Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

Abundant energy resources in many parts of Africa position the continent as a potential location for the production and export of climate-friendly hydrogen, based either on renewable electricity (green hydrogen) or natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage technologies (blue hydrogen). Green hydrogen is produced via electrolysis by splitting water molecules into their component parts using renewable electricity, while blue hydrogen is produced by splitting natural gas into hydrogen and CO2after which the CO2 needs to be captured and stored.

Several African countries, especially around the Northern and Southern Tropics, have excellent solar and wind resources. Africa also has large untapped hydropower potential, mainly located along the Congo and Nile Rivers. Countries like Nigeria, Algeria, and Angola have some of the largest gas reserves in the world. Blue hydrogen has been suggested as a low-carbon option for these countries as they seek to diversify their fossil fuel-dependent economies.

This large resource potential has spurred political engagement by a number of European countries, most notably Germany. The German government has partnered with several African countries to develop a Hydrogen Potential Atlas and has committed $45.7 million to the National Green Hydrogen Development Strategy of Namibia. Germany and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have taken up discussions that could see the country relaunch the controversial Inga Dam III project. Germany has also set up so-called Hydrogen Offices in Angola and Nigeria to facilitate dialogue with these fossil fuel-exporting economies.

But how realistic are these ambitions, given a number of factors complicating the regions pursuit of this energy carrier?

First, hydrogen development cannot be separated from Africas broader energy landscape. More than half of the African population lacks access to electricity. Per capita consumption of energy in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) stands at 180 kWh, compared to 13,000 kWh per capita in the U.S. and 6,500 kWh in Europe. Renewables also remain at an early stage of development: In 2018, the continent generated approximately 180 TWh of renewable powerapproximately 20 percent of electricity generation and less than 0.02 percent of its estimated potential.

Source: IRENA (2014) Estimating the Renewable Energy Potential in Africa; FAO (2011) Water for agriculture and energy: The challenges of climate change; IEA (2019) Africa Energy Outlook.

Despite the large potential, capacity additions for the production of green hydrogen raise the question of whether they are coming at the expense of expanding local access to renewable energy to meet socioeconomic needs, to enable clean industrial development, and to meet domestic climate targets within the context of the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, the production of green hydrogen comes with a significant demand for water at a time of increasing levels of water scarcity across Africaespecially in the northern and the Sahel regions. Similarly, the prospect of blue hydrogen as a climate-friendly energy carrier remains highly uncertain, due to residual greenhouse gas emissions, the need for safe CO2 storage sites, and controversy related to the viability of carbon capture and storage technologies.

Moreover, policymakers must consider the economic feasibility of hydrogen exports. Notably, the production of clean hydrogen in some of the most promising locations in Africa could be very cost-competitive, particularly due to abundant availability of solar resources. West Africa alone could produce approximately 120,000 TWh of green hydrogen per year at a price of less than $2.63/kg, assuming no water constraints. However, the cost of transporting hydrogen hampers this competitiveness. Maritime shipping, considered the most cost-effective for distances over 3,000 km, would add an estimated $1 to $2.75/kg. For shorter distances, the cost of pipeline transport could be considerably lower, estimated at $0.18/kg per 1,000 km for new hydrogen pipelines and $0.08 for retrofitted gas pipelines.

Though such infrastructure investments carry high costs and are frequently hampered by delays, current pipelines, when repurposed, could offer a starting point for Africas hydrogen trade. Current international pipeline infrastructure in Africa mainly consists of pipelines transporting natural gas from Northern African countries to Europe as well as connections between Egypt and the Middle East. In addition, the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) network, which currently transports gas from Nigeria to neighboring countries Benin, Togo, and Ghana, also offers potential for transporting hydrogen. It is the starting point for the recently launched Nigeria-Morocco Pipeline project, which could potentially be further extended to Europe. If constructed as hydrogen-ready, the WAGP could be repurposed for the export of hydrogen from West African countries. However, its success will depend on the interests of the Nigerian and Moroccan governments.

In addition to export-oriented ambitions, African countries are pursuing different, local applications of green hydrogen and related industrial development opportunities. For example, Morocco, a major exporter of fertilizers, plans to replace imports of conventional ammonia with domestic green ammonia, with its first project to start construction in 2022. Similarly, Egypt is investing in a facility for the production of 1 million tons of green ammonia annually.

South Africa has launched a strategy aimed not only at the production of hydrogen but at the domestic manufacturing of hydrogen-related technologies and products. Building on its endowment in platinum-group metalsa key metal for the production of hydrogen technologies, the South African government is promoting an industrial corridor stretching from the Limpopo mining region through Johannesburgs industrial district to Durban. The countrys chemicals and energy giant, Sasol, has launched an initiative for landmark green hydrogen projects, aimed at greening existing materials and chemical value chains.

Whether ambitions to export large quantities of hydrogen from Africa to Europe will be feasible remains an open question, given the constraints around transport infrastructure, water access, as well as crucial climate-related considerations. Moreover, any strategy to develop hydrogen exports will have to take into account the industrial policy ambitions of important players on the continent or risk losing the goodwill of these key allies.

Note: The authors developed this blog post as part of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies project Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation: Implications of an International Hydrogen Economy (GET Hydrogen), which has been supported with funding from Germanys Federal Foreign Office. This blog reflects the views of the authors only and does not reflect the views of the Africa Growth Initiative nor the Brookings Institution more broadly.

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The promise of African clean hydrogen exports: Potentials and pitfalls - Brookings Institution

Introduction

The number of copper initial resource announcements jumped to 18 in 2021, a seven-year high, from 13 in 2020, although the contained copper fell 2% to 9 million tonnes. The all-time high was 57 announcements in 2012. The higher number of announcements coincided with a 31% increase in initial resource exploration budgets as companies accelerated exploration to take advantage of elevated metals prices and a bullish capital-raising environment.

The recovery in demand for commodities amid the reopening of the global economy as the pandemic recedes pushed copper prices to new highs after they bottomed in early 2020. Lingering supply concerns and a chronic underinvestment in the copper pipeline supported elevated prices and attracted companies, mostly juniors, to explore for copper. With the higher exploration budgets, the number of initial resource announcements for copper increased 38% year over year, although the amount of new copper fell slightly due to a lack of large deposits.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the copper price fell to a low of $4,600 per tonne, or $2.10 per pound, on March 23, 2020, under the impact of public health lockdowns and restrictions. The price recovered quickly due to several factors, however, including the reopening of economies, pandemic-induced supply concerns and underinvestment in the copper-production pipeline. In October 2021, the price was at its highest since 2011, peaking at $11,300/t, or $5.13/lb, as energy issues and supply disruptions affected the market. The Russia-Ukraine conflict added further strain to the market in late February 2022, maintaining the elevated prices.

Initial resource-related exploration almost back to pre-pandemic levels

Grassroots is the exploration stage most likely to result in the announcement of an initial resource, although exploration at mine sites and at projects with existing resources can also result in the discovery of new deposits. Therefore, S&P Global Commodity Insights assumes that companies devote 100% of their grassroots and 25% each of their late-stage and minesite exploration budgets to the discovery of initial resources. Using this methodology, we examined the exploration budgets that led to the announcement of new copper resources over the period, although not all initial resources by majors are collected due to a lack of reporting.

