledge necessary to do thatagronomy, metallurgy, geology. The knowledge required to meet your basic needs every day was generated by billions of people over thousands of years. Humans cannot live apart from society any better than a cell can live apart from an individual body.

Farley sees culture as the medium through which cooperative ideas and approaches can evolve at a rapid pace. Within a society, the most selfish individuals outcompete other individuals, he notes. But the most cooperative and altruistic group outcompetes other groups. So, we have dual forces selecting for self-interested and cooperative behavior. We need to evolve to cooperate at larger and larger scales, at the scale of problems like climate change.

Humans pass on their genes to successive generations. Bacteria, on the other hand, swap genetic information called plasmids horizontally, he continues. At times of stress and difficulty, they do so more quickly. For humans its culture where we swap ideas horizontally. Were at a time of crisis. We need to grab ideas from other cultures. Thats this pluriverse idea. There is not one idea; different cultures and ecosystems need different solutions. A socially just, sustainable transition is the goal, and we need to test all our policies against that goal. If the policies work toward that goal, we accept them; if not, we reject them.

Species evolution takes multiple generations. Cultural evolution can be astonishingly fast, Farley adds. Look at World War II. The United States went from being a capitalist economy to a form of state capitalism very quickly. How many cars did we produce in Detroit in World War II for the public? Zero. The government just took over the industry. We suddenly rationed everythingfood, gasolineand people accepted it. We faced a serious challenge, we stopped focusing on individual needs and started focusing on collective needs, and we did this very fast.

Ashish Kothari agrees. There are elements in the Green New Deal or some of the other programs around the world that we can encourage, he says. Which of these transitions will lead to systemic transformations and which ones will entrench the current system? A shift from fossil fuel to electric cars only entrenches the system of inequality between north and south. But if were talking about a transition from private cars to public transportation, that would lead toward a more transformative system. A transition also has to move toward radical forms of democracy or self-determination (swaraj or ubuntu). It has to move toward economic democracy, worker control, cooperatives, and a social economy that does not use GDP as yardstick of progress.

Kothari points to a number of examples of local initiatives that move in this direction, including forms of agriculture that dont require much in the way of external energy inputs. There are 5,000 Dalit women farmers in south India who are growing not just enough for their families but also enough to participate in the local market and provide food relief to others during COVID, he relates. Theyre doing this with dryland farming, completely rain-fed, with their own seeds and no external inputs. Theyre relying entirely on their own knowledge and labor.

Another example comes from the Ladakh region of India. We have two models there, he continues. One is mega solar built by corporations, and the other is decentralized passive and active solar. Ladakh has over 300 days of sunlight in a year. By constructing buildings with a blend of traditional and new technology, you can trap the sunlight during the day and it warms you without artificial heating even when its minus 20 degrees at night.

Farley similarly identifies the commons as a key element of any socially just transition. That includes a Green knowledge commons, which shares knowledge transnationally, as well as a social media commons where the algorithms encourage people to focus on ecological limits and social justice rather than on buying more stuff and and the polarizing images and language that facilitate that commerce. And it would include an atmospheric commons that asserts that no one owns the atmosphere.

Dorothy Guerrero puts ownership at the top of the list of factors to consider. Any conversation that doesnt put nationalization on the table would mean leaving the terms of transition to fossil fuel executives, she notes. Acknowledging that we cant do this transition overnight, we have to discuss what we do with existing fossil fuel? First, we take control of it. If states dont own these resources, they cant control them or design a program of transition involving them. I dont disregard totally the small, the independent, because they have roles to play. But when you talk about transition, it has to be at a certain scale, at a national level, and there should be national ownership. Yes, small is beautiful but big is beautiful too because that is how we control geopolitics

Nationalization implies a focus on the national or state level. I often say that one weakness of the left is that were so good at being in opposition, but it is so difficult when it comes to us governing, notes Guerrero. There are many discussions in Latin America now with Colombia, Bolivia, Chile and hopefully Brazil: will it be the pink tide again and will there be more red in the pink? What were the economic problems that werent addressed before? Politically it was a success. But even the radical governments didnt make very radical changes in the economic realm, because they were also scared of being crushedand they would be crushed by the United States not wanting them to succeed.

National control applies equally to renewable energy. We have to ask what this energy is for, she says. We need to clarify who will build it up, where and for what purpose. There is also a threat that fossil fuel companies are portraying themselves as key players in renewable energy buildup but they are not actually investing in the development of renewable energy. Meanwhile, the countries that are already investing in the infrastructure of renewable energy will control this technology through patent protections. This debate will determine which countries will dominate and which countries will be excluded, she continues. The United States, China, and Germany are competing to see who will dominate the renewable energy sector. But Haiti and Bangladesh wont be players.

For climate justice movements and those pushing against fossil fuels, we need to increase solidarity with mineral-producing countries, she continues. OPEC is a an important example that we need to look at. At the same time, we have to avoid weakening the labor movements in those countries. We need solidarity in both political and economic terms. During a transition, someone will pay, and its usually those without voice or bargaining power.

Implementing change at a local, national, and global level will not be easy. For one, powerful forces benefit from the current status quo. Its not enough to wish and work for alternatives but to be aware that the stronger the alternatives, the greater the forces against them, Dorothy Guerrero warns.

Another challenge is the time frame. Serious decarbonization should have started decades ago. If scientists tell us that we have only 10 years left to reverse the climate crisis, we cant transform the situation in 10 years, says Kothari. Were talking about a multigenerational transformation. We re dealing with structural forces that have been around in some cases for thousands of years like patriarchy or hundreds of years like capitalism. To say that we need to do this in a single generation is unrealistic.

When Pope Francis visited the Nunavit region of Canada this summer, he apologized to the indigenous community for the role played by the Catholic Church in Europes colonization of the country and the forced assimilation of native peoples. Some responded that that apology has not been matchedby action. But in Manitoba, the Pope received a very visible token of appreciation: a headdressthat he wore during the event.

This stunning image of Pope Francis wearing an indigenous headdress placed on his head by the representatives of a consortium of indigenous chiefs of Canada was a ritualistic act and very symbolic, says Katharine Nora Farrell. We have to deal with reconciliation and peace and apology, as well as embarrassment and shame for all the horrible things that have been done.

Its not just about the pope but about these incredible indigenous leaders, she continues. Theyre saying, You came here in good faith to apologize and were not going to rub your face in it. Instead, were going to say youre just like us and were going to do this in the most majestic and symbolic way by giving you this headdress. You cant wear this headdress unless you have earned it. By placing it on his head, they said that he had earned their respect.

The crimes of colonialism and forced assimilation also have had an ecological dimension since the land of indigenous peoples was often stolen for precisely the kind of polluting industry responsible for the huge uptick in carbon emissions during the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the Global North bears the lions share of the responsibility for all the carbon emissions currently in the atmosphere.

