Exxon faces $20 billion hit from 'epic failure' of a decade ago

By Matt Egan, CNN Business

Updated 12:08 PM ET, Tue December 1, 2020

New York (CNN Business)

ExxonMobil's nightmarish 2020 just got worse.

The embattled energy company announced Monday that it will dramatically mark down the value of its natural gas properties. Exxon also promised to sharply scale back its spending ambitions as it braces for a more muted oil price recovery.
Exxon (XOM) plans to take a non-cash charge of $17 billion to $20 billion -- a massive hit for a company that was long opposed to taking writedowns. It's believed to be the largest such writedown in Exxon history.

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It's yet more evidence of how badly Exxon erred when it acquired natural gas giant XTO Energy for $41 billion in late 2009. Roughly half of that deal's value has now been erased.


The natural gas market is depressed, with gas trading at about $3 per million British thermal units -- less than half the price at the time Exxon swooped in to buy XTO. Natural gas peaked in late 2005 at more than $15 per million BTU.
But today the world has a glut of natural gas due to the shale boom that unlocked vast amounts of fossil fuels in the United States.
Exxon's "colossal gas asset impairment" is management's "clearest acknowledgement to date that the XTO deal was an epic failure -- not that any reminders of this are needed," Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.
The bulk of the writedown covers properties in Appalachia, the Rockies, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas that were acquired in the XTO deal. The rest of the charge is for overseas gas properties in western Canada and Argentina.

Exxon is hardly the only oil company forced to whittle down the value of its fossil fuel properties. Over the past year, Chevron (CVX), BP (BP) and Shell (RDSA) have all taken massive writedowns.
But not only is Exxon slashing the value of its natural gas portfolio, the company has completely removed some of these gas properties from its development plan. Exxon said in a statement that it may sell some of these assets, "contingent on buyer valuations."

Shrinking the budget

Instead of plowing more money into natural gas, Exxon is promising investors it will "prioritize near-term capital spending on advantaged assets with the highest potential future value."
Specifically, Exxon said it will focus on developing its vast oil resources in Guyana, accelerating production in the Permian Basin of West Texas and some exploration in Brazil.
Exxon is also retreating from its bold plans to ramp up investment despite weak prices. The company now expects to spend $19 billion or less in 2021 and between $20 billion and $25 billion a year through 2025. That's a far cry from Exxon's March projection that it would spend $30 billion to $35 billion a year through 2025.

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Exxon is scrambling to cut costs -- and jobs. The company reiterated that it plans to shrink its global workforce by 14,000, or 15%, by the end of next year. That includes cutting about 1,900 jobs in the United States, mostly at its Houston headquarters.
The pandemic and crash in oil prices has exposed Exxon's weakened financial state. The company posted quarterly losses for the first time in decades and it got kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average after 92 years in that index.
As recently as 2012, Exxon was the world's most valuable company. But today it is valued at just $161 billion -- smaller than T-Mobile US (TMUS), AbbVie (ABBV), Nike (NKE) or Adobe (ADBE). Exxon's market valuation has crumbled by more than half to a staggering $285 billion since peaking at $446 billion in mid-2014.

'Precarious position'

Wall Street is hoping the belt-tightening and a more conservative budget will be enough to save Exxon's dividend, which is critical to its appeal to investors. But analysts are skeptical. This year marks the first time since 1982 that Exxon failed to increase its dividend.
Molchanov, the Raymond James analyst, warns that "Exxon cannot fund its dividend in 2021" without additional borrowing or asset sales.
For now, the capital markets are wide open and Exxon should be able to borrow to fund the dividend. But that can't last forever.


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"It's a question of how much debt they want to take on," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Biraj Borkhataria. "The dividend looks challenged."
And even if Exxon avoids a dividend reduction, its sharp spending cuts raise questions about the company's long-term future.
Oil companies need to continually plow money into drilling -- otherwise production dries up, hurting cash flows.
"The company is in a precarious position because of the deals they've done and the fact they've underspent for many years," said Borkhataria. "They have to execute on their existing projects to protect the long-term viability of the business."

Europe's social safety net is often considered the gold standard. Coronavirus has exposed its holes


By Emma Reynolds, CNN Business Sun December 6, 2020

London (CNN Business)Ros Davies is usually busiest at Christmas, building magnificent sets and stages for London's most sparkling parties and events.
This year, the fairytale is canceled. Davies, a self-employed carpenter hasn't worked since March because of the pandemic and has no idea when she may do so again.
She's living in temporary accommodation found for her in the city by St. Mungo's, a homelessness charity, while a plan to get her into permanent housing is on hold.
"I was hoping to move on and sort my life properly but ... here we are," the 50-year old told CNN Business. "I wouldn't have believed if you had said a year ago that your job's going to stop in March and that's it, you might never work doing that again."