Copper initial resource exploration budgets increased to $1.17 billion year over year in 2021 just 3% lower than the pre-pandemic budget of 2019. The rebound would likely have been higher if not for the modest increase in copper budgets for Latin America due to ongoing pandemic restrictions in many of the region's countries. Latin America accounts for the largest share of copper exploration budgets over the last 10 years at about 40%.

The 31% increase in the copper initial resource budget year over year was also the largest increase in 10 years. The largest-ever copper initial resource budget was $2.36 billion in 2012, which coincided with 57 copper initial resource announcements containing 22.9 Mt of new copper.

Among the company types, juniors had the largest boost in copper budgets in 2021, with a 77% increase compared with a 19% increase by majors. The majors, nevertheless, still had the largest share of copper early-stage budgets at 66%, although it was down almost 7 percentage points from 2020. Junior companies accounted for 26%, up from 20% in 2020. Intermediates posted a 60% jump in grassroots budgets, although their share remained small at 3%.

More announcements, but no breakthrough in 2021

Unlike previous years, there were no very large copper initial resource announcements in 2021. In 2018,Nevsun Resources Ltd.'s LowerTimokdeposit in Serbia accounted for almost 69% of the year's new copper. In 2016,Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.'sKamoa-Kakulain the Democratic Republic of Congo accounted for 86% of the total.

The largest 2021 announcement was from Australia-based, U.K.-listedSolGold PLC'sPorvenirproject in Ecuador, with 1.7 Mt of copper and 2.2 million ounces of gold at the Cacharposa deposit. The resource accounted for 19% of the new copper announced in 2021. SolGold began a 25,000-meter drill program at Porvenir in the first quarter of 2021 and announced the initial resource the following December. In 2018, SolGold announced 5.2 Mt of contained copper for the Alpala deposit at itsCascabelproject, also in Ecuador, the second largest for that year. The company announced another initial resource containing 1.1 Mt of copper in Porvenir's Tandayama deposit in October 2021.

The second-largest copper announcement came fromAnleck Ltd., a U.K.-based private company, for itsMaalinao-Caigutan-Biyog, or MCB, project located in the northern Philippines. A month later, Australian Securities Exchange-listedCelsius Resources Ltd.announced the completion of its acquisition of Anleck, including MCB and other exploration permits, by issuing 100 million shares of its common stock. Anleck announced 1.5 Mt of contained copper and 1.5 Moz of gold in MCB. After the acquisition, Celsius continued exploration and began drill programs and scoping studies.

The Copper World zone ofHudbay Minerals Inc.'sRosemontproject in Arizona was the second largest, with 1.5 Mt of contained copper, announced in December 2021. In September 2021, Hudbay identified seven deposits at Copper World and conducted a 28,000-meter drill program. The company is expected to release a preliminary economic assessment in the first half based on the drill results.

Australia has most announcements, Ecuador has largest new resources

Australia had the most copper initial resources in 2021 with four. The resources were small, however, containing only 360,000 tonnes of new copper. Three of the four were extensions or new zones at existing projects. The U.S. was second with three announcements containing 2.0 Mt of new copper, with Rosemont accounting for almost three-quarters of the total. Ecuador reported the largest country total for 2021, with 2.7 Mt at SolGold's Porvenir and Cascabel projects.

Australia has been the top country in the past 10 years with 44 announcements, although it ranks sixth in contained copper at 6.9 Mt. Canada is a distant second with 18 announcements, although the new copper totals 7.4 Mt.

Serbia, the exploration budgets of which total $110 million over the past 10 years, announced the largest amount of contained copper at 16.8 Mt in three announcements primarily 14.3 Mt in the Lower Zone of the Timok project. Chile ranks second with 12.8 Mt in 10 announcements, boosted by 8.5 Mt of copper at theLos Heladosproject, which was announced in 2012.

This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.

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Copper in initial resources hits 7-year high - S&P Global

WATERVILLE Bill and Joan Alfond announced a grant from their foundation today to the Central Maine Community Betterment Collaborative for the Dirigo Labs business accelerator program. This grant will bolster Dirigo Labs physical infrastructure and ecosystem building in the greater Waterville area while highlighting the regions technology and innovation sectors.

Joan and I are pleased to support entrepreneurial innovation and the development of quality jobs in the greater Waterville area, said Bill Alfond.

This generous gift will help distinguish Dirigo Labs as a resource for founders from diverse backgrounds and industries looking to scale their businesses in an impactful manner, said Managing Director Susan Ruhlin. This funding will allow us to build upon our existing groundwork as we launch our inaugural cohort and build greater Watervilles entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Housed in Bricks Coworking and Innovation Space, located in the historic Hathaway Creative Center at 10 Water Street in Waterville, Dirigo Labs serves as a conduit for startups seeking access to mentorship, deal flow, venture capital, and strategic partnerships.

Combining the momentum of building-out a greater Waterville area based innovation hub with the continued growth and revitalization of downtown Waterville, this grant will support entrepreneurs and startups that aim to launch and expand their respective businesses through innovative programming, access to diverse sources of capital, mentorship structures, and dedicated workspace in the downtown district, states Central Maine Growth Council Director of Planning, Innovation, and Economic Development Garvan Donegan.

Launched on March 23, Dirigo Labs is currently hosting 12 Maine-based startups from various industries, ranging from the manufacturing of floating picnic tables, the development of food products, and software services. The 12-week program pairs companies with a curated temporary board of advisors. Participants have access to a robust network of local, regional, and national mentors and pro bono services. The program engages startups and founders through workshops covering a range of relevant subject matters, including product development strategies, marketing and branding, revenue modeling, and customer relationship management. After completing the curriculum, companies will participate in a public pitch event.

For startups and potential mentors interested in learning more about Dirigo Labs, please visithttp://www.dirigolabs.org.

Dirigo Labs is a regional startup accelerator based in Waterville, Maine. With a mission to grow the greater Waterville areas digital economy by supporting entrepreneurs building innovation-based companies, the Dirigo Labs ecosystem brings together people, resources, and organizations to ensure the successful launch of new startups. Dirigo Labs operates under Central Maine Growth Council and is supported by several organizations, academic institutions, and investment firms. To learn more about Dirigo Labs, please visithttp://www.dirigolabs.org.

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Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation awards funding to Dirigo Labs to support business accelerator, innovation ecosystem - Bangor Daily News

Recycling Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are the cornerstone of the New Energy Economy driving the growth of electrification and decarbonization. Indeed, they are central to everything from cell phones to electric vehicles to grid storage.

But the value of such devices lies beneath the surface made up of raw materials that are now trapped in a supply chain maze or come from unfriendly nations. Luckily, the recycling of those raw materials is becoming economically viable. Moreover, the quality of the reprocessed minerals can be as good as virgin supplies that are extracted from the Earth. However, mining will have to coexist alongside recycling until those scraps reach scale.

We break down the batteries and extract critical materials. We refine those materials to produce chemicals that go back into batteries, says Tim Johnston, co-founder and executive chair of Li-Cycle Holding Corp., in a chat with this writer.