Climate reparations are at the center of the climate justice struggle, Dorothy Guerrero says. We need to highlight the need to create historically informed approaches that confront colonialism and imperialism and the climate crisis simultaneously. Thats gaining traction in the UK among young people who see the role of the UK in extracting resources from countries and impoverishing those countries by doing so.

Such reparations can be understood as not only an apology for past actions but also a concrete effort to repair the harm done. What the Pope attempted in Canada is taking a different form in Colombia where Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez recently took over as leaders. Marquez, the vice president, is the winner of Goldman Environmental Prize, Farrell says, referring to a picture of Marquez. Shes angry in this photo and shes right to be angry. And the people of the Choco region, with a large Afro-Colombian population, are also right to be angry. Its a mega-biodiverse region with a lot of violence inhabited mostly by poor people. Marquez appealed to these voters in the last days of the election and many people think thats what swung the election. She said, if youre a nobody, vote for me, because Im a nobody. This will be a government of the nobodies. She and Petro have put together an incredible coalition of individuals in the new government with plans to introduce agricultural tax reform and manage the resource economy.

We need to recognize that economic processes are anthropogenic, Farrell continues. We have to link ecological economics to moral theories connected to questions of responsibility. These issues motivate activists to get involved. Look at the indignation in Greta Thunbergs arguments. Someone has to answer for what has happened. Only then we can get involved in fixing it. The damage done has been brutal. Until we as a global community comprehend this great tragedy, I dont think well able to pick and move beyond this.

John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus. This article is part of the newGlobal Just Transition project.

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Isn't It Time To Challenge The Growth Paradigm? OpEd - Eurasia Review

Nonprofits the Ad Council and [emailprotected] lead landmark partnership of employers, talent developers and nonprofits on behalf of the majority of U.S. workers without a bachelor's degree

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Today, nonprofit organizations the Ad Council and [emailprotected], alongside nearly 50 national organizations and companies, launched Tear the Paper Ceiling. Announced at an event co-hosted with LinkedIn, the national public service advertising (PSA) campaign calls on businesses and decision makers to remove the barriers blocking 50% of workers in the U.S. from accessing upward mobility. The PSAs encourage employers and workers alike to join the movement to tear the "paper ceiling" the invisible barrier that comes at every turn for workers without a bachelor's degree.

Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9087451-ad-council-tear-the-paper-ceiling/

The multiyear campaign aims to change the narrative around the value and potential of workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs), rather than through a bachelor's degree. There are more than 70 million STARs in the U.S. who have developed valuable skills through community college, workforce training, bootcamps, certificate programs, military service or on-the-job learning. Currently, the lack of alumni networks, biased algorithms, degree screens, false stereotypes and misperceptions contribute to the paper ceiling, which creates barriers to upward economic mobility for STARs.

The Tear the Paper Ceiling PSAs developed by world-renowned creative agency Ogilvy feature the voices and stories of real STARs in various industries and career stages to raise awareness of the skills and capabilities of workers without bachelor's degrees. One featured STAR is Justin Hutchinson, who planned to enroll in college but went straight to work when his father became ill. He developed his people skills working at a smoothie shop, which he ultimately leveraged to secure a role leading business development for a marketing firm. Another STAR is LaShana Lewis, who had an aptitude for computers but no college degree. She forged her own career path from driving buses, to becoming a systems engineer, to founding her own consulting business, where she now serves as CEO.

According to insights from [emailprotected], Justin and LaShana are among the 4 million STARs already in high-wage roles, while 32 million more STARs have the skills for significantly higher-wage work (72% higher wages on average) based on their current roles. Since the turn of the century, STARs have lost access to 7.4 million higher-wage jobs. Despite that loss of access, research has found that there are still STARs still performing in those upwardly mobile roles, which makes it clear that loss isn't due to STARs' capabilities it's changes in hiring practices that are now screening them out. The paper ceiling has also suppressed STARs' earnings for decades: over the last 40 years, the wage gap between STARs and workers with bachelor's degrees has doubled. Adjusted for inflation, STARs now actually earn less on average than they did in 1976.

"College is a wonderful bridge to opportunity for millions, but it should never be a drawbridge excluding anyone who doesn't cross it from thriving careers. Millions of STARs have demonstrated the skills to succeed in millions of today's in-demand jobs and the adaptability to fill the jobs of tomorrow. Our partners in launching this campaign recognize the essential contributions STARs already make to our economy and believe tapping into STARs' talent will be vital for our companies and communities to prosper in the years ahead," said [emailprotected] CEO Byron Auguste. "Tearing the paper ceiling is about bringing in talent based on skills, not degrees; performance, not pedigree; and inclusion, not exclusion. This collaborative campaign is a critical next step in our mission to create a U.S. labor market where if you can do the job, you can get the job."

The integrated campaign will appear nationwide across all advertising formats: TV, radio, digital, social media, out-of-home and print. Per the Ad Council's model, the PSAs will run in placements donated by the media including Comcast NBCUniversal, Google/YouTube, LinkedIn, Meta, Reddit, and TikTok, among others. Volunteer media agency dentsu will also secure additional donated media support to extend the reach of the campaign.

At TearThePaperCeiling.org, the campaign provides resources for employers to expand their own STARs hiring, and invites STARs to share their own stories. Visitors to the site can also access a suite of tools that includes the "Tear the Paper Ceiling Hiring Playbook for Employers" to help businesses get started with skills-based hiring practices in their organization.

Tear the Paper Ceiling is supported by nearly 50 national organizations ranging from employers to philanthropies and workforce development organizations. Together, this coalition will broaden the impact and reach of the multiyear campaign, and includes:

"Across America today, millions of workers are unfairly shut out from job opportunities because of misperceptions about their skills and preparedness," said Ad Council President and CEO Lisa Sherman. "Through the Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign, we will change the narrative to celebrate and affirm the skills that STARs can bring to the workforce. Together with our powerful coalition of partners, our efforts will help more STARs access equitable job opportunities and inspire employers to discover untapped talent."

Tearing the paper ceiling and developing new strategies to recruit, hire, and support STARs will also play a crucial role in supporting employers' Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) efforts. Biases against STARs which include erroneously identifying them as low-skill have for years had a negative impact on diversity in the workforce, as 61% of Black workers, 55% of Hispanic workers and 66% of rural workers of all races are STARs. By removing degree screens and intentionally including STARs during the hiring process, employers can take steps toward building a more inclusive workforce while also addressing talent gaps.