Closed stores in Borough market in Gravesend, England, on Wednesday, December 2 as a national lockdown came to an end but the Kent region remained under stringent restrictions.
Davies did some retraining in painting and decorating, but with England just coming out of a second lockdown it hasn't led to any work. She has gone from regular jobs that paid enough for her to take vacations, to complete reliance on UK social security payments of just over £400 ($530) a month.
"I've really had to lower all of my expectations of life," she said. "If I knew that in a month I'd be working again, or even in spring ... but there doesn't seem to be anything to look forward to."
Coronavirus has revealed gaping holes in European social safety nets that are often seen as the gold standard. While many countries introduced support programs for workers affected by the pandemic, people are falling through the cracks. Most often, those who were already suffering the effects of inequality are hit the hardest — lower-income workers, those in insecure jobs, young people, women and minority ethnic groups.

A closed cafe terrace on Piazza Vittorio Veneto in downtown Turin, Italy, in November.

"Some of the social security systems in Europe are more extensive, better developed [than in the United States]," Michael Spence, a Nobel Laureate and former dean of Stanford Business School, told CNN Business.
He said that during the 2008 financial crisis, pre-existing programs involving governments and businesses helped many European countries avoid too many layoffs.
"But I think in the pandemic economy, the shock's so big that they kind of overwhelm the systems," he said. "The systems weren't built to withstand nearly overnight contractions of 25% in economies."
Unemployment was up by 2.18 million year on year in the European Union in October 2020, rising from a rate of 6.6% to 7.6%. The UK unemployment rate was an estimated 4.8% in the three months to September, up 0.9 percentage points year on year, and 782,000 jobs were lost between March and October, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Insecure work
Lockdowns have seen economies come to an abrupt halt, and benefits systems in many countries have not been able to cope, according to Mike Brewer, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, a British think tank aimed at reducing inequality.
He said the UK welfare state was "inadequate" for this type of crisis, a downturn far beyond the "natural ebbing and flowing of economic activity" of typical recessions.

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The British welfare system was "not very generous" and relied on a fast-moving labor market, he said. "So it wasn't so much the scale of the pandemic, it was the fact that the pandemic just shut down the labor market ... that's destroyed the premise on which the UK welfare system has been designed."
Since self-employed and casual workers had few protections under pre-crisis systems, many governments have had to come up with emergency measures — but even these programs are inadequate.
The United Kingdom introduced an employee furlough scheme and a self-employment grant. But many workers who are partly or recently self-employed, freelance or on zero-hours or flexible contracts are ineligible for either.
The programs were "designed in a hurry," Brewer said; as the pandemic drags on, the gaps are becoming more evident, and more of a problem.
Hospitality, retail and leisure have been worst affected by lockdowns, sectors in which many informal jobs are held by young, low-income or migrant workers.
The disproportionate impact on these workers, coupled with a lack of government support, means the gap between rich and poor is only widening. Members of low-income households are more likely to be out of work and running down their savings, while those in higher-income households, who are more likely to be in secure jobs that can be done from home, grow wealthier as they spend less, said Brewer.

The people worst affected
Countries that are reliant on tourism, such as Portugal, Greece, Spain and Cyprus, have also faced a battering. The sector is often an entry point into work for women, young people, migrant workers and rural populations — and low-skilled, casual and temporary workers are likely to be the first to lose their jobs, according to a United Nations report.
Youth unemployment increased by 404,000 year on year in the European Union in October, according to Eurostat. The most complete recent data for all countries, from August, shows youth unemployment was highest in Spain, at 41.6%, up almost 9 percentage points. Greece hit 39.3%, Italy 31.4% and Portugal saw an 8.7 percentage point rise to 26.8%.
Brewer says it is "harmful to be out of work for long periods" and can have a long-term impact on future employment prospects so "young people now are going to be carrying that scar as they grow older."


