Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

There are thousands of small-scale, community driven initiatives making a huge difference in peoples lives and contributing to efforts to curb global warming.

In early April, 29 countries pledged more than $5 billion to the UN-backed Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Fund said this was record support, providing a major boost to international efforts to protect biodiversity and curb threats to climate change, plastics and toxic chemicals.

But why such a major boost? Well, the GEF is a multilateral fund that serves as a financial mechanism for several environmental conventions including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

It has its own Small Grants Program (SGP) which grants of up to $50,000 directly to local communities including indigenous peoples, community-based organizations and other non-governmental groups investing in projects related to healing our planet.

The initiative is implemented in 127 countries by the UN Development Program (UNDP) which provides technical support to these selected local projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing peoples wellbeing and livelihoods.

Here at UN News, we want to highlight just five of the over 25,000 projects implemented since 1992, the year the GEF started working. Though the Funds projects span the globe, this list features a few initiatives currently improving the future of humankind and wildlife in Latin-America and the Caribbean.

For people living in cities is sometimes hard to believe that in 2022 there are still communities that dont have electricity, but more than 500 million people worldwide dont have access to this kind of service that many consider basic.

This is the reality for people in the District of Toledo, in Belize, where several rural villages lie far away from the national electricity grid making it hard and costly to electrify their communities.

However, thanks to a partnership funded by the GEFs Small Grants Program (SGP), three Mayan women solar engineers are installing solar energy systems and contributing to sustainable development in small indigenous communities in Southern Belize.

Florentina Choco, Miriam Choc and Cristina Choc, were trained by the Barefoot College in India to build and repair small household solar systems as part of a South-South cooperation exchange (Countries from the Global South sharing technical knowledge with their counterparts, without a developed country involved).

These women are shattering the glass ceiling! They have installed solar systems to four indigenous communities impacting over 1000 residents, says Leonel Requena, SGP Belize National Coordinator.

In 2021, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these solar engineers, along with national authorities and partners installed these solar energy systems to two of Belizes most remote communities.

With the work in just one of these villages, Graham Creek, they powered 25 homes benefiting over 150 residents, as well as a primary school with 30 children.

The best of all, UNDP estimates they have helped avoid 6.5 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Women are outstanding leaders in Belize driving the sustainable development agenda fostering harmony between nature and people for the benefit of both, adds Mr. Requena.

Did you know that extreme temperatures during heatwaves fuelled by climate change are literally cooking baby turtles in their nest?

Hawksbill sea turtles are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered as their population is decreasing around the world.

For ages, they have been hunted for their eggs and meat and now they are also at risk from coastal development and our changing climate, among other threats.

But a small grant 20 years ago turned into a big opportunity for this species to thrive in the Caribbean Island of Barbados.

The Barbados Sea Turtle Project, based at the University of the West Indies Campus, is the home of the regional Marine Turtle Tagging Centre and the wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network.

Tagging turtles helps scientists and conservationists to track their movements, calculate their growth rates, survival and reproductive output.

Barbados is currently home to the second-largest Hawksbill turtle nesting population in the wider Caribbean, with up to 500 females nesting per year. Turtle nesting occurs on most of the beaches around the island, which, like many in the region, is heavily developed with tourism infrastructure.

The Barbados Sea Turtle Project tags these creatures, measures them and archives and analyses the data for over 30 coordinated projects in the region. These research projects inform their conservation activities.

Each August when the baby turtles hatch, the project runners are on call seven days a week to respond to emergencies that might include hatchlings wandering off in the wrong direction or preparing for swells that can wash away nests during hurricane season.

The project runners also help communities promote ecotourism based on best practices, which provides a source of income for local communities.

Barbados is now well known for the success of its sea turtle conservation activities. The degree to which the Hawksbill population has recovered thus far allows trainees to work with large numbers of turtles and experience the challenges posed by extensive coastal development.

The widely renowned project recently received a new small grant from the GEF of $46,310.

Thanks to this grant [this project has] been able to offer persons from other sea turtle projects in the region the opportunity to be trained alongside BSTP volunteers in a South-to-South Exchange The ongoing work of the Project is integral to the conservation and protection of threatened and endangered sea turtles, their terrestrial and marine habitats, said Karen Harper, Programme Assistant of SGP in Barbados.

Puerto Ayacucho is the capital and largest city of the State of Amazonas in the south of Venezuela, its inhabitants include a number of local indigenous tribes, including the Yanomami, the Panare, the Bari, Piaroa and Guajibo (also known as Jibis).

Many of these populations have been displaced from their lands due to the socioeconomic crisis in the country, as well as the presence of armed groups and illegal mining activities.

The project Amazonas Originaria is currently training a group of indigenous displaced families to sustainably use and care for the tropical forests in the vicinity of Puerto Ayacucho. They are learning how to manage crops of cocoa, cupuau, manaca and tpiro (all amazon native plants) as well as how to transform their fruits into pulp, chocolates, baskets and other products.

This project, in particular, is interesting and inspiring, as it is led by women it supports the fight against climate change, since its purpose is to conserve the Amazon Forest as the main carbon sink in southern Venezuela, working hand in hand with native communities, valuing their traditions and protecting their ancestral habitat, explains national SGP coordinator Alexis Bermdez.

According to the UN Environment Programme, or UNEP, in the Amazon, the worlds largest remaining tropical rainforest, deforestation is reducing carbon stocks and altering the regional climate. The effects of climate change, forest degradation and more forest fires could result in60 per cent of the Amazon rainforest disappearing by 2050.

The SGP-supported initiative not only trains members of the community to make Amazon-derived products and ecological packaging helping them to diversify their livelihoods, but at the same time it works to restore parts of the degraded tropical forest by re-planting native trees and other species.

When families pass on this knowledge, we make indigenous communities gain the necessary strength and confidence to face the conservation of their culture and their environment, organize the community for the production and marketing of their products in more select markets and contribute directly to creating a sustainable economy, Kenia Martinez from Amazonas Originaria notes.

Clearly, climate change and environmental degradation cant be tackled by a single community, instead, unity is strength when we talk about exchanging ideas that have already proven successful.

The project Dialogue of Latin American Knowledge around Community Tourism has brought together community tourism ventures from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Mexico to exchange experiences and good practices.

Tourism is the backbone of some economies and the source of livelihood for many people, especially those living in developing countries, but if mismanaged, it often puts pressure on natural resources through overconsumption, induces stress on local land use, as well as increases pollution and natural habitat loss.

Community tourism, on the other hand, is an economic alternative that allows local communities to generate complementary income to their main productive activities and at the same time protect and value the natural and cultural wealth of their territories.

Alone we go faster, but together we go further, Beatriz Schmitt, SGP Panama National Coordinator highlights.

The SGP-supported dialogues consisted of virtual trainings and good practices exchanges with 23 rural organizations focusing on local development, collaborative working networks, marketing, institutional perspective and biosafety protocols.

At the end of the virtual training, participants visited community tourism experiences in Costa Rica where the programme has been promoting rural tourism for 20 years and has established a robust institutional framework.

Community tourism is a local strategy that brings income to rural communities. This project is important because tourism is not approached only as a business but instead, it is derived from experiences of land conservation where these communities live, Viviana Rodriguez, SGP Programme Assistant in Panama tells UN News.

She adds that by conserving these areas for tourism and reducing other activities such as large-scale agriculture, small communities are also contributing to the fight against climate change.