"The fact that 70 million workers in the country are not valued adequately by employers today is a massive challenge, but also one that creates profound opportunity to build a better system," said Devika Bulchandani, Global CEO of Ogilvy. "Ogilvy is thrilled to play a role in helping STARs rip through the paper ceiling, so they can reach their full potential and have a fair chance at economic mobility. This campaign is an example of creativity at its best helping impact peoples' lives for the better and strengthen the fabric of our society."

"I am proud to have my story told in Tear the Paper Ceiling. I've always prided myself on being a lifelong learner and early in my career had hoped that my performance would speak for itself. But unfortunately, without a college degree, I was overlooked too many times to count," said STARs Advisory Council Chair LaShana Lewis. "Since becoming successful in tech and as a CEO, I've been told I'm one-in-a-million but I'm actually one of millions. By identifying people like me as STARs, and recognizing the skills we have as opposed to the degrees we don't, we're changing the way we view talent in this country. I truly hope that with this campaign, millions more STARs will feel seen like I have and join the movement."

Today's news follows June's announcement from [emailprotected] and the Ad Council about the campaign and initial coalition partners. Since June, the Tear the Paper Ceiling coalition has grown significantly with plans for further expansion during the next few years. Organizations, employers, STARs and other individuals can join the movement by visiting TearThePaperCeiling.org to share their stories, sign a pledge to support STARs and learn more about skills-based hiring practices.

Additional Quotes from Tear the Paper Ceiling Members:Accenture: "At Accenture, our skill-based approach to hiring helps us reach previously untapped talent pools that reflect the rich diversity of our clients and communities. Through the Apprenticeship Program, our learn-and-earn model connects people without four-year degrees to new career pathways in tech, and we share our success with other companies in the Apprenticeship Network. We're excited to further our impact on creating a more inclusive workforce and fuel our national competitiveness with the Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign." Kate Clifford, Chief Human Resources Officer of North America, Accenture

Chevron: "Our partnerships and investments in workforce development and career training will advance and strengthen communities. Chevron is committed to 'tearing the paper ceiling' through multiple diversity initiatives, including a commitment to inclusive hiring. Chevron brings industry-wide focus to D&I by leveraging scale and strategic partnerships to drive greater impact. Through our collaboration with [emailprotected], we seek to inspire companies to embrace alternative hiring routes for workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (*STARs*). The Paper Ceiling Campaign seeks to eliminate hiring barriers by shifting the focus to on-the-job learning, or work experience, as an alternative route to build valuable skills. A workforce armed with the skills necessary to succeed in the jobs of tomorrow is important not only to the success of our business, but also to America's ability to compete in the global marketplace." Rhonda Morris, Vice President, and Chief Human Resource Officer, Chevron

College Board: "There is so much untapped talent in this country including many remarkable young people who don't have four-year degrees. Through BigFuture, we are privileged to dialogue with millions of high school students every year about pathways to success in the workforce. We are proud to collaborate with [emailprotected] and others so that all students can build a big future, even if they don't earn a four-year degree." David Coleman, CEO, College Board

Comcast NBCUniversal: "All Americans should have the opportunity to fully participate and excel in our dynamic economy. We're proud to partner with [emailprotected] so that more skilled workers can access competitive wage-earning jobs through alternative pathways." Dalila Wilson-Scott, EVP and Chief Diversity Officer, Comcast Corporation

Google: "Google believes everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their full economic potential, without limitation based on education level. Through our Google Career Certificates program, we're providing accessible workforce training for well-paying jobs. And we've created an Employer Consortium of over 150 companiesincluding Googlethat helps program graduates connect with these jobs. We're proud to support [emailprotected] and to further our shared goal of creating a more inclusive economy." Lisa Gevelber, Founder, Grow with Google

Guild: "Workers today are seeking greater opportunity and career mobility from their employers. Right now, far too many are held back from reaching their full potential because of systems and barriers that prevent them from advancing. At Guild, we are focused on meeting workers where they are in their educational and career journeys, and helping talent rise wherever it's found. The Paper Ceiling campaign is critical in doing just that for STARs, and we are proud to be a part of this movement." Rachel Romer, CEO & Co-Founder, Guild

IBM: "Outdated and narrow views of credentials are causing otherwise innovative companies to miss out on hiring top talent like STARs. In partnership with [emailprotected] and the Ad Council, there is an opportunity to create an inclusive future of work. At IBM, we have adopted a skills-first approach through free education programs like IBM SkillsBuild and by removing the four-year degree requirement for 50% of our U.S. job listings. We're excited to build on this success through our partnership, and we encourage other companies to join us." Jonathan Adashek, Chief Communications Officer and Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, IBM

Jobcase: We built Jobcase to empower workers. We won't truly achieve this mission, unless the Paper Ceiling that our friends at [emailprotected] have spotlighted is ripped open. Supporting STARs success isn't just aligned with Jobcase's philosophy, it is literally a definition of our business, services, and mission. We are proud to join forces to accelerate change because when STAR workers are truly empowered, everyone benefits. This is not just the right thing to do, it is an imperatively critical thing to do if our country is to remain the economic leader and the beacon for economic opportunity that we all aspire to be. Fred Goff, CEO and Founder, Jobcase

LinkedIn: "For far too long, the way people got hired was based solely on the job they had, the degree they earned, or the people they knew. That's starting to change - and we see it happening on LinkedIn. Employers are realizing that by shifting focus to the actual skills a worker brings to the table, they can solve some of their biggest business challenges and unlock opportunities for millions of overlooked, qualified candidates. In today's turbulent economic times, the need for new ways of thinking has never been more urgent. LinkedIn is proud to stand with Opportunity @ Work to play a role in tearing down the 'paper ceiling,' so that we can create a more equitable and inclusive workforce for all." Aneesh Raman, Vice President, Head of Opportunity Project, LinkedIn

McKinsey & Company: "Filling most in-demand jobs today and tomorrow will require a fundamentally different approach to finding the potential in talent, rather than screening resumes for a particular pedigree. What employers really need is knowledge, skills, and capacity to learn. We are making significant investments at McKinsey to ensure that our own talent culture is both distinctive and inclusive. To create opportunities for a broader range of talent, we are reaching out to new sources, like coding bootcamps and apprenticeship programs, and adapting our process to include game-based assessments and interview guides that rely less on business jargon and case prep. We are also proud to help tear the 'Paper Ceiling' by building data-driven tools that will help employers of all kinds make potential the priority and rethink what it means to be a skilled worker." Katy George, Senior Partner Chief People Officer, McKinsey & Company

Strada Education Network: "Even at this moment in which there is an extraordinary gap in the labor market between demand and supply, employers too often miss out on talented job candidates due to rigid degree requirements, while also unwittingly constraining opportunity for millions of individuals. Education after high school represents a vital pathway to a prosperous future. Yet we also believe that employers should value the skills people bring to the table regardless of where they acquired them. We're proud to support the [emailprotected] STAR campaign, which has the potential to create opportunities for millions of talented STARs across America." Stephen Moret, President and CEO, Strada Education Network