Those chemicals are the same as any mined materials: they are broken down to a molecular level, the metals are dissolved, and we rebuild them, he adds. We can recover up to 95% of all the materials in the lithium battery and return them to new batteries or to the economy. This is a net environmental benefit relative to mining these materials. Going to one source to process the materials is more efficient than the supply chain. There are fewer emissions, less water usage, and less soil displacement.

The market potential for Lithium-ion batteries remains enormous. Market research firm Valuates says that the global lithium-ion battery potential was valued at $36.7 billion in 2019. But this figure is projected to hit $129.3 billion by 2027 a compound annual growth rate of 18% between 2020 and 2027. Statista adds that the recycling market for such batteries could grow 10-fold over the next decade.

Electric vehicles will be a significant market. The European Union is phasing out the internal combustion engine by 2040, while this country wants half of all vehicles to run on electricity by 2030.

Lithium-ion batteries use five critical raw materials: lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite. They also use aluminum and copper. But the minerals can come from nations hostile to the United States or those with poor records tied to child labor. Russia, for example, is a leading supplier of nickel. And the Congo is a primary provider of cobalt a country with poor labor practices.

The Circular Economy

Lithium-ion battery device

Li-Cycle says that it gets its materials from entities with ethical business operations. Consider its relationship to Glencorp, one of the largest natural resource companies in the world: Glencore will supply Li-Cycle with all types of manufacturing scrap and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.

This is a key step in establishing a strong long-term foundation for the vertical integration of the battery materials supply chain, says Kunal Sinha, head of recycling at Glencore. Together, we will be expanding the spectrum of battery material supply solutions to a broader global customer base, particularly in Europe and North America.

LG Energy Solution, Ltd. and LG Chem, Ltd. part of LG Corp. have partnered with Li-Cycle. The two LGs will supply the battery recycler with lithium-ion battery scrap. Meanwhile, Li-Cycle has a similar deal with General Motors GM and LG Energy Solution, which have formed a unit called Ultium Cells. Its a mouthful. But the gist of it is that Li-Cycle will recycle 100% of the scrap generated by battery cell manufacturing at Ultiums Ohio plant.

In all those cases, Li-Cycle recovers the raw materials contained in the scrap, transforming them into valuable products and contributing to the circular economy the idea that nothing is wasted and everything is reused. Indeed, when measured against mining and importing, the business case for recycling gets even stronger: extraction and shipping result in greenhouse gases. And that does not include the lingering supply chain disruptions caused by COVID19.

The United States is regarded for its added value computer chips and artificial intelligence. Stringent regulations make it nearly impossible for this country to catch up with the current exporters of raw materials. China mines 63% of all such minerals. But it controls 85% of the processing the step made to separate the 17 minerals from the rare earth rock. The United States still produces 38,000 tons. But that is sent to China for processing.

"GM's zero-waste initiative aims to divert more than 90% of its manufacturing waste from landfills and incineration globally by 2025," says Ken Morris, vice president of electric vehicles. "Now, we're going to work closely with Ultium Cells and Li-Cycle to help the industry get even better use out of the materials.

Peek Under the Hood

Artisanal miners collect gravel from the Lukushi river searching for cassiterite on February 17, ... [+] 2022 in Manono. - The Democratic Republic of Congo is rich with Lithium, an essential mineral for electric car batteries, which nests in the remains of the former mining town of the city of Manono in the south-east of the country in the province of Tanganyika. To get out of poverty, the inhabitants of Manono, most of whom are artisanal diggers, place their hope in the investment of the Australian company AVZ minerals which plans to invest 600 million dollars in the construction of a lithium mining (Photo by Junior KANNAH / AFP) (Photo by JUNIOR KANNAH/AFP via Getty Images)

Tesla may be a harbinger of things to come. It expects to sell 20 million electric vehicles by 2030 a company that thinks it can recover 92% of a batterys materials. While fossil fuels are extracted and used once, recycling allows the raw materials to have an afterlife. And Tesla TSLA says that recycling cost much less than purchasing those minerals to build new batteries.

Whats the price differential between mining raw materials and recycling those same minerals? For now, theres a co-dependence. Battery growth is such that mined materials are still essential. But as electric vehicles age, those devices will need to be replaced. And harnessing the raw materials from scrap products will take time.

As to which one is cheaper is a tricky question. Thats because the recycling and reprocessing technologies can vary. But Li-Cycle says that recycling is competitive if not cheaper. Think of it this way: lithium-ion batteries use 17 raw materials that do not exist in one place. Each must be mined before it is shipped and placed in a device. Conversely, a battery to be recycled has all of those minerals in one place.

As we scale, we can be a higher revenue and lower cost-based source, says Ajay Kochhar, Li-Cycle co-founder and chief executive, in a conversation. But we need to scale. We will not have to rely on shaky supply chains. For now, we need to get those materials in greater quantities from virgin sources and recycle as much as we can. It will take time for recycling to make up most of the demand. The recycling of materials must be efficient to be beneficial.

The bottom line is that lithium-ion batteries are used chiefly for transportation and grid storage things that reduce fossil fuel usage. The storage devices will get better and cheaper. But just as importantly, their reach will expand and help decarbonize the economy.

If one peeks under the hood to see whats inside those batteries, they will learn that the raw materials are dirty to mine and expensive to ship an exercise that encourages the case for recycling. Indeed, thats a healthier pursuit that will make it easier for electric vehicles to merge into the global economy.

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Recycling Makes Lithium-Ion Batteries The IT Technology - Forbes

Lewis Pinault is a partner at Airbus Ventures, where he invests and serves as board director for space technology related startups across the globe. A NASA-trained meteoriticist, he is also a researcher at University College London/Birkbeck's Centre for Planetary Sciences, presently collaborating with JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences. Pinault contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Humanity's fossil fuel war a war waged with insane relentlessness on both ourselves and on our planet has never raged more brightly, or with such power of irreversible destruction.

Whatever the purported causes, we are presently witnessing a savagery that seems designed to serve only one dark rationale: incurring such pain that a concession of Ukraine's eastern Dnieper-Donetsk region, holding upwards of 90% of the country's vast oil, gas and coal reserves, becomes as seemingly acceptable as the loss of Crimea and its significant offshore gas reserves five years earlier.

Live updates: Ukraine invasion's impacts on space exploration

This time, the fossil fuel war has rapidly cascading global dimensions. As the flow of hydrocarbons is stymied in some quarters, it is unleashed in unprecedented quantities in others; the price of oil escalates, allowing still-saleable Russian oil to pay and fuel yet more armor and destruction. Presumed allies amongst the fossil fuel kingdoms are revealed for the cynical oil-worshippers they are, and the world's autocrats, who can never rally more than uncomplicated base emotions, are grateful for the cruel simplicities of avoiding complex change and sacrifice at any cost.

Even as the final Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that the elimination of fossil fuels is the only practical and timely path to avoiding irreversible climate damage and all its concomitant crises of disease, starvation and forced migration orders of magnitude larger than present-day Ukraine's humanity continues to inject fossil fuels into the system.