Colombias paramos, tundra ecosystems in the Andes mountains that are above the forest line but below the snowline, occupy just 1.7 per cent of the national territory, yet they produce 85 per cent of its drinking water.

Guardianas de los Pramos (Paramos Women Guardians) is an Alliance between the GEF Small Grants Program and two other organizations that are supporting a variety of community projects focused on conservation and climate change adaptation in the Paramos Pisba and TotaBijagual-Mamapacha, about 280 km to the northeast of Bogot.

The alliance puts special emphasis on womens participation since historically, the intervention of women in environmental management has been diminished because of discrimination and inequitable access to resources.

A total of 37 projects were selected benefiting 2,400 families who had been working since 2020 to restore native plants, thus strengthening biological corridors and maintaining protected areas.

The initiatives also include aqueduct adaptation, as well as the implementation of homemade agroecological gardens to reduce the use of traditional productive systems that are harmful to the environment.

It is necessary to implement actions aimed at controlling or reducing pressures on the paramo and to mitigate negative actions by extractive activities in the area, establishing conservation areas and measures to reduce risks associated with climate change, says Catalina Avella, the alliance field coordinator.

Paramos are a unique Andean ecosystem, only found in high mountains of the north of South America, they are strategic not only due to their plant and animal biodiversity but also of their ecosystem services, including carbon sequestrations in the soil and water regulation.

The increase in temperatures and changes in rain patterns due to climate change poses a threat to these ecosystems, as well as mining and infrastructure projects.

If you have a project related to climate change mitigation, reversing land degradation, sustainable forest management, or protecting biodiversity, visit the Small Grants Program website where you can find out how to apply depending on your country.

SGP grants are made directly to community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations in recognition of the key role they play as a resource and constituency for environment and development concerns. The maximum grant amount per project is $50,000 but averages around $25,000.

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Our use of sand brings us up against the wall - Modern Diplomacy

The nationwide popularity of the Earth Week 1990 festivities showed the concern that Americans feel about the continuing degradation of the global environment. The twentieth anniversary celebration of the original Earth Day focused on ways that individual citizens can reduce waste and retard pollution. From coast to coast, a plethora of multimedia displays demonstrated the need for recycling used materials and lowering power consumption. They showed the changes in lifestyle necessary to halt the poisoning of the Earth.

An environmentally-conscious populace would prove to be a frugal one if those Earth Week programs were adopted. Assuming that the American people would be willing to cut back on energy consumption and muster the effort to recycle their trash, would industrial corporations and energy producers be willing to do the same? Would corporate America drop the aggressive sales pitches, stop spending billions to encourage people to buy impulsively? Would people be able to kick the mass consumption habit thats been generations in the making? Would corporate America ever entertain the idea of abstaining from its short-term profit fix, and consider the consequences of quick-return capitalism for future generations of life on Earth?

President Bushs speechgiven just days after Earth Week 1990 at the 17-nation conference dealing with global pollution held in Washington, DCdrew criticism from European participants. Bushs emphasis on scientific and economic uncertainties was seen as White House foot dragging on the environmental issue.

A memo prepared by administration staffers for members of the US delegation, under the heading Debates To Avoid, instructed delegates to avoid discussion of whether there is or is not [global] warming, or how much or how little warming. In the eyes of the public we will lose this debate. A better approach is to raise the many uncertainties that need to be better understood on this issue.

Bush repeatedly stressed the need to find policies that do not limit economic growth: Environmental policies that ignore the economic factor, are destined to fail [Science News, April 28,1990].

President Bush publicly prides himself on his career in the oil industry. He is, to say the least, an energy-industry celebrity. But he has also gone to great lengths to represent himself as the environmental president. If the Bush administration believes that in the eyes of the public they will lose any debate questioning the scientific validity of the greenhouse effect, is it possible they dont believe that excessive accumulation of greenhouse gasses generated by fossil fuel-burning is unbalancing the global carbon-dioxide cycle? Or is it possible that the corporate/industrial-energy complex, which controls the trillion-dollar-per-year energy industry, fears profit losses andunlike the American peopleis in no way willing to make a sacrifice in corporate lifestyle to help heal the Earth?

President Bush is right about one thing. Policies that ignore the economic factor, the human factor, are destined to fail. In this case, the economic factor and the human factor converge into dire straits: If we do not convert from a fossil-fueled economy to a biomass-fueled economy, the human factor will become part of the fossil history on Planet Earth.

The corporate/industrial-energy complex is collectively holding its breath on the topic of biomass resource-conversion to replace fossil fuels. The industrial energy giants spend millions in public relations explaining how they are environmentally responsible, yet the fossil-fuel resources they peddle are endangering our fragile ecosphere. The majority of scientists throughout the world agree: The single most effective way to halt the greenhouse effect is to stop burning fossil fuels.

It was proven in the 1970s that biomass, specifically plant mass, can be converted to fuels that could replace every type of fossil fuel currently produced by industryand these biomass fuels are essentially non-polluting.

Fossil-fuel materialscoal, oil and natural gaswere made by nature from Earth biomass that lived over 160 million years ago. Crude fossil fuels contain hydrocarbon compounds that were made by plant life during the process of photosynthesis.

Carbon dioxide and water were converted into hydrocarbon-rich cellulose. Plants manufacture many other biochemicals in the complex and mysterious act of livingbut cellulose and lignin are the compounds that give plants structure, body, and strength. They are the main components of plant mass.

Nature took millions of years to concentrate the ancient plant mass into what we call fossil fuels. The eons-long process that converted the once-living biomass into hydrocarbon-rich fossils also compressed sulfur into the fossil biomass. It is this sulfur that causes acid rain when belched out of power-plant smokestacks. According to the Brookhaven National Laboratory, 50,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians die each year from exposure to acid rain. Humankind, through the science of chemical engineering, can transform modern biomass into hydrocarbon-rich fuels that contain no sulfur because fresh plant mass contains no sulfur. And the scientific method of biomass conversion into hydrocarbon fuels requires mere hours instead of eons to accomplish.

The inherent problem with burning fossil fuels to power industrial energy systems and economies is the mega-ton release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. However, biomass-derived fuels are part of the present-day global CO2 cycle. The quantity of CO2 released into the air from burning biomass fuels equals the amount of CO2 that the biomass energy crop absorbed while it grew. If the energy crop is an annual plant, then one years biomass fuel (when burned) will supply the CO2 needed for the next years fuel biomass growth. There will be no net increase in atmospheric CO2.

For over 100 years industrialized nations have burned hydrocarbon fuels that are not part of the current ecosystem. The delicate balance between life and climatic cycles is being unbalanced by injecting ancestral CO2 into the atmosphere.

The only way to reduce the ever-thickening blanket of carbon dioxide warming the earth is to grow more plants to absorb it. Yet the Bush administrations plan to plant one billion trees a year will only reduce by 15 percent the amount of CO2 predicted for the end of the century. However, American CO2 production (from burning fossil fuels) will rise by 35 percent during the same time period [Science News, April 28,1990]. The Bush administrations plan is futile as long as fossil fuels remain Americas major energy resource. And at the rate forests are being cut down to make the paper our society is wrapped up in, a billion saplings a year will barely compensate for that loss in CO2 absorption. In addition, wood happens to be the governments chief biomass candidate to replace the dwindling fossil-fuel supply. Officials claim US yearly energy consumption can be met by harvesting one-third of the trees in the National Forests on a rotating basis coupled with more intensive silvaculture (tree farming) techniques. Estimated yearly biomass production in the National Forests is one ton per acre [Progress in Biomass Conversion, Vol. 1; Kyosti V. Sarkenen and David Tillman, editors]. However, private industry has been, without conscience, clear-cutting unprotected timber stands in National Forest and Parks, and none of that wood is going into biomass fuel conversion. The US Forestry Service is the government bureaucracy promoting this ludicrous forests-for-fuel idea.