Walmart: "Creating paths of opportunity for everyone depends on a skills-based approach to hiring and advancing workers. [emailprotected] Work and the Ad Council's Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign highlights the enormous unrealized potential for workers, employers and our economy that will come from reorienting our workforce systems toward skills rather than the way skills have been acquired. We are excited to build on our work with [emailprotected] and others since we began our Retail Opportunity initiative in 2015 to drive change in the workforce system through our business and philanthropy." Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Walmart, and President of the Walmart Foundation

Workday: "At Workday, we believe that skills are a central currency in the changing world of work and a pathway to a more equitable economic future for all. Be it through the way we think about talent, the way we innovate, or via our policy advocacy efforts, we are committed to creating opportunities for all and helping workers get skilled through alternative routes. We are honored to support Opportunity @ Work and their Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign." Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Workday

About [emailprotected][emailprotected] is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to enable at least 1 million working adults in America to translate their learning into earning generating a $20 billion boost in annual earnings. [emailprotected] engages with corporate, philanthropic, and workforce partners to directly address the barriers that STARs face, recognize STARs talent and remove bachelor's degree screens. Learn more at [emailprotected].

About the Ad CouncilThe Ad Council is where creativity and causes converge. The nonprofit organization brings together the most creative minds in advertising, media, technology and marketing to address many of the nation's most important causes. The Ad Council has created many of the most iconic campaigns in advertising history. Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk. Smokey Bear. Love Has No Labels. The Ad Council's innovative social good campaigns raise awareness, inspire action and save lives. To learn more, visit AdCouncil.org, follow the Ad Council's communities on Facebook and Twitter, and view the creative on YouTube.

About OgilvyOgilvy inspires brands and people to impact the world. We have been creating iconic, culture-changing, value-driving ideas for clients since David Ogilvy founded the company in 1948. We continue building on that rich legacy through our borderless creativityoperating, innovating, and creating at the intersection of talent and capabilities. Our experts in Public Relations, Consulting, Advertising, Health, and Experience work fluidly across 131 offices in 93 countries to bring forth world-class creative solutions for our clients. Ogilvy is a WPP company. For more information, visit Ogilvy.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

SOURCE The Ad Council

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Coalition of Nearly 50 Organizations Launches 'Tear the Paper Ceiling' Campaign to Raise Awareness Around the 70+ Million Workers in the U.S. Skilled...

Here at The Hub we are convinced that delays in getting back to the office and now the rise of so-calledquiet quittingrisk having significant consequences for individual Canadians, the economy, and our broader society that need to be better understood and debated.

We recently ranan editorialthat made the case for getting back to the office, but we dont want to have the last word on the subject. We put out the call for Hub readers to respond with their own experiences and are delighted to share the latest sample of comments and feedback. We will continue to share your feedback as it comes in.

If you would like to tell us about your own empty office experience or contribute to this discussion, please email us at[emailprotected]or contact us anonymously via our onlinesubmission form.

Im a manager for ten-plus finance professionals at a resource-based employer in Western Canada. We worked from home very effectively through the pandemic, churning out scenario after scenario, and analyzing the range of potential business outcomes due to the pandemic disruption. Our team knocked it out of the park while working from home, and leadership noticed. I found my teams quality was up because distractions were down, young parents were more rested, and we all understood that this was our opportunity to show that this operating model had merit. We engage via video regularly and have set up chats for the typical office banter.

In my experience, the most resistant managers are those that didnt want remote work to ever be successful because they are not disciplined enough to self-manage and had not already established the authority and relationships to effectively pivot their teams when needed. They are not able to lead remotely so they push to get back to face to face. Oh, and they are typically over 50, white, and male. They feel a much strong sense of belonging in the office than the rest of us. If you want something to fail, it will. We want the remote model to succeed and Im confident it will. If not today, then in five years when they have all moved on. Patience, grasshoppers.

The real issue is allowing unions in a monopoly environment. With no competition, government unionized employees will always get much more than private employees.

Your Hub Roundtable discussion about the return to the office (or resistance to doing so) on the part of the public sector had a more practical edge that was very useful. The public sectors attempts to transform the privilege of working from home into a right is indeed problematic from the perspective of social justice. Unfortunately, it is almost invisible to unions, the government as an employer, and most public servants after years of interpreting privilege and social justice solely in terms of race and gender. Class considerations are almost considered a red herring. For certain jobs, hybrid or remote work makes sense. For others, it does not. In either case, its widespread practice solidifies and exacerbates privilege, even if such work arrangements make sense and are a serious boon to individuals.

As a public servant myself, it is disturbing to see how few of my colleagues are willing to see beyond their interests as public servants to the interests of the public service itselfor are simply uninterested in doing so. But there are consequences for both individual public servants and the public service as a whole. We are going to become increasingly hated by the Canadian public, and one day there will be a well-deserved reckoning that will result in significant layoffs and real damage to the public service. Most of us are motivated by a genuine desire to serve our fellow citizens, yet some are unable to see beyond their own convenience.

Over the past week or so, I have been annoyed by the typical antipathy to the public service expressed by The Hub, but that is independent of the real concerns that have been raised about the direction things are going. The balance will reinstate itself, but the further it weighs on one side of the scale, the uglier the correction will be.

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Remote work can actually be more productive: More Hub readers respond to the work-from-home phenomenon - The Hub

MENDOCINO Co, CA, 9/21/22 A significant heat wave at the beginning of September broke records, bringing an all-time high temperature of 117 degrees in Ukiah and triple-digit highs lasting for days throughout inland Mendocino County. Social Services staff activated the departments phone tree and got on the road, making more than 800 calls to reach houseless community members, those who receive in-home support, at-risk youth, foster families, and PG&E medical baseline customers around the county.

These responses, coupled with no large power outages, seem to have paid off; a spokesperson for Adventist Health told The Mendocino Voice that the hospitals only treated one person for heat stroke. But as extreme heat like this becomes more common, Mendocino Countys Department of Public Health has new questions to answer and new responses to develop, according to Director Anne Molgaard.

Were especially concerned about people who are low-income and people who are living off the grid, or are living on the grid but in an area that does not have consistent service, she told The Voice in a phone conversation in mid-September. Were gathering information right now about not only where these people are located within our county, but what the best practices are, that other places that have started to experience these same heat waves are doing.

Mendocino County has typically operated on a system in which cooling stations where people can get some water and spend time in air-conditioning during the days hottest hours only open when temperatures are more than 100 degrees for three days in a row and more than 70 degrees at night, Molgaard said.