In the meantime, unchecked consumerism drives mining more places for more metals for more phones and more cars; large-scale agriculture and forestry operations with little relation to sustainable nutrition or housing needs encroach on wild habitats essential to our biosphere, further driving disease and more deadly mass migrations of thousands of species; fresh water supplies are imperilled, and we are amidst one of the biosphere's greatest extinctions an event that's likely to consume us before we can even fully catalogue it.

Piecing together these shards of a seemingly broken civilization, this generation's complicated investment in the exploration and exploitation of outer space is rightly called into question, especially when our overheating home planet Earth is pleading for corrective behavior and needs our immediate attention most. While the invasion of Ukraine has opened a new front in the fossil fuel war in Earth orbit, and encrypted communications and satellite observation seem to be working in favor of the country's defense, these "Dark Skies" technologies are arguably as dangerous to our planet and civilization as they are to protecting corners of it.

It's likely we've already triggered Earth's irreversible greenhouse effect. And the forces summoning us to the apocalypse now not only include an ever more dangerous nuclear capability with increasingly imaginative rationales for using the arsenal, thanks to the fossil fuel war but also fast multiplying vectors to disease, contamination and starvation, as global heating demonstrates exponential powers to de-ice the planet, raise seas over every coastal habitat and create further spirals of apocalyptic havoc. Ignoring opportunities to mobilize against asteroid strikes, ungoverned artificial intelligence (AI) development, the prospect of nano and genetic technologies run amok and new classes of chemical and biological weapons and our tragically demonstrated willingness to use any and all weapons only adds to our escalating planetary crisis.

This disturbing reality has fuelled the notion of the need for a "Planet B" or the creation of other large-scale human colonies in space, with aims to outdistance humanity from man-made disaster. But these aims are not achievable on time scales that can likely outrun the forces now aligning against the biosphere. And as we're only just learning, this biosphere is also not very readily transported. Without a biome rich in diversity at every scale from the soil's many inhabitants to the germs, molds and bacteria living amongst all our macrofauna most space habitats are likely to suffer crises of infection and disease that threaten to be all-consuming. Investing in space development so that we can escape this planet's dooms is thus more than morally questionable it's simply not likely to work, not in time.

Space tourism as an investment path also seems tragicomic. Taking sizeable fractions of the planet's inequitably distributed resources to sightsee down on the masterpieces of disaster we've created, perhaps on the chance we'll improve someone's perspective or set their minds toward some new course of planetary justice seems hubristic at best, and at worst may already be creating new enemies for any kind of space development, just, I argue, when we need it most.

Ultimately, for Earth's sake, we need to begin untapping the resources of outer space now, with urgency and with a priority focus on the gifts of the moon. This is not with the aim of a "sustainable lunar economy" that makes the moon more habitable for astronauts or space tourists, but with the aim of drawing resources from the moon to make Earth newly habitable.

Photos: The first space tourists

New technologies and approaches, many pioneered by startup companies, now make decades-old speculations feasible not by heaving solar power stations up to Earth orbit, not by mining asteroids, not by stripping the moon to fuel nuclear fusion but by using new robotics, AI, autonomous systems, 3D printing and materials technologies to rapidly create and operate the infrastructure to bring abundant clean energy and mineral resources from the moon to Earth; and with these capabilities we can begin basing biosphere-maiming manufacturing elsewhere in the Earth-moon system.

The moon is a complex rock, but still a rock, rich in silicates. Whether cheaply bringing autonomously constructed solar arrays from the moon's low gravity well to Earth orbit, or by beaming solar energy directly from the lunar nearside toward Earth, we have the means to supply clean energy from the moon, without resorting to complex, large-scale mining of helium isotopes for still-developing fusion technologies.

Importantly, the moon is truly our geological twin. In the earliest ages of the solar system, a sizable planetoid smashed into the still-aborning Earth, forever mixing its materials into Earth's own makeup, gestating the resulting orbiting debris of a similar mix that agglomerated and became our moon. Thus, our moon has abundances similar to Earth's of the metals that can supply catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells, as well as of the metals that are driving critically damaging mining operations on Earth's surface and now even its oceans. If we feel we must have hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles and they are the only clear path to clean transportation on Earth and if we need our rare-metal smart chips to power our cars, phones and navigation systems, then we should be using autonomous systems to mine them from the moon, where their harm to Earth in extraction will be far more negligible.

Given the urgency of Earth's biosystem crises, the moon offers opportunity for deployable infrastructure and extraction long before asteroid harvesting becomes practicable. With largely automated solar panel and mining operations underway, progress toward establishing Earth-toxic manufacturing facilities on the moon and in cislunar space can begin accelerating.

Here there is a risk we must accept, of multiplying the immoralities of what we've done to damage Earth on the moon. Will we damage the moon's own wisp of an atmosphere, firing rocket engines upon it and mining its surface? Almost certainly yes, and that atmosphere contains important traces of the solar system's earliest history and origins. Will we visibly alter the surface of the lunar nearside that has faced humans since time immemorial, even shifting the albedo of the light of the moon, home and totem of gods and rituals since our own very beginnings? Very possibly. Will our lunar operations require communication technologies that disrupt the pristine quiet of the lunar far side, a natural isolated platform for deep radio astronomy probes of the universe? Very likely.

In the course of my own research, I seek out the dust particles that may be traces of long-gone alien civilizations' waste or pre-programmed materials, carried by stellar winds across the eons to finally settle on the moon what a tragedy to lose the opportunity to prioritize their discovery but I am happy to settle for extractions of mining operations, if this is the course to our very planetary survival. For the fact is that the moon is not home to any lifeform we might responsibly recognize in important contradistinction to Mars and our opportunity to multiply the future of life is clearly with the Earth-moon system, and not the moon alone.

The first step toward realizing the moon as a critical energy and resource base for Earth is to survey the surface at high resolution. This is practically achieved by interlinked rovers, robots and orbiting platforms, including with state-of-the-art quantum sensors. It would take thousands of astronauts to complete these tasks, a luxury we cannot afford at this time. Small crews of astronauts working with highly automated systems can get the work done for Earth. This suggests a prioritization away from water, particularly the major space agencies' current hyperfocus on ice trapped at the lunar poles. This ice would be important for astronauts living at the poles and for fuelling future solar system exploration but is not easily extracted and should not be the priority for Earth. Solar-implanted volatiles across the moon's surface are likely to meet the near-term needs for water for lunar energy and resource operations.

Instead, I suggest we must be focused on the elements, which can be shipped from the moon to Earth. Ice water from the moon may fill future trillionaires' whiskey glasses, but what we all need are the abundant solar energies enabled by the moon, the rare Earth elements, platinum group and precious metals that can meet our needs however selfish and short-sighted to spare our planet and ensure our civilization's future, with the opportunity to shift toxic manufacturing off-Earth.