The trees of the world are the biospheres C02-cycle safety valve. Since a tree will live for centuries, forests can gradually pull the excess CO2 out of the air. Trees are not only aesthetically pleasingthey can cure our ailing atmosphere.

Is it realistic to halt construction to save trees, or to ask people to stop using paper?

If wood resources cannot hope to meet the demand for lumber, paper and biomass fuels, can any plant be cultivated to meet those needs? This problem is not new. Civilizations have been exhausting vital resources and dooming themselves for centuries. Versatility, cleverness and common sense are the hallmarks of the ones that survive.

About 75 years ago, two dedicated USDA scientists projected that at the rate the US was using paper, we would deplete the forests in our lifetime. Those government scientists were endowed with common sensesomething government officials are hopelessly lacking nowadays. So USDA scientists Dewey and Merrill looked for an alternate agricultural resource for paper products to prevent the disaster we now face.

They found the ideal candidate to be the waste material left in the fields after the hemp harvest. The leftover pulp, called hemp hurds, was traditionally burned in the fields when the hemp fiber had been removed after completion of the time-consuming retting process (partially rotting the hemp stalk to separate the fiber from the hurds).

Since hemp hurds are richer in cellulose and contain less lignin than wood pulp, Dewey and Merrill found that the harsh sulfur acids used to break down the lignin in wood pulp were not necessary when making paper from hemp hurds. Sulfur-acid wastes from paper mills are known to be a major source of waterway pollution. The coarse paper they made from hemp hurds was stronger and had greater folding durability than coarse wood-pulp paper. Hemp hurd paper would make better cardboard and paper-bag products than wood paper. They found the fine print quality of hemp hurd paper to be equal to writing-quality wood pulp paper [USDA Bulletin, no. 404].

The only problem in implementing the change from wood to hemp hurds was that machinery to separate hemp fiber from the hurds needed to be developed. Separation was still done by hand after the machine breaks had softened the hemp stalks. The decorticating machine that separated the fiber and hurds wasnt developed until the early 1930s. Popular Mechanics declared in 1937 that hemp would be a billion-dollar-a-year crop because of this new machinery and their predictions did not take into consideration hemps potential as a biomass-fuel resource. But they did not predict that hemp would be maligned. Its flower tops and leaves condemned as marijuana, hemp was outlawed-just when the fiber/hurd separating machinery had been perfected.

If America had not been infected with anti-marijuana hysteria, hemp would be solving our energy problems today. When marijuana was outlawed, most people did not know that marijuana was Mexican slang for cannabis hemp. The American people, including doctors who routinely prescribed cannabis extract medicines, thought hemp and marijuana were two different plants. Otherwise hemp prohibition might never have happened.

Eastern Europeans were not subjected to the hysterical anti-marijuana syndrome plaguing the West. Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, among others, continued to make clothing from hemp fibers and medicines from hemp flowers. They pressed the versatile and edible oil from the seeds and used the leftover high-protein seed mash to make breakfast cereal and livestock feed. And they used surplus hemp for building insulation.

Here in the US, a private firm called Mansion Industries is pioneering the use of agricultural fibers to make sturdy, light-weight construction paneling to replace plywood. Mansion uses straw to make their Envirocore (TM) panels. According to Dewey and Merrills test results, if hemp was an available resource, Envirocore (TM) construction paneling would be even stronger.

Its not too late to save our environment, but it is absolutely essential that we start now. Restoring the balance to the biospheres ecosystem will require courage and determination, but not self-denial. We need not give up our comfort or quality of life.

America stands at the crossroads of greatness and decline. The might of our weaponry will not sustain us anymore. Our chance to again lead the world will require the same kind of determination we once used to turn our peacetime economy into war production during the 1940s. But the war mentality will no longer help us. This time we must be innovative and change the very way we produce our energy resources. Hemp prohibition must end at once in order to inaugurate a nationwide green economy. To save the world that gives us life, we must begin immediately to grow our own energy.

Hemp is the only plant capable of becoming the American biomass-energy standard. Hemp grows well everywhere on earth, except for the polar regions. Hemp will out-produce wood at a rate greater than four-to-one per acre in cellulose/pulp. And by analyzing pre-prohibition hemp-crop reports from various states, ten tons per acre becomes a reasonable biomass production figure. Hemp will make ten times more biomass per acre than forest wood.

Wood is not a viable fuel resource. The forests are essential to scrub the CO2 from the air. Soft-wood forests should not be harvested for paper products or biomasstheir only economic value. Hemp can supply that need. Hardwood trees should be harvested, utilizing sustainable-yield ecology, for board and finishing lumber only. Hemp will make pressed-board lighter and more durable than plywood.

Hemp can be grown for crude biomass fuels on energy farms; fiber/hurds for textiles, pressed-board and hurd cellulose products; seed for oil and high-protein foods; flowers for pharmaceutical-grade extract medicines and recreational herbal products for adults.

The green economy based on a hemp multi-industry complex will provide income for farmers in every state. Regions for each hemp agricultural industry application will be established through open, free-market competition. The historically traditional hemp fiber growing areas in the eastern US will re-emerge, creating new jobs in an old industry. The economically devastated northern plains will see a boom as the nations energy-farming states. Medicinal and intoxicant-grade hemp will be grown on less-productive, higher-elevation lands. Mountainous areas have traditionally produced intoxicant-quality hemp.

Ironically, although the target of prohibitionist reefer madness propaganda, the hemp medicine and intoxicant industry will generate the least amount of capital.

The hemp-seed oil and food-resource industries, and the hemp-textile and cellulose industries will develop thousands of sustainable new jobs. Hemp-energy farming will become the backbone of a trillion-dollar-a-year non-polluting energy-production industry. And the petroleum industries need not fear this, for their expertise, hardware and manpower are vital to turn the farmers raw biomass into refined fuels.

These projections could represent a tremendous boon to our flagging economy, a by-product of the need to save our world from human-induced biocide. If we as a society have the courage and determination to set upon this bold path of planetary restoration, we can in our lifetimes leave a healthier world to our children as well as a lifestyle based on renewable resources in a balanced ecosystem that our children can leave to their children for generations to come.

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From the Archives: Toward a Green Economy (1991) - High Times

While universal coverage can catalyse the regions economic growth, energy trade must be linked to peace building

While universal coverage can catalyse the regions economic growth, energy trade must be linked to peace building

South Asia has almost a fourth of the global population living on 5% of the worlds landmass. Electricity generation in South Asia has risen exponentially, from 340 terawatt hours (TWh) in 1990 to 1,500 TWh in 2015. Bangladesh has achieved 100% electrification recently while Bhutan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka accomplished this in 2019. For India and Afghanistan, the figures are 94.4% and 97.7%, respectively, while for Pakistan it is 73.91%. Bhutan has the cheapest electricity price in South Asia (U.S.$0.036 per kilowatt hour, or kWh) while India has the highest (U.S.$0.08 per kWh.) The Bangladesh government has significantly revamped power production resulting in power demands from 4,942 kWh in 2009 to 25,514 MW as of 2022. India is trying to make a transition to renewable energy to provide for 40% of total consumption, while Pakistan is still struggling to reduce power shortage negatively impacting its economy.