Watching temperatures climb over the weekend, when the National Weather Service in Eureka had issued an excessive heat warning to begin that Sunday, she recalled, I felt so guilty when we didnt have any cooling stations open yet. Finally, temperatures were not going to fall below 70 one night, and Public Health initiated its Heat Response Plan and urged partners to act.

We dont take over during a heat alert, Molgaard explained. We rely on our partners. So for example, the city of Ukiah themselves opened [a cooling station]. And they even opened it on Labor Day, and the person who opened it was Sage Sangiacomo, the city manager, because he didnt want to have to call in any of his staff on a holiday. He opened it that very first day when we realized, Oh no, this is going to get worse, not better.

Molgaard said Public Health has now begun to receive new direction from the state in the weeks since, as California reels from the high temperatures and reckons with the reality that these events will only become more frequent due to the changing climate.

Everybody realizes we cant just treat this as a once-in-15-years occurrence, she said. This is going to be happening more and more, so now the state is getting a little bit more involved and thats good for us.

The states public health department is beginning to develop a new formula for opening cooling stations in response to heat waves. But it also seems cooling stations can go underutilized. According to Heidi Corrado, program administrator of Mendocino County Public Healths Emergency Preparedness Unit, the City of Ukiah only reported attendance at its cooling station on Tuesday, though the station was open all weekdays, and areas open for people to escape the heat in Covelo didnt see increased traffic. Public Health staff believe this is primarily due to the fact that the county did not fall victim to rolling blackouts.

I credit the people of California for heeding the Flex Alerts and conserving power during critical periods, so we could keep the power on for everyone, Corrado wrote in an email to The Voice The heat would have been far more dangerous had we not had power.

The communications staffing for the local Public Health department is also fairly new, and staff are refining how they notify the community about disasters and safety risks.

Weve had some excellent learning opportunities over the last year and are identifying areas of focus, including developing staff capacity to be involved in the many professional information and resource meetings, and community knowledge and info-sharing platforms that are vital in urgent situations, spokesperson Maya Stuart wrote in an email to The Voice.

Social Services, the department primarily responsible for checking on Mendocino Countys most vulnerable during heat events like these, still has a 27% staffing shortage.

We are refining our processes and strategizing new ways to increase staff recruitment while supporting our current employees and their workloads, spokesperson Willow Anderson told The Voice. We are very proud of the commitment and dedication our staff bring to their work and the level of care they provide for our community members.

In moves that could have a real benefit for small rural departments that are often stretched thin, Governor Gavin Newsom recently approved several pieces of legislation aimed at both heat preparedness and climate mitigation. Goals of these bills include the formation of an advisory committee to study how extreme heat affects Californias workers and economy (AB 1643); the formation of the nations first extreme heat advance warning and ranking system (AB 2238); and critically, funding for the creation of climate resilience districts at the local level to tackle extreme environmental challenges including high heat (SB 852).

These build on Protecting Californians From Extreme Heat: A State Action Plan to Build Community Resilience, which California issued in September. Its priorities include:

Implement a statewide public health monitoring system to identify heat illness events early, monitor trends, and track illnesses to intervene and prevent further harm.

Accelerate readiness and protection of communities most impacted by extreme heat, including through cooling schools and homes, supporting community resilience centers, and expanding nature-based solutions.

Protect vulnerable populations through codes, standards, and regulations.

Expand economic opportunity and build a climate smart workforce that can operate under and address extreme heat.

Increase public awareness to reduce risks posed by extreme heat.

Protect natural and working lands, ecosystems, and biodiversity from the impacts of extreme heat.

Itll be interesting to come back in a year from now, and five years from now, and see what new programs exist within Public Health, Molgaard said. We have no doubt that we are going to have to put people and resources toward climate change and its effect on our population here locally.

For information on extreme heat or to reach Public Health with other concerns, residents can get in touch with the business hours call center at (707) 472-2759; head to the Public Health Facebook page; or sign up for E-notifications from Public Health.

Note: Kate Fishman covers the environment & natural resources for The Mendocino Voice in partnership with a Report For America. Her position is funded by the Community Foundation of Mendocino, Report for America, & our readers. You can support Fishmans work with a tax-deductible donation here or by emailing [emailprotected]. Contact her at KFishman@mendovoice.com or at (707) 234-7735. The Voice maintains editorial control and independence.

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Mendocino Public Health on record-setting Sept. heat: We can't just treat this as a once-in-15-years occurrence - The Mendocino Voice

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Carbon Ridge, Inc., a leading developer of modular onboard carbon capture & storage solutions (OCCS) for decarbonizing the maritime industry, today announced the Company has raised $6M in funding led by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, with additional investment from Crowley, a leading U.S.-based shipping and logistics company, and Berge Bulk, one of the worlds largest dry bulk owners, as well as Rusheen Capital Management and Plug and Play Ventures. The financing enables Carbon Ridge to continue development of the Companys OCCS technology for an onboard pilot in 2023.

We believe onboard carbon capture & storage will be the lowest cost and most efficient pathway to achieve near-term decarbonization in the maritime industry. We are very excited about partnering with The Grantham Foundation, Crowley and Berge Bulk, as leaders in their respective sectors, each with strong commitments to long-term climate stabilization, said Chase Dwyer, Founder & CEO of Carbon Ridge.

Kevin Tidwell, managing director at Grantham Foundation, said, Shipping will be one of the most difficult industries to decarbonize. We believe that Carbon Ridges maritime carbon capture systems will be cost-effective, ubiquitous and ultimately bend down the curve of shipping emissions.

Crowleys ambition is to become the most sustainable and innovative maritime, logistics company in the Americas. Investing in and developing cleaner, low-carbon solutions will be critical in reaching the maritime industrys decarbonization goals. Carbon Ridges novel approach to significantly lessen the impact of maritime emissions aligns with our target sustainability goals and we are pleased to support the scale-up of their technology, said Tom Crowley, chairman and CEO of Crowley.

We believe in the potential of onboard carbon capture & storage as one of the effective solutions to enable Berge Bulks commitment towards zero emissions. Our partnership with Carbon Ridge is a strong step forward in achieving those goals and consistent with our broader sustainability mission, said James Marshall, CEO of Berge Bulk.

About Carbon Ridge

Based in Los Angeles, California, Carbon Ridge is a leading developer of carbon capture & storage solutions for the maritime industry. Carbon Ridges OCCS technology provides a low-cost and near-term solution to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions from commercial shipping by up to 95%. Carbon Ridges technology allows for non-disruptive integration to vessel exhaust systems, enables up to a 75% reduction in process equipment size and volume in comparison to conventional CCS technologies, and is designed for the rigor of commercial maritime operations. In addition to its onboard OCCS technology, Carbon Ridge provides end-to-end solutions including CO2 transportation, sequestration, and credit monetization. For more information, visit http://www.carbonridge.net

About The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment

Grantham Foundation invests to redesign energy systems, improve soil health, spare the ocean from acidification, and directly recapture carbon from the atmosphere. The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and its affiliate, Grantham Environmental Trust, believe that innovation and technology are the best hope for an enduring future. The Grantham Trust and Foundation have, for over 15 years, focused almost exclusively on climate change mitigation and support over ninety grantees and fifty companies around the world. For more information, visit http://www.granthamfoundation.org.