Critically, together with asteroid detection and deflection systems, these planetary system developments are important opportunities for international collaboration it is by working together across national space agencies and through small and large enterprises alike that needed innovations can deliver on time a habitable future for our biosphere and hope for human civilization. Accelerating these endeavors will require hard creative thinking finding equitable means to explore and exploit the resources of the moon might best be facilitated, for example, by an International Space Authority, based on the United Nations' current and quietly successful International Seabed Authority operations. Or, as recently proposed in conjunction with the Democracy Without Borders project, a democratically accountable UN space agency. This may seem a lofty and unreachable ask for a world embroiled in its first open fossil fuel war but the alternative is that this may be our last planetary War, because we'll never again be able to fight another.

Are we alone in the galaxy, even our universe? Not likely, no. I'm happy enough to jump the gun, for all my colleagues' scientific discipline and rigor. With the magnificent James Webb Space Telescope's successful deployment, it is increasingly likely we'll find life around us, and if not, we should rigorously question our existence as likely simulants. Sentience and its pervasiveness are questions I explore through my interstellar dust research. What I hypothesize is that anything like the brilliance of the exploratory instincts we've developed should not be universally uncommon and if unfound in exploratory probes, visitations, and waste elements abandoned in our own neighborhood, should raise the all-important question: What happened? Are we alone, because this is the great filter through which none can pass? Does the aggression inherent in launching rockets to orbit and their implicit power to destroy all that lies beneath doom a civilization to its own non-communicating end?

The evidence can be found within the dust right at our feet. The key challenge is, are we ready to act on it? We do not need outer space to be our final frontier but we do need it to be the final front in the fossil fuel war. We can choose to end the war, by providing abundant resources and clean energy from the moon to Earth, and by moving our toxic industries away from our unique and precious biosphere.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.

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Mining the moon to help save life on Earth (op-ed) - Space.com

City, state and county officials broke ground in April on the Black Business Hub, an equity-focused organization and resource center to be opened in South Madison, run by the Urban League of Greater Madison.

This Hub is an opportunity to grow new businesses and for [Black business owners] to have access to resources that they do not have right now, Urban League CEO Ruben Anthony Jr. said in an interview with The Badger Herald.

Wisconsin health officials consider expanding eligibility requirements for second wave of vaccinationsWisconsin health officials are reviewing a proposal that would expand eligibility for the states Phase 1B COVID-19 vaccinations, despite facing Read

The Hub will have an Accelerator program which has raised $1.3 million so far that would provide grants and loans to business owners, Anthony said. The program will also provide improved access to Capitol, technical assistance and networking, according to the Black Business Hubs website.

The Hub will also host organizations that support women-owned businesses, Anthony said. Anthony said he believes the Hub should be a community organization dedicated to equity and uplifting the entire community.

Why cant we create businesses where these minority owned organizations have a chance to be owners? Anthony said. Its time to start building some things so that the next generation of entrepreneurs have the chance to be CEOs.

The Black Business Hub could also help revitalize South Madison and the surrounding area, District 14 Alderperson Sheri Carter said.

Carter thinks the location demonstrates diversity and inclusion in what she calls a gateway area for the city, where many people enter Madison and get their first look at the city.

When you think of 40,000 people who come into Madison via the South side, this is a showpiece that theyre coming into an area that is bright for development, Carter said. But not only that, an area of opportunity that everyone can see visually. The residents of South Madison, as always, embrace South Madisons diversity and culture, and now is the showcase.

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Overall, Carter said the Hub will contribute to economic growth all around Madison and beyond. Carter also said the Hub will provide an example, showing what Black business owners can do.

Children and young adults can see progress that is happening in their own backyard, Carter said. Thats a big plus, for kids to walk along, see Black businesses and dream of one day owning their own business but not only that, also supporting Black businesses.

Executive Director of the MSAM Consortium at the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research Madeline Hafner echoed this sentiment. Hafner believes supporting Black businesses will create generational wealth, and help future generations of Black business owners thrive.

First and foremost, kids see their families owning businesses, Hafner said. Families develop pride in that and see themselves as owners of businesses and not simply workers in businesses

The Black Business Hub is part of a larger movement toward equity and against systemic oppressions, Hafner said.

Hafner defined equity in the context of education to compare it to the kind of equity being addressed through the Black Business Hub.

What types of support do individual students need to access certain programs? Hafner said. And then theres equity and success. How are we ensuring every student is successful in our schools? So its not about the same or distribution of resources, but equitable distribution of resources based on need.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway was also in attendance at the ground-breaking ceremony, according to the Cap Times.

In an email statement, Rhodes-Conway emphasized the unity the Hub represents throughout Madison as a whole.

Rhodes-Conway said the Hub builds on a history of partnerships and investments from the city, the Community Development Authority and the Urban League of Dane County. The city is supporting the Hub at its South Madison site by investing more than $10 million dollars to improve the Village on Park and deliver physical infrastructure needed for the Hub to succeed, Rhodes-Conway said in the statement.

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The Black Business Hub will have a positive impact on Madisons economic development, and will be a great resource for black businesses and entrepreneurs, Rhodes-Conway said.

Beyond a growing factor for the local economy, Rhodes-Conway, Carter and Anthony said the Hub will be a uniting force for the Madison community. The Hub represents the community as a whole, and will contain not only Black businesses, but also brown, white, and latino businesses, Anthony said.

The development of the Hub is like a broad community perspective, Anthony said. The County contributed funds, the City contributed funds, foundations contributed funds, private companies contributed funds, and so it is a genuine community partnership. Its not just Black and brown people; its all of the community working together.

Read this article:

Community, city break ground on southside Black Business Hub - The Badger Herald

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Agarwal moved to Mumbai from his hometown Patna when he was 19 years old. He started with scrap metal trading business in 1976 and is today leading a $15 billion multinational mining and commodities business, with a diversified portfolio having interests in aluminium, zinc, iron ore, steel, copper, oil and gas and power. He has been a major participant in Indias disinvestment initiatives as well. He is very bullish on India and recently signed an MoU with Taiwans Foxconn to set up a semiconductor manufacturing facility in India. In this podcast, Agarwal speaks about the succession plan at Vedanta, rising importance of minerals in sectors such as semiconductors and electric vehicles and why he watches movies. Edited excerpts

Your announcement about setting up a semiconductor facility in India with Foxconn has generated a lot of curiosity. What can you tell us about it?

India is in a very sweet spot. People are aware that India is emerging, silently. For me, it was very important that we work through technology, and semiconductor is very important, be it for automobiles or electronics. India needs to import $15 bn worth of semiconductors. Its because of the shortage of semiconductor that we havent been able to run our factories at 100%. We are manufacturing glass and optical fibre. So, it was natural for us to move into semiconductors. Foxconn is one of the largest and the best companies in semiconductor manufacturing and will be our full-fledged partner. We are in the process of selecting a site.

Do you have any timeline for the production to start?

In two years, we will start production. In India, when the government is supportive, people are supportive. I am confident that we will meet the target of commencing production in two years and India will change because of this.

Are you a spiritual person? Do you feel like some divine force has played a role in your journey?

I am not religious. But every time I read something spiritual, I find something new in it. It gives me strength to overcome my fears. I have never disclosed this but every single day in the last 22 years, I go to the Krishna temple in the morning. Initially, I used to give 10 cents to the temple and bargain, see, Im giving you something, you have to give me something. Today, I have surrendered to Him. Im like the servant of the universe and I do my duties to the best of my best of ability. Criticism has never shaken me; it has made me a little bit fearless. And I will never do anything intentionally that is not right.