The electricity policies of South Asian countries aim at providing electricity to every household. The objective is to supply reliable and quality electricity in an efficient manner, at reasonable rates and to protect consumer interests. The issues these address include generation, transmission, distribution, rural electrification, research and development, environmental issues, energy conservation and human resource training.

Geographical differences between these countries call for a different approach depending on resources. While India relies heavily on coal, accounting for nearly 55% of its electricity production, 99.9% of Nepals energy comes from hydropower, 75% of Bangladeshs power production relies on natural gas, and Sri Lanka leans on oil, spending as much as 6% of its GDP on importing oil.

Given that a 0.46% increase in energy consumption leads to a 1% increase in GDP per capita, electrification not only helps in improving lifestyle but also adds to the aggregate economy by improving the nations GDP. For middle-income countries, the generation of power plays an essential role in the economic growth of the country. More electricity leads to increased investment and economic activities within and outside the country, which is a more feasible option as opposed to other forms of investments such as foreign direct investment.

The South Asian nations have greatly benefited from widening electricity coverage across industries and households. For example, 50.3% of Bangladeshs GDP comes from industrial and agricultural sectors which cannot function efficiently without electricity. Nepals GDP growth of an average of 7.3% since the earthquake in 2015 is due to rapid urbanisation aided by increased consumption of electricity. On the other hand, Pakistan suffered a drop in industrialisation of textiles by 9.22%, wiping off U.S.$12.4 billion from the industry in 2014 due to power shortages. India leads South Asia in adapting to renewable power, with its annual demand for power increasing by 6%.

Solar power-driven electrification in rural Bangladesh is a huge step towards Sustainable Development Goal 7 (which is Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all) by 2030 and engaging more than 1,00,000 female solar entrepreneurs in Sustainable Development Goal 5 (which is achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). Indias pledge to move 40% of total energy produced to renewable energy is also a big step. Access to electricity improves infrastructure i.e., SDG 9 (which is build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation). Energy access helps online education through affordable Internet (SDG 4, or ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all), more people are employed (SDG 1: no poverty), and are able to access tech-based health solutions (SDG 3, or ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages).

South Asian leaders are increasingly focused on efficient, innovative and advanced methods of energy production for 100% electrification. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his net zero by 2070 pledge at COP26 in Glasgow asserted Indias target to increase the capacity of renewable energy from 450GW to 500GW by 2030. South Asia has vast renewable energy resources hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass which can be harnessed for domestic use as well as regional power trade. The first-ever Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) benefits such as poverty reduction, energy efficiency and improved quality of life were realised when there was India-Bhutan hydro trade in 2010.

The region is moving towards green growth and energy as India hosts the International Solar Alliance. In Bangladesh, rural places that are unreachable with traditional grid-based electricity have 45% of their power needs met through a rooftop solar panel programme which is emulated in other parts of the world. This is an important step in achieving Bangladeshs nationally determined contributions target of 10% renewable energy of total power production.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) prepared the regional energy cooperation framework in 2014, but its implementation is questionable. However, there are a number of bilateral and multilateral energy trade agreements such as the India-Nepal petroleum pipeline deal, the India-Bhutan hydroelectric joint venture, the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India gas pipeline, the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional framework for energy cooperation, and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, rumoured to be extended to Bangladesh.

South Asias regional geopolitics is determined by the conflation of identity, politics, and international borders. Transnational energy projects would thus engage with multiple social and ideational issues which is a major limitation for peaceful energy trade. If energy trade is linked and perceived through the lens of conflict resolution and peace building, then a regional security approach with a broader group of stakeholders could help smoothen the energy trade process. The current participation in cross-border projects has been restricted to respective tasks, among Bhutan and India or Nepal and India. It is only now that power-sharing projects among the three nations, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, have been deemed conceivable.

India exports 1,200MW of electricity to Bangladesh, sufficient for almost 25% of the daily energy demand, with a significant amount from the Kokrajhar power plant in Assam worth U.S.$470 million. Bhutan exports 70% of its own hydropowered electricity to India worth almost U.S.$100 million. Nepal on the other hand, not only sells its surplus hydroelectricity to India but also exported fossil fuel to India worth U.S.$1.2 billion.

South Asia is reinforcing its transmission and distribution frameworks to cater to growing energy demand not only through the expansion of power grids but also by boosting green energy such as solar power or hydroelectricity. Going forward, resilient energy frameworks are what are needed such as better building-design practices, climate-proof infrastructure, a flexible monitory framework, and an integrated resource plan that supports renewable energy innovation. Government alone cannot be the provider of reliable and secure energy frameworks, and private sector investment is crucial. In 2022, private financing accounted for 44% of household power in Bangladesh, 48.5% in India, and 53% in Pakistan. Public-private partnership can be a harbinger in meeting the energy transition challenges for the worlds most populous region.

Syed Munir Khasru is Chairman of the international think tank, The Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance (IPAG), New Delhi, India with a presence in Dhaka, Melbourne, Vienna and Dubai. E-mail: munir.khasru@ipag.org

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The goal of an energy-secure South Asia - The Hindu

Protestors shout slogans against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa near the Presidential Secretariat, Colombo, April 11 2022. Photo: Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lanka is going through the most difficult economic period since its independence in 1948, and has defaulted on its national debt. For some commentators, the main problem is easy enough to spot: organic farming. It is even enough for others to suggest that the Green New Deal in the US should be rethought.

And yet, the collapse of Sri Lankas economy had little to do with organic farming per se, and much more to do with the disastrous handling of its economy.

Nonetheless, the banning of inorganic fertilisers, the reasons it was done and the way it was done is a cautionary tale of how not to embark on a green transition. It should be a mandatory exercise to review these failures as the developing world looks for a stable path as the climate crisis intensifies.

The first thing to note about Sri Lankas decision to ban the import of inorganic fertilisers is that it was based on desperation rather than planning. It is true that President Gotabaya Rajapaksas government had promised when it came into power in 2019 that it would shift agriculture to organic farming but it had announced that it would do so over a period of 10 years, not overnight.

No large-scale plan was drawn up, no public discussions with farmers was undertaken, and the people in government pushing the policies included those who came up with locally made syrups to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the end, the decision was taken for the simple reason that Sri Lanka was running out of money. The pandemic had hurt the tourist industry, and when the government was elected in 2019, it further cut down taxes, leaving it with money flowing out much of it for vast infrastructure projects and little to raise.

Between the end of 2020 to March 2021, the countrys foreign exchange reserves plummeted from $7.6 billion to less than $2 billion. It was because of this huge loss of foreign currency, and the cost of importing inorganic fertilisers that Sri Lanka largely does not manufacture, that the country imposed a ban on it forcing two-thirds of its population that depends on agriculture to suddenly scramble to deal with the fallout.

To make an analogy, this would be the equivalent of India running out of foreign exchange reserves to buy coal from overseas, and shutting down all coal power plants except those that could be run on locally sourced coal. It would certainly be a (forcible) shift to far more renewable energy, but it would cause blackouts and a huge drop in industrial productivity. To call it a green transition would be the same as calling what Sri Lanka did an organic transition.

The sad part of all of this is that the country has been experimenting with locally produced organic fertilisers supplemented by processes like biological nitrogen fixation, which could have paved the way for a replacement for inorganic fertilisers.