About Crowley

Crowley is a privately held, U.S.-owned and operated maritime, energy and logistics solutions company serving commercial and government sectors with nearly $2.9 billion in annual revenues, over 170 vessels mostly in the Jones Act fleet and approximately 7,000 employees around the world employing more U.S. mariners than any other company. The Crowley enterprise has invested more than $3 billion in maritime transport, which is the backbone of global trade and the global economy. As a global ship owner-operator and services provider with more than 130 years of innovation and a commitment to sustainability, the company serves customers in 36 nations and island territories through five business units: Crowley Logistics, Crowley Shipping, Crowley Solutions, Crowley Wind Services and Crowley Fuels. Additional information about Crowley, its business units and subsidiaries can be found at http://www.crowley.com.

About Berge Bulk

Berge Bulk is one of the world's leading dry bulk owners with an outstanding reputation for the safe, efficient, and sustainable delivery of commodities around the world. Berge Bulk has committed to be carbon neutral by 2025 at the latest. Berge Bulk owns and manages a fleet of over 80 vessels, equating to more than 14 million DWT. The fleet ranges from handy-size to cape-size to some of the largest vessels ever built, serving the world's major miners, steel mills and charterers. In 2021, Berge Bulk transported nearly 70 million tonnes of cargo around the world. For more information, visit http://www.bergebulk.com.

About Rusheen Capital Management

Jim McDermott and Jeff Green, the principals of Rusheen Capital Management, have a long and successful track record in investment, commercialization and project development for sustainable technologies. Their goal is to invest in and create sustainable companies in support of a low-carbon future. With involvement and investments in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), renewable energy, biofuels and water sustainability, Rusheen is focused on decarbonization, resource efficiency and leveraging waste streams as new resources. For more information, visit http://www.rusheen.com.

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Carbon Ridge Secures $6 Million Investment from Leading Climate Investors and Maritime Industry Leaders - Business Wire

From far-flung expeditions to deep fireside chats, travel has the power to change us. When done well, it can also positively change the places we visita fact I learned during a recent safari in southern Tanzania.

As a wildlife enthusiast, I often plan my trips around local fauna. Sure, I follow responsible wildlife tourism guidelines, but cruising around in a safari Jeep doesnt necessarily help the animals, or ecosystems, Ive come to admire. Getting my hands dirty installing camera traps to assist researchers studying wildlife in an uncharted and once highly hunted stretch of southern Tanzania? Thats a bit more like it.

And this, it turns out, is part of a growing trend of the 2020s: regenerative travel. The idea is to go beyond sustainability, which focuses on minimizing negative impact, and instead have a net positive impact on the place youre visiting.

During my trip to southern Tanzanias new Usangu Expedition Camp by safari company Asilia, this meant installing and monitoring camera traps and snapping then uploading animal photos to citizen-science database iNaturalist to help researchers benchmark and monitor local wildlife populations; guests can also assist with collaring programs to track the movements of big cats. These experiences felt even more enriching than a traditional Jeep safari, and they contributed to Usangus goal: helping conservationists from partner organizations, such as the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, better protect this under-studied ecosystem.

Usangu is one of a growing number of experiences allowing globe-trotters to leave a positive footprint. Given community and environmental strains from the last decade of uncapped (and largely uncontrolled) tourism growth, plus a jet-setting resurgence after the pandemic, this shift couldnt come at a better time.

Tourism took a bad [hit] during Covid from a reputation point of view; regenerative travel is a way to rebuild the brand of tourism, says African Leadership Universitys School of Wildlife Conservation research director Sue Snyman, noting this is particularly important for engaging local residents. Years of negative tourism impacts have left some communities wondering why theyd want tourism to begin with. If communities see travelers having a genuine positive impact, theyll understand [what tourism can do].

With overtourism pressures mounting in Moab, Sedona, and Big Surjust to name a fewmore of us are understanding the complex impact of too many visitors on beloved environments.

In June 2020, six responsible-travel groups, including the Center for Responsible Travel and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, joined forces to reshape tourism for the better. The result: the Future of Tourism Coalition, which calls on industry organizations to follow 13 guiding principles.

Some of these guidelines follow a more traditional sustainability model, like reducing emissions. Others align with the regenerative ethos, such as demanding that local communities receive fair income from tourism, and creating experiences that support artists, farmers, guides, and chefs working to preserve and protect their local culture.

When The New York Times first reported on the regenerative travel trend in August 2020, around 20 travel groups had pledged to support these principles. Now, more than 600 organizations have signed on; the coalition is also co-hosting its first in-person summit this fall.

While exciting, this shift toward more equitable and responsible excursions is long overdue. According to Planeterra, a nonprofit that aids community-based initiatives around the world, the tourism industry generates some $8 trillion globally, yet local communities hardly receive a fraction, if any, of it.

The Future of Tourism Coalition principles benefit the community and the jet-setter, says Planeterra president Jamie Sweeting. When you help empower local people to run their own enterprises, where theyre the ones hosting you in their village or community, you feel like youre part of something bigger than just Im here having a great holiday.

The concept makes sense, but lets be clear: we have a long way to goespecially after the economic blow of the pandemic. Most tourism businesses had to really struggle for a couple of years. They have to be judicious about how theyre spending their money, says Sweeting. For many travel companies, regenerative experiences arent the top priority. But the consumer has way more power than theyve ever had in the travel sector. Travel businesses will do what the travelers want, so if you want to make a difference, start asking for this kind of tourism.

All too often, travel is consumptive, or in Sweetings words, parasitic. Visitors often take from communitiesbe it consuming resources (water use, for example, is a major tourism issue in Hawaii), snapping photos for social media, or worsening crowds and congestion.

Advocates of responsible tourism have long encouraged globe trotters to hire community guides or stay in locally owned hotels instead of chains. The regenerative travel trend paves the way for even more positive impact.

Planeterra, founded in 2003, aids community enterprises through mentorship, networking, grants, and education. It works with G Adventures to connect travelers directly to businesses that need their support; examples include booking community-owned culinary experiences on trips to southern Africa and touring awomens weaving co-op in Peru before trekking the Inca Trail.