Can you talk a bit about what makes the world of commodities tick?

The world wants India to be an import-based economy and we have been habituated to importing goods and think that there is no other option. We must change this. We have good natural resources but the world doesnt want us to produce, only be a market. And this perception has been created that NGOs can be sent to change our mindset.

We can't live without metal. We can live without oil and gas. Even today if you go for renewable energy, whether you go for EV (electric vehicles), eight times more metal is required. Though we have the natural resources, we are still forced to import it.

So what is holding us back today? Is it government policies?

The government policy is working. They have to start believing that making money is not a sin. Our entrepreneurs should be able to sell their discoveries and make money. It should be like buying shares and selling them at a higher price. There is so much funding available for entrepreneurs to do exploration. Even if they fail, they are fine. But the right to sell their discovery cannot be given back to the government.

Is that practical?

See, we have to move forward. Only then will you be able to solve problems. Failure is the first step of a success. I have failed in my life miserably. Failure after failure, Failure after failure, Failure after failure. I have even gone into depression for couple of years. I didn't know what to do, but you come back, tighten your belt, touch the feet of your parents, go to a temple. It must be 20 years back. Suddenly you find that things are not working for you. I couldn't sleep for a minute the whole month. I lost all my hair, and I didn't want to meet anybody. But you fight, you pray, you make yourself strong, and then when you come back, you never look back. I always had my depression tablet by the side of my bed, but I never took it.

Thank you for being candid about your personal matter. Now, for the big question: Are we in the middle of a commodities supercycle?

We are definitely in the middle of a supercycle. And these prices are going to stay. I pray that it should not go further up, because India will be in trouble. Inflation is high. I read somewhere that the price of oil can go up to $185. Yet, India has the capacity to produce at probably half or quarter of the cost. So, it is a very interesting time. The world wants to invest in India: we have entrepreneurs here, we have one of the best governments today. This is the time you will see India move forward.

Do you feel that your country has not listened to you now that the sensitivity around commodities has really come out?

I think the government has. I am listening to the government all the time. Like Prime Minister Modi says we are not revenue-minded, we are production-minded. He says the government has no business to be in a business. That's supportive. India is a democratic country, but sometimes it will take time. And where we come from, we have been taught to remain patient.

What is up with BPCL? You have expressed an interest, what is the latest development on this front?

It (BPCL) is too much in the news. Government has said they are going to change the terms, they are not going to sell the company as it is. Privatization is going to happen soon. I wish it will happen. As and when it happens, we will see.

You have a knack for picking up companies, be it Balco or Cairn, Now, with commodity prices going up, would such assets be as attractive?

Our company is going to make $30 billion revenue this year and an estimated $10 billion profit. We have 100,000 employees. We are going to invest $20 billion dollars in four years. We are going to make 50% oil production in the country. I want to be the largest zinc and silver producer. I am looking at aluminium also. We have two business. One is old economy, which is about commodities. And we have a new economy where we are into semiconductor, glass optical fibre, system integration. Both are doing extremely well and I am very happy about it.

When you look at Vedanta over the next 20 years, do you see more diversification into the new economy and into newer areas, or will it fundamentally be a mining company?

I don't like diversifying much. But as you move forward, as and when the opportunity comes, we will see. But we like to have a strong capital allocation, and whatever opportunities come, we will see.

You've laid out a debt reduction plan at Vedanta Resources level. How is that panning out?

We are having a profit of $10 billion. We have very good dividend, and with that we are very comfortable about reducing the debt to $4 billion in three years.

You tried to, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to delist Vedanta in India. One, why did you want to do that? And two, will you try again at some point in the future?

Because there was too much noise about the debt, we tried delisting but people love our shares so much that some started crying, saying they had benefited from our dividends which we never stopped paying. I could see that we had given a very, very good offer, and many people tendered their shares. We have almost 71% holding in the company now and we are never going to look at delisting in future, and we are very happy with the holding.

But you are also accused of trying to delist at a decadal low of the share price. How do you respond to that?

Buybacks are a global trend. And people are not forced to sell. Yet, despite our intent, it's very difficult to make 100% people happy. I tell my employees all the time: you know it's impossible to make everybody happy, but our intention is always right.

What about talks of a potential merger between Vedanta and the parent company.

There is no such plan. Vedanta Ltd will be a main company, and Vedanta Resources will remain the parent company. Vedanta Resources will own 71% of this company.

You had troubles at Sterlite Copper, the factory shut down. What is the future for Sterlite Copper in the Thoothukudi plant?

The National Green Tribunal has done its investigation. The matter has been submitted to the Supreme Court, and we are waiting for the date of hearing. I'm looking forward to that because we can't afford to stop production, be it in Goa or elsewhere. I have no doubt once they have all the reports, factory will open.

Is it your argument that there were no environmental violations at the plant?

Not at all. We have the best plant there. We capture 100% sulfur, convert into sulphuric acid... Today, everybody has a source of livelihood there; hundreds of industries operate there and there is no question of doing anything that is not right.

Was Tamil Nadu pollution board, which flagged these violations, wrong?

No, they have never said the wrong thing. They have done what the court directed, and the National tribunal did all the survey.

There were protests and police firing and unfortunate loss of lives. How did you feel about that?

I felt terrible. It happened 10 miles away from our factory. There are vested interests. It is my personal desire to restart operations at the Tuticorin (Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu) factory.

What is the succession plan at Vedanta?

What is the succession plan of prime minister Modi? It's the same with me. I'm in the chair, I'm in the saddle. I am running the company. I have said that this company is going to be a 500-year-old institution. We are very clear; management and ownership have to be separate. Today I have said 75% of wealth is going back to the society. As for my succession plan: the company will be run by a top professional. It will be run on the Tata Sons model....66% goes for the charity...and 30% with other people. This company is going to grow and will be one of the best companies in the world in natural resource and in technology for sure.

You're 68 now, how long more do you hope to continue marching ahead at the same pace?

As for the pace is concerned, I will never put my boots up. Whether philanthropy or anything, whatever my passion is, I'll be there.

But you have no desire to relax or you know take it easy or none of that?

But I am more relaxed in my work. I always look at when Monday morning is coming. I still make a few calls and talk to people on Sunday because I enjoy my work.

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The Past Ten Years Saw a Steady Acceleration in the Quantity and Size of Food Waste Deals, As More Funders Recognize the Environmental, Economic, and Social Benefits the Space Offers

NEW YORK, May 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Direct U.S. private investment into solutions to reduce food waste reached an all-time high of $2 billion in 2021 following ten years of accelerating growth in the sector, according to new data from ReFED, the national nonprofit working to end food loss and waste across the food system. But substantially more funding is still needed to cut the 35% of food that goes unsold or uneaten each year in the United States in half by the year 2030, in accordance with national and international goals. The data come from ReFED's new Food Waste Capital Tracker, a first-of-its-kind, free resource offering a deep-dive analysis of food waste funding at both a systems level and an individual company deal basis, designed to provide investors and innovators alike with the information they need to develop their food waste funding strategies.