This is important not just from a green point of view but from a financial sustainability point of view. A locally produced method of fertilisers would have cut down imports without cutting down agricultural productivity. But this would require a plan, soil testing, experimentation on a small scale and significant buy-in by local farmers before being implemented on a wider scale.

None of this took place. Instead, a whole country was pushed into a deep agricultural crisis, which further wrecked its economy.

The lessons of this crisis for proponents of a green transition are important ones. First and foremost is that, to cover governance failures, authoritarian leaders backed by charlatans see greenwashing as a popular way to shift the blame from their failures.

Secondly, any transition that is top-down, and ignores science for quick solutions, is likely to be a disaster.

Thirdly, a development approach that privileges massive infrastructure projects, and then passes off economic and environmental costs to the people without their consultation, will never manage a green transition.

All of these issues are also central to the work of Manshi Asher of the Himdhara Collective, whom the interviews below, and whose work highlights how top-down environmental and development projects that ignore local livelihoods are both destructive and massively inefficient.

The interview

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Manshi Asher (left) is a member of Himdhara Collective. As a researcher and activist she has been associated with diverse organisations around social and environmental justice issues. She lives in Kandwari village in the Dhauladhar valley of Himachal Pradesh. She enjoys engaging with feminist political ecologies of life in the mountains.

The questions are in bold.

What does Himdhara do? Why was there a need for it?

Himdhara is a Himachal-Pradesh-based environment research and action collective that was formed in 2009. The collective has been working with an environmental justice approach, supporting mountain communities asserting their right to access, use and protect their natural landscapes. The support work itself comprises documentation, dissemination, community dialogues and advocacy.

The need for such a collective emerged from growing threats posed to mountain ecology and peoples nature-based livelihoods by policies and projects of the neoliberal extractive development model and top-down exclusive conservation. Alienation of forest and land dependent people from their resource base began in the colonial era and continued after independence, more evidently in the past few decades and this has led to wide ranging ecological, socio-cultural and economic shifts.

While newer legal provisions were put in place during this time to protect the environment and rights of impacted communities, on one hand access to and just implementation of these has remained a far cry and on the other many of these policies have further alienated marginalised peoples like adivasis, dalits, women. Many of the democratic spaces in environmental decision making have been shrinking, with the push for ease of doing business agenda.

The need thus has been to build a counter narrative by demonstrating the real adverse ecological and socio-economic impacts and costs of such a scenario and also support communities advocating for their livelihoods and their right to govern their resources using democratic spaces and constitutional provisions.

For instance, Himachal has over the last two decades seen various community led movements to raise issues around large-scale hydropower dams and how these have affected local lives and land-use. Himdhara has worked towards building evidence on the oft invisibilised and hidden costs of hydropower projects that are being pushed in the name of clean energy and green growth.

Over the years, as we understood the criticality of secure tenure over land, both for farming and forest uses, we joined the campaign for implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the state. In absence of basic information about the provisions of this radical law which guarantees individual and community rights over forest land and is a step towards decolonising forest governance too, we worked on demystifying the legislation by generating basic audio-visual material on it.

Currently we are engaged in activating Forest Rights Committees through training and dialogues. We also feel the need to dialogue with the youth, which is imperative for any transformative work. One of our programs is an annual workshop called Pahar Aur Hum: Rethinking development in the Himalaya, which explores challenges in the Himalayan region with Pahari youth.

How did the collective begin?

Initially we were three or four people from diverse backgrounds passionate about working in the mountains, who decided to pool our skills and perspectives to respond to the needs that came from different communities.

We felt that just being located in the region was not sufficient to engage with environmental justice issues and that a deeper interaction with the landscape and community led groups and movements was essential.

We continue to function as an informal and autonomous support group driven by a common vision rather than as a formal structured organisation.

What is the key difference between how think-tanks such as Himdhara, which are located in mountain areas, versus those in places like Delhi, see environmental issues?

I would not use the term think tank to describe Himdhara, for several reasons. Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, we are a small collective, a support group with localised engagement, even as we constantly try to understand the bigger picture (national and global) which impacts the local.

Secondly, the term think tank (which has a certain military connotation) in its current usage inherently means that knowledge lies in a few thinking minds and they will draft the policies and laws.

That is precisely where the problem lies, not just in the way governments work but also in how civil society tends to operate, led by the elite and privileged. It takes away from the agency of people, citizens to be able to plan, decide and demand accountability based on their localised geographies and circumstances, as it should be in a democratic framework. The system then works conveniently to serve the interests of a few.

So, when a group like ours examines environmental issues on the ground, we try not to look at them from a single lens and in isolation. We may not be able to address everything but we cannot deny the historical contexts as well as intersections between the political, economic, social justice issues and environmental concerns.

Also, our work, especially our research is action oriented, whether it is on Forest Rights or protection of riverine ecosystems. The work is more of a process rather than a project, driven by constantly evolving ground observations and dialogue with various actors.

What is the one big question you feel does not get the attention it deserves?

Environmentalism, today, is about top-down techno-managerial solutions and quick fixes. Renewable energy and net zero are being posed as game-changers whereas far from addressing the ecological and climate crisis they are likely to create more inequities and new problems.

Environment is a political issue and interwoven with many other issues, like the question of the economy and ownership, distribution, production and consumption of resources. The questions may be complex and daunting requiring multiple long-term strategies, but false solutions need to be identified and resisted.

This article and interview were first published on Environment of India, Omair Ahmads newsletter about Indias environment through a multi-disciplinary lens. Subscribe here. They have been republished here with permission.

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Sri Lanka's Problems Are Anything but Organic The Wire Science - The Wire Science

A joint team of researchers at the University of Luxembourgs Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) and SES received early access to Luxembourgs supercomputer MeluXina to carry out tests to effectively optimize satellite performance and allocate spectrum, SES, SnT and LuxProvide have announced.

MeluXina is ranked among the top 50 installations of its kind worldwide and opens the door for innovative and advanced research methods for key sectors in Luxembourg, including space. The supercomputer is capable of executing millions of billions of calculations per second which makes it particularly attractive for research and innovation projects that require complex, combined calculations, including telecommunications and cryptology.

Resource allocation for satellite communications, including modelling and optimizing performance and radio spectrum usage for broadband satellite communications systems, are inclusive within this joint SnT-SES project. As SESs satellites deliver content and connectivity services to millions of users simultaneously, resources such as spectrum and transmission power need to be continuously allocated in the most optimal way to maximize the system performance.

As SES starts operating its fully-digital satellites SES-17 and O3b mPOWER, the companys 2Gen MEO constellation the need for intelligent automation and optimization of satellite systems has become increasingly important. SES and one of its industry partners have developed groundbreaking advancements for large-scale optimization across the firms new satellites. The addition of the computational power of MeluXina and a research partnership with SnT brings testing and modelling of various scenarios to a different level.

The SnT-SES project was selected from several national and international applications for Early Access to MeluXina, being recognized as one with the highest potential impact on society, science and the economy. LuxProvide and the MeluXina supercomputer are part of Luxembourgs data-driven innovation strategy and are accessible to all companies and organisations in the Grand Duchy and abroad.

In order to optimize the performance of our innovative, next-generation satellites, we have to use software-based systems with complex algorithms, and run hundreds of tests before our new satellite systems are operational. We are grateful for the opportunity to use the capabilities of MeluXina to generate optimization scenarios that will enable us to deliver the best service to our customers, said Ruy Pinto, Chief Technology Officer of SES. It was great to continue our partnership with SnT and further our research on space.