Its all about equity and empowerment, and enabling communities to tell their stories, their history, and share their environment in their way, says Sweeting, noting that in recent years, this model has led to some substantial local gains: employment opportunities for women, increased education access for youth, and revenue staying within communities. (Planeterra wants community businesses to generate $1 billion from global tourism by 2030.)

Other regenerative initiatives that have sprouted up include Mountain Homestays, a network that offers accommodations from Kenya to India largely owned and operated by Indigenous female entrepreneurs. One particularly unique spin-off, Astrostays, takes the Indigenous-owned accommodation further, with experiences centered on stargazing and culture in the Indian Himalayas. Astrostays launched in summer 2019; its already generated enough revenue to install greenhouses and solar-powered water heaters in local villages.

According to Snyman, whos studied community-based tourism for decades, this approach can work, but its not foolproof. Tourism is one of the most complex businesses in terms of business management, and yet, youre expecting this community to now be a partner with the private sector whos done it for 30 years, she says, noting true capacity building within the community is critical. People talk about equity partnerships, but for me, theres nothing equitable in them when the power balance is skewed. There are good examples [of community tourism], but theres still work to be done in the space of equitably engaging communities.

One community-based tourism model thats impressed Snyman is NamibiasDamaraland Camp.It came to fruition when travel outfitterWilderness Safarislaunched a joint venture with the local community in Damaraland, located in theHuab River Valley,in 1996. At the time, unemployment here had reached nearly 100 percent and human-wildlife conflict was raging.This venture led to the creation of the 869,000-square-acre Torra Conservancy, a community-based program in which the local people own and operate Damaraland Camp. Wilderness Safaris and the conservancy share in both the benefits and risks. The initiativehas also helped the local people view wildlife as a resource to protect, not poach.

Damaraland Camp highlights the full potential of regenerative travel; by supporting local people, travelers also support conservation. Minnesota-based nonprofit Indifly shows how the principle can apply to other types of tourism, such as angling.

Indifly helps Indigenous communities around the world create equitable ecotourism initiatives centered on fly fishing and conservation; all projects are 100 percent community-owned and operated. One of its latest projects, acommunity-owned eco lodgeon Wyomings 2.2 million acre Wind River Indian Reservation, will generate critical economic opportunity for the Indigenous Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho communities, where unemployment hovers around 70 percent.

The idea: build a sustainable economy where Indigenous communities both benefit from fly-fishing tourism and manage how visitors enjoy, and respect, these precious resources.

[The waterways] will stay pristine as long as theyre protected. The minute you start overdoing it, youre going to hurt them. The tribes, we do have the ability to protect that, Darren Calhoun, an enrolled Northern Arapaho Tribe member, said in a film about the project by Indifly partner Yeti. In 1992, Calhoun and his father founded the 100 percent Native-owned outfitter Wind River Canyon Whitewater and Fly Fishing.

One reason fly fishing works so well? Its lucrative. According to a 2021 report from the American Sportfishing Association, the U.S. fishing community alone generates an economic output of nearly $40 billion per year. Anglers tend to spend more money than [many] other types of outdoor pursuits, and theyre willing to pay to travel to places that people dont typically go, said Matt Shilling, Indiflys executive director.

The challenge for us as a community is lets [build upon this interest], but lets make sure were the beneficiary, Calhoun said in the Yeti film. Lets put our kids to work, lets create businesses for our community.

Increasingly, regenerative travel experiences are available for all types of outdoor activities. Scuba certified? Try trash diving or coral restoration. More into terrestrial excursions? Book a Sierra Club trip to help with trail maintenance or native species restoration in some of the countrys most scenic getaways.

Even small actions can have a big impact, especially in our increasingly visited national parks. According to Brittany Conklin of the Grand Canyon Conservancy, spending in GCC-run retail stores or participating in the parks Field Institute classes directly fund trail updates, wildlife conservation, and habitat restoration.

The idea of regenerative travel may seem a bit Pollyanna-ish, or like traveling with rose-colored glasses, but Snyman says it can and does work. The key factor is how positive impact spreads beyond direct tourist activity or spending. When local workers receive fair payment, or community enterprises generate revenue, the communitys whole economic ecosystem can flourish.

Often governments look specifically at the number of tourists and what they spend [as a sign of success], but one of the biggest benefits of staff getting paid is they can go into their communities and spend money, says Snyman. They employ other people to look after their children. They work in startup businesses and spend their money in the villages. That, to me, is regenerative.

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Regenerative Travel Is the Next Phase of Responsible Tourism - Outside Online - Outside

NNPC Limited

there is the lingering fear that the new state-owned company will be bogged down by the same inefficiency and patronage that dogged its predecessor. The NNPC Limited is inheriting a workforce, management, and even organisational culture that was largely determined by discretion and corrupt incentives, rather than merit and rules. The board of the new company has also been put in place to fulfill mainly political imperatives, rather than any strategic human resource consideration.

Last month, Nigerians were greeted with news that our state-owned oil company, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was now born-again as NNPC Limited, a public limited liability company owned by the Nigerian state. The rebirth is part of broader reforms in Nigerias oil and gas sector, as provided for in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the long-overdue oil industry composite law, which is finally going into force after being enacted by the president in August last year.

One of the merits of the NNPC reforms is the expectation that as a limited liability company, though wholly owned by the Nigerian state, it will be insulated from political interference and bureaucratic inefficiencies. A key challenge that has dogged the heels of the corporation over the years has been its dual role as both regulator and commercial player in the sector. The new company has been freed of that unfair and incestuous burden and is now a strictly commercial entity that will not rely on government funding and direct controls.

But beyond that functional change, will the reforms at the NNPC Limited go beyond skin deep or is it just a case of old wine in a new bottle? What is expected of the new company under the PIA? Can the new NNPC Limited make the bold transformation from its predecessors 45-year-old reputation as an inefficient, corrupt, deeply politicised, and habitually loss-making statutory corporation? Does the new company really have what it takes to be both profitable and relevant in an industry that is struggling with profitability and relevance in view of the global energy transition? Can the NNPC Limited shed its old skin of culpability with joint venture partners in the social, economic, and ecological devastation of petro-resourced communities? Given the cessation of statutory payments into the federation account and that the NNPCs oil sales constituted the largest revenue stream for the Nigerian government, how will the reforms affect the countrys fiscal health?

First, there is the lingering fear that the new state-owned company will be bogged down by the same inefficiency and patronage that dogged its predecessor. The NNPC Limited is inheriting a workforce, management, and even organisational culture that was largely determined by discretion and corrupt incentives, rather than merit and rules. The board of the new company has also been put in place to fulfill mainly political imperatives, rather than any strategic human resource consideration. It is indeed a tall order to now expect a company saddled from the get-go with such a burden of inefficiency to compete profitably with peers that are operated by the industrys best.