Informal workers are falling through social safety nets, particularly in sectors such as tourism. Pictured, the Acropolis in Athens on November 12 during Greece's second lockdown.
Migrant workers across Europe disproportionately face precarious work and employment conditions, according to the European Federation of Public Service Unions. Joblessness can mean they lose their income, their right to stay in a country and even their homes without access to social benefits — so they are particularly likely to have to risk their health by continuing work. Undocumented migrants do not qualify for any protections.
Abigail Adams-Prassl, an associate professor in economics at the University of Oxford, told CNN Business that women and Black, Asian and other minority ethnic workers were also more likely to slip through the cracks.
"Insecure work and work in vulnerable sectors such as social care is disproportionately done by non-White groups in Britain," she said, adding that there was good evidence that "people who identify as non-White face a bigger economic shock than those identified as White."
This is coupled with the fact that they are more likely to become seriously ill or die from Covid-19.
Adams-Prassl said the ability to work from home also depends on domestic duties.

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Childcare falls disproportionately on women, and the virus has often meant that children cannot attend school or childcare, says Adams-Prassl. She said the pandemic has exacerbated the financial shortfall for many UK childcare providers and there had been "nothing in terms of a targeted package of support for that sector or thinking about how to really support the employment of caregivers."
Women's groups have repeatedly raised the issue that social security systems can be problematic for those in abusive relationships, she added. "If you've got a partner who didn't lose their job, or who might have savings of their own, that can mean that you're ineligible for these forms of government support," said Adams-Prassl, adding that these patterns were also seen in France and Italy.
"All of these things existed beforehand," she said. "It's the fact that I guess it has affected many more people over the pandemic and it's just been so stark has made many, many more people aware of these issues. I think there's still a very long way to go in terms of thinking about what the policy response is."

Increasing existing inequalities
In Italy, this inequality can be seen in stark relief along geographical lines. While the richer north of the country was initially hit the hardest by the pandemic, the financial damage has been worst for the poorest households, which are more widespread in the south, according to the Bank of Italy.
Employment has dropped more in the south, where people are more likely to be in temporary jobs or roles that are more exposed to the effects of the pandemic, the November report found.
The government launched loans, subsidies and wage supplementation programs in March, but Valentina Meliciani, director of the Luiss School of European Political Economy in Rome, says high levels of public debt gave the country "a limited capability to respond to the crisis" and reach everyone.

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"Government interventions worked in the formal sector but less so with informal sector workers," she said, citing the examples of the tourism sector and migrant workers. "The problem is that it is very difficult to catch these people because they do not show up at all in the statistics."
She said Italy was already a "quite divided country" with the North and the center on one side, and the Mezzogiorno (south) on the other.
The southern region is fast becoming poorer. Public policies are less effective, students are lagging behind in education and fewer homes have fast broadband.
Meliciani said the southern regions "will suffer the most" in the long term. She said that to stop poverty increasing after the pandemic, government policies must address structural problems in the south, including the digital divide.
She said companies in the south needed incentives or tax relief to allow them to invest in digital technologies or other areas that could help them survive the crisis.
Modeling led by Oxford University in July found that two months of lockdown plus six months of restrictions would result in a mean wage loss rate for the poor of up to 16.2%. Cyprus was the European country where inequality increased most under several different pandemic scenarios, with a loss rate of up to 22.4% for the poor.
"There is considerable inequality in Cyprus in terms of income, wealth, employment, opportunities, and what I would call intergenerational gaps," Leslie Manison, a former senior economist at the International Monetary Fund and ex-advisor in the Cyprus Ministry of Finance, told CNN Business.
He said the government had introduced measures such as subsidizing salaries of employees in companies that had suspended their operations, and people in the informal sector often weren't eligible despite being worse affected by Covid.
"The subsidies haven't been connected, you could say, with active labor policies on retraining and so on, compared with a country like Germany," he added.

Activists are fighting for a renewable future in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chinese coal projects threaten to dirty those plans

IMPERIALISM 

THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM

By Eoin McSweeney, CNN Business Wed December 9, 2020

(CNN Business)When the Ghanaian government agreed to coordinate with Shenzen Energy Group, a Chinese energy company, to build a 7,000-megawatt coal power plant in the country's Ekumfi district, Chibeze Ezekiel was concerned.

He knew the proposed plant's wastewater, ash pit and mercury emissions posed serious health and environmental risks to the local fishing and farming communities. Access to clean drinking water was under threat from the plant's sulfur dioxide emissions and associated acid rain, and there would have been a clear impact on the regional climate.

Ezekiel, who is from the capital, Accra, was already the founder of an NGO focused on good environmental governance and started what became a successful grassroots youth movement to stop the construction of the $1.5 billion plant, which included a shipping port to bring in coal.

He ran a social media campaign emphasizing the threats of the proposed plans to the environment and local communities, detailing the possible long-term job creation that might come with a shift to renewable energy.