There is always a trade-off between complexity and performance, and when your resources are satellites in orbit it is even more important to strike the right balance. Working with SES gives our researchers the opportunity to work with cutting-edge industry solutions, like their O3b mPOWER system, ensuring our innovative research is relevant for real-world applications, said Professor Bjrn Ottersten, Director of SnT. Meluxinas computational power enabled the project team to scale up the complexity of their work, investigating optimization scenarios that would not be realistic to consider with normal computers.

We are excited to see SES, a homegrown global content and connectivity satellite leader, and SnT, one of the leading research institutions in Luxembourg, joining efforts to benefit from LuxProvides supercomputing services, said Roger Lampach, CEO of LuxProvide. High system dimensions, such as for next-generation networks and satellite systems, require computationally intensive modelling, and thats where MeluXina comes in. Computational speed, tailor made software tooling and the inhouse team expertise at LuxProvide merge together providing a unique boost to the SES and SnT research & development capabilities.

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The MeluXina Supercomputer To Be Accessed By SES + SnT For SATCOM Optimization Tests SatNews - SatNews

Palmetto Point, a wetland site on the island of Barbuda, comprises mangroves, seagrass beds, tidal flats and coral reefs. It is home to endangered species such as the hawksbill and leatherback turtles, as well as the Western Hemispheres largest colony of frigate birds. Soon, they will get a new neighbour a luxury resort with a 150-room hotel, 450 residential units, a beach club, a marina and a golf course.

The marine resources of Barbuda that support livelihoods, food security and ecotourism will be negatively impacted [by the development], says John Mussington, a marine biologist and school principal based in Barbuda. And the island and its people, already quite vulnerable to climate change, will lose what is needed for adaptive strategies.

Barbuda wetland sites like Palmetto Point are essential to the lives of locals, both as a means of subsistence and as a natural defence against coastal erosion, and UN experts have warned the project could pose as a threat to Barbudans human rights.

A part of the sovereign Commonwealth nation of Antigua and Barbuda located in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles island chain, Barbudas unspoiled natural beauty is the product of a collective tenure system that has been in place since the abolition of slavery in 1834. Codified in the 2007 Barbuda Land Act, the legislation not only gives the roughly 1,800 inhabitants of the 160-square-kilometre, palm-fringed island equal rights to the land, but also allows them to democratically choose which developments come in via the democratically elected Barbuda Council, the local authority in charge of managing internal affairs.

However, since Hurricane Irma struck in 2017, destroying 90% of the islands structures and forcing a mass evacuation to Antigua, both Barbudas communal system and socio-ecological resilience have been under threat. To get the island back on its feet, Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbudas prime minister, has pushed for private ownership in the form of foreign investments. The ocean club under construction at the Palmetto Point wetland is one such venture.

The project is led by Peace, Love and Happiness (PLH), a US company run by Patrn Tequila co-founder John Paul DeJoria; and Discovery Land Company, a real estate developer owned by the American tycoon Mike Meldman. The Barbuda Ocean Club will sprawl over 800 acres, 700 of those inside the islands only national park, which has been declared a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation of wetlands. Under the 99-year lease, PLH has agreed to pay US$150,000 to the Antigua and Barbuda government annually to develop the resort.

With only one seat in the House of Representatives held by the Barbuda Peoples Movement (BPM) against 15 by Prime Minister Browns Antigua Labour Party (ABLP), there was little Barbudans could do to fend off the 2016 and 2017 amendments to the Barbuda Land Act. The legislative changes not only overrode their communal system but also legitimised PLH the project.

This hasnt stopped activists and surfers from raising awareness of what has been considered both a land grab and disaster capitalism.

I had a message from someone saying a wave in the Caribbean was under threat, says British surf photographer Al Mackinnon, referring to a surf spot at Palmetto Point. He first visited the island in 2012, both to photograph surfing and to witness first-hand the pristine nature his parents had spoken highly of over the years. But it was neither the waves nor the wildlife that prompted him to get involved with efforts to save the Palmetto Point wetland from his base in the UK. As surfers, we can speak about the [damage to the] waves, he tells Equal Times. But there was also a need to amplify the message behind the locals campaign.

Wetlands are our most important terrestrial ecosystems. According to a 2021 report by Ramsars Global Wetland Outlook, nearly 4 billion people worldwide rely on wetlands for health, food and water security, giving them an estimated yearly global value of US$47.4 trillion.

Moreover, coastal wetlands sequester carbon up to 55 times faster than tropical rainforests. And yet roughly 35% of global wetlands have vanished since 1970. This has happened at a rate three times faster than forests, making wetlands the worlds most threatened ecosystem.

Mussington laments the environmental consequences of the PLH project. But he is also worried about the lack of transparency in the decision-making. Among his main concerns is an environmental impact assessment conducted in 2017, which remains concealed from local residents. This plan was developed and presented for approval to the DCA [Development Control Authority] at a time when Barbudans remained evacuated from the island and were not allowed to return, except a couple of hours per day in limited numbers to salvage personal belongings from their homes and return to Antigua, says Mussington.

He also challenges the validity of a clause in the 2017 lease agreement signed by the then Barbuda council chair stating that the government had obtained all necessary consents of the people of Barbuda. The Barbuda Land Act requires the consent of the people of Barbuda, not of the Council alone.

The PLH has pledged to ensure that at least 75% of all its employees are citizens of Antigua and Barbuda, and it must submit a recruitment report to the Labour Commissioner annually. Even though the company claims that more than a thousand local jobs will be created, its unclear whether these jobs will promote sustainable development, according to Mussington. A clause in the lease moreover states that failing to meet the quota will not constitute a breach of the agreement.

The long-term deterioration of the environment, the consequent impact on food security, and resilience to climate change have costs associated [with them], and these costs will exceed any short-term monetary gains from the PLH project, argues Mussington. The project is basically a speculative, luxury real estate sales venture, and the kinds of local jobs this supports are mainly low-paying and menial. The few high-paying jobs go to individuals which the company brings in, he said, citing a recent construction project in the Bahamas as an example.

Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), a human rights NGO providing legal assistance to the Barbuda Council, takes a similar view. For Dr Tomaso Ferrando, a Belgium-based lawyer and member of GLAN, the 75% employment clause is not foolproof.

He says the salaries workers will earn will be less than the tax breaks PLH will receive, which means the company wont really inject any money into the local economy.

People in Barbuda need money for adaptation and support for local projects run by themselves, says Ferrando. Not to be employees of billionaires.

GLAN is currently overseeing two court cases challenging local construction projects. The first was filed in 2018 and argued that the concession of Robert De Niros 2014 Paradise Found project, also on Barbuda, went against the constitution. The second, brought by John Mussington and a former Barbuda council chair, called for a halt in the construction of a new international airport due to the lack of an environmental impact assessment. Both cases were rejected by a local court for lack of standing. They have been brought to the Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for sovereign nations of the United Kingdom, and are expected to be heard this spring.

The decisions of the Privy Council are key, Ferrando says. If the Paradise Found Act is against the constitution, the same should be [true] for the subsequent reforms to the Land Act that have been voted by the government (and not the Barbudan people) to facilitate investments, causing systemic repercussions on the legality of all the investments currently going on.

Land grabs are common practice across the world. Governments and corporations often set their sights on community-owned land for natural resource extraction, or industry and tourism development. And those who hold communal lands roughly 2.5 billion people, according to a 2016 report seldom have legal rights to it, which in turn puts their own rights at risk.