The new NNPC Limited still carries the moral burden of its predecessors joint venture participations in wreaking havoc on the lands, lives, and livelihoods of oil-producing communities over the last seventy years. The Act, after all, transfers the assets and liabilities of the NNPC to NNPC Limited, or where that fails, to the government. The new NNPC, or at least its majority owner (the Federal Government), cannot, therefore, escape corporate accountability

Next lets look at profitability. We cant just wish away the NNPCs loss-making history in the eagerness to birth a profitable commercial firm. Year in, year out, the NNPC and its subsidiaries had been steeped in losses, until it posted an abracadabra profit for the first time in 44 years in its 2020 annual financial statement. This was rather controversial, given COVID-19 and the under-performance of businesses globally, especially in the oil and gas industry! Given this loss-making trend, it is understandable if we worry about the new ventures chances for bottom-line success, at a time when its industry is faced with dire prospects occasioned by the global energy transition. In 2020, the corporation also published its annual financial statements for the first time in its history. Before then, opacity was the watchword! With the announcement that the company will be ready for a public offer by June 2023, is it safe to expect that investor confidence will be quickly earned by magically emplacing the right systems and processes to drive efficiency and profitability?

NNPC Limited will also need to address the operational crisis and lethargy that has for so long dogged the defunct corporations subsidiaries. Take the refineries, for instance, that have remained comatose, refining nothing year-in year-out, while workers and management cart home stupendous salaries for being idle. Or the corporations perpetual cash call debts. Or the scandal after scandal that have rocked oil swap deals and the importation of refined products. Or even the highly corrupt fuel subsidy regime that has currently outpaced government capital spending. Granted, under the PIA some of these matters have now escaped the remit of NNPC Limited, but their shadow will cast a pall on the new company for some time yet.

Ahead of its privatisation, the Corporation had in 2021 become a supporting company of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), committing to greater transparency. But real transparency and accountability to its shareholders and stakeholders will require going beyond just disclosing hitherto opaque transaction records, as it has already begun doing. Section 83(3) of the PIA, for instance, expects the company to maintain a publicly accessible register of contracts, licenses or leases it enters into with other firms. Also Section 59 (5) of the Act indicates that the Board of the new company will be subject to the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, which means that post-public offer shareholders will be subjected to beneficial ownership disclosure requirements of CAMA 2020. There will also be need, from the get go, to come clean on which assets have been carried forward into the new company and which have been left behind with the Nigerian government, according to the establishing law. These are really high bars and we watch to see how the NNPC Limited scales them. Pushing that transparency envelope further, the new company will have to start disclosing, at every step, exactly how profitable it is to plunge scarce investor resources into new capital projects, in a sector that is increasingly becoming a risky bet in view of the energy transition.

Also, the ongoing divestment drive among International Oil Companies (IOCs) throws a different kind of complication into the mix. The new NNPC Limited still carries the moral burden of its predecessors joint venture participations in wreaking havoc on the lands, lives, and livelihoods of oil-producing communities over the last seventy years. The Act, after all, transfers the assets and liabilities of the NNPC to NNPC Limited, or where that fails, to the government. The new NNPC, or at least its majority owner (the Federal Government), cannot, therefore, escape corporate accountability for the economic, social, and ecological liabilities that these hurriedly divesting companies are leaving behind in the Niger Delta. They are in it together!

while we expect the new state-owned oil company to step up to the plate on its corporate governance, profitability, accountability, and even its business relevance in the current global context, fundamental to its independence and success will be how Nigerias government navigates the huge revenue implications of this transformation and the fallout for the broader economy. At the crux of this challenge is the question of what the future holds for the NNPC Limited itself, and by extension, Nigerias fossil-based economy

In any case, by failing to offer preferential shares to extraction-affected communities, the PIA made it clear that it was starting off the new NNPC Limited on a premise that further compounds the exclusion of these communities and the contempt for the legacy issues they have been grappling with for decades. Furthermore, NNPC Limiteds shareholding structure rubbishes the principle of federalism and dis-empowers the sub-national governments (especially oil-producing states) by placing ownership of the new company in the Federal Government rather than the government of the federation. The same for its Board, which does not have autonomous nominees of the state governments on it. Going forward, we can expect to see agitations for these issues to be addressed, perhaps through a review of the PIA.

The new company will also need to take the energy transition more seriously. The defunct corporations Renewable Energy Division only feebly acknowledged this global switch through its controversial biofuels programme. Rather than an emissions reduction target or a plan to decrease oil and gas production volumes in the foreseeable future, what the new NNPC has inherited is a commitment to ramping up production and further investments in fossil fuel exploration efforts, including in frontier basins, where such investments are most likely not viable. In fact, the corporations management, which has transmuted to the management of the new NNPC Limited was actually at the forefront of a campaign for Nigeria to be excused from the energy transition! When a company sees that its primary markets are finding alternatives to its primary products, it makes strategic, even if difficult, decisions. Will the new NNPC Limited see the business case for embracing clean energy or will it continue in the myopia of its predecessor that saw the reduction of its carbon footprint as a mere inconvenience? One is tempted to say, time will tell, but theres really no time!

Finally, the big elephant in the room: Under the PIA, the new company ceases to make monthly payments to the federation account, which implies a massive reduction in revenues available for sharing among the three tiers of government. While the company will still have to pay dividends, taxes and 80% of its profit after tax to its owners (for now, solely the Federal Government), these payments will only level out in the medium to long term. In the short term, however, the national purse, already grappling with a revenue crisis, is in for a big fiscal shock. Debt service consumed over 100% of the nations revenue in the first four months of 2022, an amount that exceeds the capital expenditure budget for the entire year. The sudden cessation of NNPC remittances will have deleterious implications for sub-nationals, especially oil producing states whose appetite for derivation payments has been enlarged over time.

So, while we expect the new state-owned oil company to step up to the plate on its corporate governance, profitability, accountability, and even its business relevance in the current global context, fundamental to its independence and success will be how Nigerias government navigates the huge revenue implications of this transformation and the fallout for the broader economy. At the crux of this challenge is the question of what the future holds for the NNPC Limited itself, and by extension, Nigerias fossil-based economy, as the climate crisis worsens and oil and gas assets increasingly become stranded. Central to the foregoing, the re-branded national oil company will, alongside the IOCs, have to deal with an inevitable wave of conflict and fragility as many stranded communities suddenly come to terms with the reality of their betrayal by the fossil fuel establishment. Beyond the euphoria of a name change, these are the bigger existential questions the new company will need to grapple with in the years, nay months, ahead!

Tijah Bolton-Akpan, co-founder of Policy Alert, tweets from @Tijahbolt

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NNPC: Between rebranding and reforms, By Tijah Bolton-Akpan - Premium Times