ReFED's data show that over the last ten years more than $7.8 billion of private capital including venture capital, private equity, corporate finance and spending, and commercial project finance was invested in companies offering solutions to reduce the amount of food loss and waste throughout the supply chain. During the same period, the quantity and size of deals accelerated, with 2020 and 2021 seeing 111% and 110% year-over-year investment growth, respectively.

"We're encouraged by the increasing flow of capital into food waste solutions in recent years, but a significant funding gap remains," said Alejandro Enamorado from ReFED's Capital, Innovation & Engagement team. "As ReFED continues our work to catalyze the additional capital that's needed to scale food waste solutions, we're excited to introduce the Capital Tracker, an important new resource to support private, and eventually also public and philanthropic, funders interested in using their capital to solve food waste challenges."

Looking forward, ReFED expects this momentum to continue due to a range of factors that are driving continued solution development and adoption, including the growing number of food businesses making public commitments to fight food waste, as well as the implementation of new policies mandating partial or full organic waste bans, like California's SB1383. And while 2022 is already a period of uncertainty with an inflationary environment, geopolitical risks, increasing food prices, supply chain challenges, and the lingering effects from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic these factors further highlight the need to build a food system with less waste.

According to ReFED, private capital investment in food waste showed the following trends:

Despite this, much more funding is needed to continue developing and scaling the solutions that are required to reduce food waste by 50% by the year 2030. ReFED estimates that approximately $14 billion in funding is needed each year to achieve this milestone. The good news is that investment would result in approximately $73 billion in net economic benefit a five-to-one return as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75 million metric tons, save 4 trillion gallons of water, and recover the equivalent of 4 billion meals for those in need. Plus over ten years, it would create more than 51,000 jobs.

To help support funders of all types who are interested in exploring the opportunities the food waste sector offers at all stages of development, ReFED has developed the following tools:

About ReFED

ReFED is a national nonprofit working to end food loss and waste across the food system by advancing data-driven solutions to the problem. ReFED leverages data and insights to highlight supply chain inefficiencies and economic opportunities; mobilizes and connects people to take targeted action; and catalyzes capital to spur innovation and scale high-impact initiatives. ReFED's goal is a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive food system that optimizes environmental resources, minimizes climate impacts, and makes the best use of the food we grow. For more information, visit http://www.refed.org.

About Closed Loop Partners

Closed Loop Partners is a New York-based investment firm comprised of venture capital, growth equity, private equity and catalytic capital, as well as an innovation center focused on building the circular economy. Investments align capitalism with positive social and environmental impact by reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions via materials innovation, advanced recycling technologies, supply chain optimization and landfill diversion. For more information, visit closedlooppartners.com. Learn more about our investments in the food & agriculture sectorhere.

Contact:Melody Serafino[emailprotected]

SOURCE ReFED

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ReFED Data Reveals Private Investment into Food Waste Solutions Topped $7.8 Billion Since 2011 - Including a Record $2 Billion in 2021 Alone - But...

Of the Seven Natural Wonders in Georgia, only one has become globally transcendent, attracting millions of visitors from all over the world: the Okefenokee Swamp. By providing sanctuary to wildlife, recreation for people and millions of dollars for local communities, the Okefenokee has provided Georgia with immeasurable value, while anchoring the states outdoor tourism economy.

With a mine proposed along its edge, its now time for the state of Georgia to return the favor by protecting the swamp and its people once more.

In the 1990s, DuPont attempted to mine the Trail Ridge, the geologic formation that sustains the Okefenokee. Few, if any, projects in Georgias history engendered greater opposition. After deeming mining a very serious threat, the Georgia Board of Natural Resources opposed operations. Gov. Zell Miller sent a similar message, as did the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Senator Max Cleland.

After DuPont abandoned the project due to unprecedented opposition, no one thought a company would have the audacitythe disregard for public sentimentto try again. None, that is, until a handful of corporate executives created Twin Pines Minerals LLC, an Alabama-based company designed to accomplish what DuPont couldnt.

For Twin Pines Minerals, the DuPont saga proved instructive. Where DuPont started big, proposing all the acreage upfront, Twin Pines began small, slicing up its larger enterprise into bite-sized projects, and locating the first as far from the swamp as possible.

This common tactic, known as illegal segmentation, conceals the full scale of a project until after the first and most difficult set of permits is secured. With its property abutting Swamp Perimeter Road, operations are expected to eventually come within 400-feet of the Okefenokee itself.

Citizens from Madison County, whose air and waters were poisoned by the burning of creosote-soaked railroad ties, have urged residents and commissioners in Charlton County not to trust the leadership of Twin Pines. In Florida, Twin Pines committed a slew of mining infractions, and its presidentin his capacity with other companieshas been tied to violations throughout the Southeast. Most recently, Twin Pines broke ground at their Charlton County facility without acquiring necessary approval.

Given such transgressions, it would be foolish to reward Twin Pines with permits to mine close to Georgias most valuable natural asset. The Okefenokee is tremendously large and fragile, and a one-of-a-kind resource. It needs only be damaged once to be diminished forever.

Should mining occur, its not a matter of if such impacts will occur, but when and to what extent. Under the best-case scenario, important wetlands will be destroyed, with miners ultimately consuming roughly 6,000 football fields worth of land, just feet from the swamp. If the fears of 45 scientists (including some of Georgias leading researchers) are realized, operations could impair the Okefenokees ability to sustain itself.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has also plainly made that case against Twin Pines project, warning of potentially permanent damages to its property, increases in wildfire occurrence and impacts to imperiled species.

As a testament to this universal concern, two former cabinet members, three USFWS directors and two Georgia commissioners of the Department of Natural Resources spoke out against the project. Furthermore, over 100,000 people have commented, including from surrounding cities, with roughly 60,000 submissions already sent to Georgia regulators. Even Chemours, an international mining entity, renounced any interest in purchasing the project from Twin Pines.

State legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, introduced legislation this year to prohibit the issuance of mining permits along Trail Ridge near the Okefenokee. While the bill did not pass in the 2022 session, the group of bipartisan leaders are responding to the upwelling against dangerous mining. The bills sponsors have indicated that they still intend to permanently protect the Okefenokee, teeing up a historic opportunity, the ramifications of which will be felt for generations.

Twin Pines interest and investment in Southeast Georgia will not last. But the Okefenokee will remain, and so too will the communities that depend on its well-being. Entrusting the fate of the swamp and its people to an out-of-state company and known bad actor would be a gamble of the highest stakes.

We must not relent on our efforts to protect the Okefenokee from mining. Contact Gov. Brian Kemp here, and state regulators at [emailprotected]

Ask that they protect Georgias own, as state leaders did decades ago, by simply rejecting the permits for this dangerous project.

Visit link:

Will the Okefenokee Swamp be Governor Kemp's conservation win or Georgia's loss? - Georgia Recorder

For almost 20 years, I have been working for, and on behalf of, the Australian government in the Pacific. And, like many of my Pacific Islander friends and colleagues, I was not shocked by the Solomon Islands security pact with China and the apparent blindsiding of Australia. Nick Warner, the former head of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, captured the challenge when calling for a fundamental reset of Australias bilateral relationships with the countries of the South Pacific. Hes far from alone.