As a direct result of Goldman Environmental Prize winner Chibeze Ezekiel's grassroots campaign, the Ghanaian Minister of Environment canceled the construction of a 700-megawatt (MW) coal power plant and adjoining shipping port.

The Ghanaian government canceled the project in 2016. The president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has since said new power policies will be based on renewable generation technologies such as wind and solar, as Ghana attempts to meet its carbon reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement.

"If the world is trying to move away from environmental destruction because of the fossil fuel, then Africa shouldn't be seen as perpetuating that era," said Ezekiel over a webcall.

He was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa on November 30, which honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists.

Ezekiel's victory is but one of many battles raging across the continent between activists, Chinese companies and African governments.

Despite the reputational risk, Chinese companies have continued to finance the construction of coal plants, drawing ire from environmental activists, while African leaders are choosing quick fix solutions to electrify their countries.

China's dirty belt and road

In July, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged nations to stop financing the coal industry.

"Coal has no place in Covid-19 recovery plans," he said via video link during an online summit hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised that the world's biggest polluter of greenhouse gases would go carbon neutral by 2060. Speaking via video link to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he called for a "green revolution;" this was the first time China had issued concrete goals to reach net zero carbon emissions.

In 2018, Xi outlined a major push for green development in Africa as part of his global infrastructure policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Thirty-eight Sub-Saharan countries have signed on, hoping for improved infrastructure and energy development.

But despite these promises to phase out dirty, high-carbon projects at home and abroad, Chinese banks and companies are still financing seven coal plants in Africa like the one planned for the Ekumfi district, with 13 more in the pipeline, mostly south of the Sahara.
It was the China-Africa Development fund that was supposed to finance the coal power plant in Ghana, a private equity fund entirely backed by China Development Bank, a state government policy bank.

Since 2000 the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China alone have supplied $6.5 billion of finance for coal projects in Africa, according to the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. China has a rapidly developing economy with many sectors dependent on fossil fuels and it currently contributes 26% of global carbon emissions, according to the Green Belt and Road Initiative Center (Green-BRI).

In October, one month after Xi promised carbon neutrality, one of China's biggest energy construction firms, state-owned PowerChina, flew 223 Chinese employees into Zimbabwe to "accelerate" the expansion of the coal-fired Hwange Power Plant in the west of Zimbabwe. Two weeks later, the Chinese Ambassador to the country, Guo Shaochun, said in a tweet that the coronavirus pandemic "cannot stop the pace of cooperation between China and Zimbabwe" and that on completion of the project, the country's "power self-sufficiency capacity will be greatly improved."

African governments have been happy to push ahead with dirty energy projects that only the Chinese will finance. The potential of a competent energy infrastructure fueled by cheap coal is enticing for a country like Zimbabwe, given the energy deficits slowing economic growth. The country has a national power demand ranging from 2,200-2,400 megawatts but only provides about 1,300, according to the Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG).

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with his Zimbabwean counterpart President, Emmerson Mnangagwa on September 5, 2018, a day after the conclusion of the Forum On China-Africa Cooperation.

Energy shortages and power cuts are commonplace in Ghana, exacerbated by drought conditions because of the country's dependency on hydro-electricity. Its energy crisis left it vulnerable to energy developers and foreign investment before Ezekiel intervened.
Like other countries investing in Africa, China also promises jobs, while taking advantage of lax policies and cheaper construction costs. Many governments choose to meet the demand for energy at the cost of a clean environment.

This is despite every African country having ratified the Paris Agreement, apart from Angola, Libya, South Sudan and Eritrea.

"Policy on renewable projects is weak or non-existent in Africa," said Han Chen, the manager of international energy policy at the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-profit international environmental advocacy group. "In China, environmental standards are pretty high, while South Africa or Kenya, for example, have energy policies that make it easier for investors to get involved."

If current plans go ahead, the Chinese-backed coal power output in Africa currently being financed could treble by the time the country realizes its goal of carbon neutrality in 2060, according to Global Energy Monitor.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to a request for comment.

Activism across the continent

Ezekiel is not alone in fighting for an Africa focused on renewable energy.

The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) has served letters to RioZim, formerly owned by London-listed mining corporation RioTinto (RIO), over plans for a 2,800-megawatt plant in the northern Gokwe region, west of the capital Harare.

It will receive financial assistance from the construction company China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), and country risk insurance costs are likely to be covered by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), according to Global Energy Monitor.

ZELA says the project is shrouded in secrecy and RioZim has not provided information on the environmental or socio-economic impacts of the plant.