In Barbuda, communal land ownership isnt just a sociopolitical framework it is a way of life locals are keen to protect even though the systems fate currently rests in the hands of a faraway court. In 2018, there was a Barbuda Council election in which Barbudans voted overwhelmingly for the party which supports the communal land system [and] which is opposed to the PLH plan, says Mussington. But that doesnt change the fact that their right to vote on who leases their land has already been undermined by the Land Act amendments, as well as a central government which, according to Mussington, is unilaterally pushing the PLH model of development on Barbuda. So much so that those opposed to the policy have been branded as economic terrorists by the prime minister.

A visit by a Ramsar wetland committee to check on the state of the wetlands is expected between April and May of this year, and the hope is that an official mission will follow, which, together with international pressure, might persuade the government to reassess the PLH project.

While hope appears to be what keeps Barbudans fighting, a clear-sighted mindset is what helps them navigate the situation. Barbudans, as Indigenous and tribal people by virtue of their special connectedness to the land and its resources, will cease to exist without their land system, explains Mussington. The PLH plan and Barbudans as a People cannot coexist. The success of one hinges on the elimination of the other.

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In Barbuda, locals fight to protect a wetland and a centuries-old way of life - Equal Times

They're two of the world's largest countries by land area, with harsh winter landscapes bordered by three oceans. They're rich in oil, potash, uranium, and nickel. But only one has the delicious comfort food poutine, while the other is stuck with Vladimir Poutine (as his name is spelled in French, Qubcois or otherwise).

Canada, the US' resource-rich neighbor, has turned into a favorite destination for countries and companies around the world looking to replace Russian resources.

Russia's sanction pains have turned into maple leaf gains in a matter of weeks due to the two countries' strikingly similar commodity baskets. Before invading Ukraine, Russia provided about 10% of the global oil supply. Canada has the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world. Roughly 30% of the global potash supply has been removed from markets because Russian and Belarus producers can't export. Canada has the world's largest potash reserves, at 1.1 billion tonnes.

The demand flowing in for Canadian resources has sent the S&P/TSX Index, Canada's benchmark, up 3.5% this year, while the S&P 500 has struggled against a backdrop of war and inflation, falling 4.6%. Canadian producers are rushing to get supplies out as fast as a sprinting moose (they're frighteningly quick):

Cash for Gas: "You have an economy that's basically at full employment ... and you have the backing of the commodity-based economy, so you'll have cash flows coming in," Earl Davis, the head of fixed income at the Bank of Montreal, told the Financial Post.

Link:

Canada's Vast Resources Have Made It the World's Russia Alternative - The Motley Fool

As the Furey government prepares for a crucial 2022-2023 budget, it faces a landscape thats changed significantly from last year, given the rising price of oil. This development will boost the provinces revenues, but based on past experience, the government should not seek to balance the budget based solely on royalties. Rather, spending reductions is the only way to put Newfoundland and Labrador on a sustainable fiscal path.

Last fall, Finance Minster Siobhan Coady reported the provincial deficit, which has been among the largest in Canada, stood at $595 million for 2021-2022, down from a peak of $1.5 billion the prior year. But the province still faces the most challenging fiscal situation in Canada, with ongoing deficits and the largest debt of any province (as a share of the economy). The reduced deficit is due in part to the rebound in oil and gas prices, which bring the province revenue through royalties and income taxes.

While the oil and gas sector remains a crucial part of the provincial economy, its revenues are not a sustainable method to balance the budget. Oil and gas revenues are volatile, fluctuating significantly from year to year, making it difficult to align revenues and spending. Further, its not sustainable to fund ongoing operating expenses with onetime revenues from oil and gas. Indeed, relying on oil and gas revenues to fund operating expenses is a key reason for the boom-and-bust nature of provincial finances.

The Furey government cannot control oil and gas revenues, but it can control provincial spending. Despite having the most difficult fiscal position in Canada, the province has chosen to increase program spending in nine of the last 10 years, from $13,149 per person to $15,953 per person (adjusted for inflation). In its upcoming budget, the government should change course and reduce provincial program spending to create a more sustainable future.

The Canadian evidence on successful fiscal turnarounds is clear. Take, for example, the province of Saskatchewan. In the early 1990s, that province faced a deficit equivalent to more than five per cent of the economy, with debt rising at an unsustainable pace not unlike Newfoundland and Labradors present situation. Saskatchewans NDP government of the day tackled spending, reducing per-person spending in four consecutive years.

The result? The province went from a deficit of more than $1.5 billion to a string of surpluses, which not only balanced the budget but allowed the province to reduce its debt load and later reduce taxes. With Newfoundland and Labrador currently facing a deficit of almost $600 million, an uncertain situation for 2022 and beyond, and net debt (which has more than doubled in the last 10 years), these lessons are worth heeding.

Minister Coady recently said this budget will set the direction for a strong, smart, self-sufficient and sustainable province. While the fiscal and economic challenges before Newfoundland and Labrador are daunting, self-sufficiency and sustainability are indeed possible. To achieve that worthy goal, the province must reduce spending and balance the budget.

Alex Whalen and Jake Fuss are analysts at the Fraser Institute.

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OPINION: Spending reductionsnot resource revenueskey to N.L.'s fiscal sustainability - Saltwire

Increasing aluminum can recycling rate to 90% would generate $6.6B for the U.S. economy, add more than 100,000 jobs, keep 1.3M tons of aluminum out of landfills and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 12.1M metric tons of CO2e

WESTMINSTER, Colo. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Today, Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) and Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), a sustainable material and resource consulting firm, released a new nationwide study showing the economic and environmental benefits of improving the aluminum can recycling rate in the United States to 90% an increase from the current rate of 38%. Infinitely recyclable and economically valuable, aluminum is among the most sustainable beverage packaging materials, and when recycled, uses 92% less energy than virgin material and supports increased supply of domestic recycled metal.

In 2021, Ball Corporation released its vision for increased circularity across the industry in the Towards a Perfect Circle Report (2021). The report details a vision for the industry to achieve a 90% global recycling rate of aluminum. The new study from RRS and Ball Corporation demonstrates the environmental and economic impact of achieving this goal in the U.S.

The new study entitled "Recycling Aluminum Cans Is Good Business" indicates that a substantial improvement of the U.S. aluminum recycling rate would provide the following benefits:

"There is no question the market for more recycled aluminum is there, and so is the potential for huge energy savings and job creation," said John Hayes, chairman of Ball Corporation. "That's why we're advocating for smart recycling policies at the state and federal level that can help the U.S. reduce our dependence on imported materials, strengthen our domestic supply chain and make these benefits a reality."

"The benefits of increasing aluminum recycling rates in this country are very clear," said Marisa Adler, Senior Consultant, RRS. "Now it's up to leaders at the state and federal level to develop a policy roadmap for making the most of this opportunity."

The "Recycling Aluminum Cans Is Good Business" analysis, was compiled using 2021 data sourced from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Aluminum Association and Ball Corporation. The analysis also demonstrates how improved recycling enhances our nation's domestic supply chain of aluminum and decreases our reliance on primary aluminum imports. The study includes factsheets and data for all 50 states, in addition to a national snapshot.

RRS used state recycling rate data from the 50 States of Recycling Report (2021) to determine baselines. Notably, while the Aluminum Association has reported a 45.2% consumer recycling rate for aluminum cans, the RRS analysis uses 38% as the national baseline to reflect the percentage of aluminum that actually makes it to remelting facilities, after material losses that occur during collection and sorting. Unfortunately, collection and recycling are not synonymous. As detailed in Ball Corporation's Towards a Perfect Circle Report (2021), boosting collection rates exponentially increases the amount of recycled material that is kept in the loop over the long term.