We too have believed for a long time that a reset of relations is critical if Australia is to establish itself as an informed and valued partner of choice in the region. These changes need to happen at micro, granular, person-to-person levels, just as much as around macro policy decision-making, such as in reforms to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme advocated by both the current Coalition government and the Labor Opposition. This is particularly the case in countries where population sizes are among the smallest in the world and where the personal can and does rapidly become political.

The assumed technical processes of development were not led by the countrys own citizens, the only ones with the legitimacy and political capitalto navigate and give voice to such contextually sensitive issues.

To assist then with these collective calls and efforts to bring about such a relationship reset, I outline here three pieces of advice. As a caveat, these suggestions are not based on methodological rigour, but are simply a synthesis of the sentiments and frustrations that I have heard through my own relationships with Pacific Islanders over the last two decades, framed as steps that can be immediately and practically applied.

This blunt statement was whispered by a senior Pacific Islander officer as we observed the slow-motion failure of yet another aid investment aiming to reform national human resource development (HRD) planning in his country. The project was led by an Australian technical adviser and grounded in exemplary technical theory of what needed to change and how this would occur, prettily captured in a neat log-frame of linear assumptions of inputs-outputs-impacts. But every local person involved in the consultations knew that a lack of technical skills was not what was preventing reform of the national HRD system.

Millions of dollars had already been spent on exactly the same training, workshops, drafting of policy papers that this new iteration was again recommending; the blockages and drivers of change lay well below the surface a complex web of political and bureaucratic relationships, normalised behaviours and entrenched corruption. But no space was ever created for these realities to be discussed and explored as the assumed technical processes of development were not led by the countrys own citizens, the only ones with the legitimacy and political capital to navigate and give voice to such contextually sensitive issues.

But while the Australian consultant leading this particular project did seem imbibed with a heightened sense of her competency, which prevented her from being attuned to the wise words of my colleague, I could also see that she thought she was just doing her job within the conventional norms of overseas development programs: the recruitment of international experts to build the capacity of Pacific Islanders and fix their problems. But it is this underlying patronising approach of some aspects of aid implementation the frontline of Australias engagement in the Pacific that is a very real constraint to the cultivation of mutual respect.

As an immediate first step in changing our relations with the Pacific, Australia needs to stop calling every non-local consultant engaged by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) an adviser a term laden with unilateral superiority and call an end to the faade that externally-led technical solutions will bring about systemic changes in sovereign nations social, economic and political development. International collaboration, insights and resources can indeed be influential to the fostering of endogenous change processes, but only ever if the external actors involved in such collaboration understand their subordinate place in this dynamic, and first shut up and listen to the local drivers of reform.

Three exceptional examples of where DFAT has done this and thereby accrued significant influence and credibility are the locally led Vanuatu Skills Partnership, Women's Fund Fiji and the regional Balance of Power initiative, which all provide useful lessons.

As any anthropologist will tell us, identity and relational connection are intimately embedded in our use of language. While language skills are usually valued and held by those working in foreign affairs, the prioritising of the technical over the deeper drivers of human behaviour has again here, in my observation, diminished the quality of Australias relationships in the Pacific.

That is to say, just because English is widely used as a functional form of communication across the Pacific, it does not mean that this is the language in which Pacific Islanders prefer to communicate or the language in which discussions of national import take place. Yet the majority of formal meetings attended by Australian diplomats and their contracted consultants are held in English. And while we can legalistically state that English is an official language of many Pacific Island countries, being right doesnt always mean being effective.

Australias diplomats and their agents need to be in the places where the local languages are used to discuss the real issues at play in the local political economy if they want to avoid the blindsiding of recent months.

I have often thought too that a tacit condescension towards creole languages based in English, such as Bislama, Tok Pisin and Solomon Islands Pijin, means that native English speakers do not accord these local languages the same respect that we would their European and Asian counterparts its really just broken English. It is also telling that diplomats to non-Pacific Island countries receive at least a full year of pre-departure training in language and culture, whereas officers posted to the Pacific are expected to learn (or not) on the job. These attitudes and practices do not go unnoticed by our Pacific Islander colleagues.

Linked to this, Australias diplomats and their agents need to be in the places where the local languages are used to discuss the real issues at play in the local political economy if they want to avoid the blindsiding of recent months. These conversations rarely take place in high commissions, ministry buildings or at formal cocktail parties. They take place informally in nakamals, churches, family homes and villages and between local staff employed by DFAT and their programs outside of office walls.

If Australia wants to reset its relationship to one of a trust-based deeper significance and influence, it needs to work at its diplomatic representatives being welcomed and included into the places and languages where this trust is developed.

In the context of this current crisis, much has been usefully said about the disconnect between Australias approaches to climate change and the centrality of this issue for Pacific Island countries and the role this has played in increased perceptions of a lack of shared values and concerns. But this perception of a non-alignment on matters of fundamental bearing to Pacific Islanders is also mirrored in areas of a more personal dimension, namely the cultural and Christian beliefs that inform the worldviews, allegiances and behaviours of many people across the Pacific.

First, the importance of extended families and the essential obligations that these entail do not always seem well understood among Australian managers and colleagues, who often express exasperation at the absences from work necessitated by funerals, grieving periods and family commitments. But without grasping that access to an individuals trust through demonstrated respect for their broader family, tribal and kinship relations, it is difficult for outsiders to move beyond superficial niceties.

While it is the prerogative of Australians to hold whatever belief system they choose, it would serve our relationship-building interests to try and respect and understand better the deepest values of those with whom we seek to engage.

Similarly, relationships are stunted without an appreciation of the primacy of Christian belief in the lives of many Pacific Islanders. For secular Australians, Christianity is often disdained as contrary to all that is progressive, intellectually credible, and culturally appealing. Yet for many Pacific Islanders, a shared Christian belief and conviction in the spiritual dimensions of existence including adherence by some to so-called fundamentalist Christian doctrines and traditional belief systems are a defining factor in the strength of relationships and personal trust. Despite this, I have been in social and work gatherings where such beliefs are openly mocked and decried as backward and deluded, and where no concern has been given as to whether Pacific Islanders are present.

More practically, I have also been struck by the continuing tradition of high commissions holding their regular social networking events on Friday evenings in countries where a large proportion of the population, including influential leaders, are Seventh-day Adventists, and for whom Friday evenings are sacred. While it is the prerogative of Australians to hold whatever belief system they choose, it would serve our relationship-building interests to try and respect and understand better the deepest values of those with whom we seek to engage.

A reset of Australias relationship with Pacific Island countries is indeed necessary in the broader interests of security and prosperity in our region, but this will not be achieved without reflection on how relationships and influence actually grow between individuals as much as between countries. As Nick Warner advises, patience, trust, quiet communication, building relationships, thats what works. Seeking to authentically listen to and open our minds to the realities, interests and values of our Pacific Islander friends is a good place to start.

Read more from the original source:

Resetting Australia's relationship with the Pacific three ideas - The Interpreter