View and download the national and state-specific fact sheets here.

About RRSFounded in 1986 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) is a sustainability and recycling consulting firm that strives to create a world where resources are managed to maximize economic and social benefit while minimizing environmental harm. The firm has industry professionals, engineers, economists, technical analysts, and communication specialists who share this vision and possess core strengths in materials and recovery, life cycle management, applied sustainable design, and collaborative action development. http://www.recycle.com

About Ball CorporationBall Corporation supplies innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products for customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 24,300 people worldwide and reported 2021 net sales of $13.8 billion. For more information, visit http://www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," and similar expressions typically identify forward-looking statements, which are generally any statements other than statements of historical fact. Such statements are based on current expectations or views of the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You should therefore not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements and they should be read in conjunction with, and qualified in their entirety by, the cautionary statements referenced below. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be different are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99 in our Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at http://www.sec.gov. Additional factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments include product capacity, supply, and demand constraints and fluctuations and changes in consumption patterns; availability/cost of raw materials, equipment, and logistics; competitive packaging, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; footprint adjustments and other manufacturing changes, including the startup of new facilities and lines; failure to achieve synergies, productivity improvements or cost reductions; unfavorable mandatory deposit or packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation; power and supply chain interruptions; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; inability to pass through increased costs; war, political instability and sanctions, including relating to the situation in Russia and Ukraine and its impact on our supply chain and our ability to operate in Russia and the EMEA region generally; changes in foreign exchange or tax rates; and tariffs, trade actions, or other governmental actions, including business restrictions and shelter-in-place orders in any country or jurisdiction affecting goods produced by us or in our supply chain, including imported raw materials; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts; c) the Company as a whole include those listed above plus: the extent to which sustainability-related opportunities arise and can be capitalized upon; changes in senior management, succession, and the ability to attract and retain skilled labor; regulatory actions or issues including those related to tax, ESG reporting, competition, environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; technological developments and innovations; the ability to manage cyber threats; litigation; strikes; disease; pandemic; labor cost changes; inflation; rates of return on assets of the Company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; uncertainties surrounding geopolitical events and governmental policies, including policies, orders, and actions related to COVID-19; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful joint ventures, acquisitions and divestitures, and their effects on our operating results and business generally.

SOURCE Ball Corporation

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New Analysis Shows Significant Economic and Environmental Benefits of Boosting Aluminum Can Recycling Rate in US - PR Newswire

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Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, commodity prices have risen sharply as markets digest potential supply impacts from sanctions on Russia - one of the worlds largest exporters of commodities. The situation threatens to exacerbate record inflation already gripping global economies. Todays note highlights recent events across commodity markets that are magnifying inflationary pressures and how natural resources could be an attractive investment in the current environment.

While stronger demand has fueled a sustained commodity price rally since the doldrums of the pandemic in 2020, the news of Russias invasion of Ukraine sent commodity prices soaring to new highs. The most pronounced impacts have been seen across energy, metals, and agricultural commodity markets, where Russia and/or Ukraine are significant global exporters. Russia is one of the worlds top crude oil exporters and the largest exporter of natural gas. Russia is also the largest wheat exporter while Ukraine is the fifth largest, and combined, they account for nearly 30% of the global wheat export market. Furthermore, Russia is also among the largest producers of aluminum, nickel, palladium, cobalt and other metals and raw materials critical for manufacturing.

On March 1, WTI crude oil closed above $100 per barrel (bbl) for the first time since 2014, surging as high as $130/bbl intraday on March 7. The same day, US natural gas prices at Henry Hub rose above $5 per million British thermal unit, while Dutch gas prices at the TTF hub, the leading European benchmark, closed at the highest level ever recorded. Wheat futures traded limit up (i.e., at the maximum increase allowed on a single trading day) five consecutive days during the first week of March and surged to $14.25 per bushel on March 7, their highest level since 2008. On March 8, nickel prices jumped and briefly surpassed $100,000 per metric ton on the London Metal Exchange (LME), forcing the LME to suspend nickel trading. While commodities that spiked sharply, including oil, wheat, and nickel, have come down from record highs, commodities broadly remain near multi-year highs.

Broad Commodities Performance (Author)

Commodities YTD Price Appreciation (Author)

Supply shocks stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict come during a time when inflation across energy and food is already running rampant. As reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation rose to 7.9% in February on an annual basis, with food and energy price increases contributing to the highest CPI reading in 40 years. Moreover, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported global food prices also rose to an all-time high in February. The surge across agricultural commodities could further aggravate global food inflation as the effects from the disruptions spill over to food supply chains. Meanwhile energy prices may continue to see upward pressure, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict has triggered what could be the largest energy supply crisis in decades, according to the International Energy Agency. Historically, commodities have served as a viable hedge against inflation. This commodity outperformance has also corresponded with periods of positive economic growth coinciding with the reopening of the global economy.

Investors that are looking to gain exposure to rising commodity prices, either as a hedge against inflation or for capital appreciation, may find it cumbersome to invest in commodity futures. Trading contracts could be complex for many investors, and owning individual commodity futures makes it difficult to diversify exposure. An index-based approach could provide exposure to multiple commodities via a more familiar product structure like an exchange-traded fund. Equity-based natural resource ETFs offers exposure to commodities through companies directly involved in natural resources and raw materials. Relative to an equity-based approach, an ETF based on commodity futures may have more volatility and can be negatively impacted by the need to roll into new contracts as front-month contracts near expiration.

The VanEck Natural Resources Index (RVEIT), which is calculated by S-Network Global Indexes, includes companies involved in the production and distribution of commodities and commodity-related products and services in the following sectors: Agriculture, Alternatives (Water & Alternative Energy), Base and Industrial Metals, Energy, Forest Products, and Precious Metals. Strong demand for commodities and natural resources has contributed to RVEITs outperformance relative to the broader market since March 2020, during a time when inflation has also continued to edge higher. While record inflationary pressure and rising interest rates have pressured broad equity indexes in recent months, RVEIT has continued its upward trend.

RVEIT Outperformed Through The Economic Recovery (Author)

With continued uncertainty ahead and no clear signs of inflationary pressures easing soon, a barbell approach could be used to incorporate a natural resource allocation into a broad equity portfolio. The chart below provides representative examples of combining natural resources, represented by RVEIT, with a broad equity allocation, represented by the S&P 500, and how sector exposures would be modified. For example, a 25% allocation to RVEIT could moderate exposure to heavily weighted sectors like tech that could see continued pressure from rising interest rates, while increasing exposure to commodity-related companies within the industrial, consumer staples, materials, and energy sectors. These sectors typically have more inelastic demand, do better during rising rate environments, and could benefit from inflation given the pass-through nature of their businesses.

Barbell Approach With RVEIT And S&P 500 (Author)

Given the ongoing global demand recovery for commodities, supply shocks stemming from the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are likely to exacerbate inflationary pressures. RVEIT offers investors access to global growth and may serve as a potential hedge against inflation.

The VanEck Natural Resources Index (RVEIT), which is calculated by S-Network Global Indexes, is the underlying index for the VanEck Natural Resources ETF (HAP).

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Natural Resources: Rich With Inflation-Hedging Properties - Seeking Alpha