It is likely the land earmarked for the plant is under communal settlements, meaning there would be relocations and appropriation of land, say ZELA. Living near coal plants can cause respiratory issues, affect water quality and increase the alkalinity of soil, according to Thermal Watch.

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When contacted for comment, RioZim replied that "any media engagements are strictly prohibited" under the provision of their "non-disclosure agreements."

South Africa's $10 billion, 3,000-megawatt Musina-Makhado power station will be financed by Chinese companies, both state-owned and private, with PowerChina alone contributing $4.5 billion, according to a memorandum of agreement signed in July 2018.

It is part of the proposed Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Limpopo province north of Pretoria, a mega industrial hub which will span more than 6,000 hectares.
A pre-feasibility study conducted by UK engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald said direct impacts of the site where the coal plant will be located include "detrimental effect on the biodiversity assets of the region," "disruption of ecological functioning and pollution of water resources" and "large-scale land transformation." There will be a "definite" release of "significant" greenhouse emissions, according to a preliminary impact assessment.

"The country can't afford to be locking in to a hugely polluting, expensive and carbon-intensive mega project at a time when — more than ever — we need to act against the climate crisis, protect the resilience of vulnerable, water scarce areas and preserve our limited state funds and resources for projects with positive outcomes and benefits for all," said Michelle Koyama, an attorney at Cape Town's non-profit Centre for Environmental Rights (CER).

CER has objected to the Musina-Makhado SEZ because of these negative climate impacts and say it will take water away from areas already experiencing deficits. South Africa has been plagued by droughts and water scarcity, and is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The Limpopo Provincial Government, PowerChina and the Chinese embassy in South Africa did not respond to requests for comment.

East of Pretoria, Kusile Power Station is being constructed with $2.5 billion from China Development Bank and sponsorship from Eskom, South Africa's biggest polluter.

Many people have moved in from rural areas and neighboring Zimbabwe to find work at the Medupi coal power plant, pictured here from Maropong township outside Lephalele, South Africa in January 2015.

The South African environment department launched a criminal investigation against the electric public utility company in May 2019 over air quality concerns at its Kendal Power Station.

Eskom confirmed to CNN that it has been summoned to appear in front of a regional court to answer to criminal charges related to the Kendal plant. These include exceeding the emissions limit on air pollutants and supplying false or misleading information to an air quality officer.

Fossil fuel advocates argue that the energy provided by the plants is vital for development, but centralized coal has failed to deliver electricity to over 2.5 million households in South Africa and can be costly, according to Greenpeace.

"Despite the government promising to provide the people of South Africa with affordable electricity, many of them cannot afford Eskom's coal-powered electricity -- the costs of which continue to escalate," said Koyama. "Ironically the same communities who live next door to these coal plants, and have to suffer their impacts daily, do not have reliable, affordable electricity in their homes."

A 2017 report written by Mike Holland, a member of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economist, estimated that more than 2,200 deaths a year could be attributed to coal-fired generation in South Africa. Lung cancer, heart disease stroke and respiratory infections were common killers.

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No coal plant brings health benefits and Chinese companies are not alone in receiving criticism for financing their construction.

In 2014 Safi Energy Company secured $900 million from the Bank of Japan to build a coal plant in the west of Morocco. Described as a double standard and a danger to public health by Greenpeace, the environmental NGO estimated the plant is the cause of 59 premature deaths in the North African country annually, a figure that would be more than four times lower if Japanese emission limits were applied.

Between 2014 and 2017 European and US banks like HSBC (FTRXX), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Deutsche Bank (DB) loaned $921 million to the potentially criminal Eskom, according to data compiled by a number of non-profit and environmental organizations.

"Coal investments come with a lot of human rights violations," Nqobizitha Ndlovu, a constitutional and human rights lawyer who is the legal adviser to ZELA, told CNN in a phone conversation. "There are a lot of complaints here in Zimbabwe, and across all of Africa, that these projects do not respect the right to be healthy, to have a safe and clean environment or the right to water."

When asked whether they would reevaluate their relationship with Eskom in light of the criminal charges, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.
However while western companies have pulled back from investment in coal plants, Chinese plans are still forging ahead.

"You're locking a lot of countries into a coal-dependent pathway and the pollution can be horrendous," said Chen.

A green future

After seeing his 2016 campaign empower communities, Ezekiel is hopeful. He spent four days speaking with chiefs, elders, fishermen and other local groups in Ekumfi, explaining the positives of renewable energy, especially the possibilities for long-term employment.

"We agree that there are people who are unemployed and that jobs are critical," said Ezekiel. "But we believe that there's a better alternative in the area of renewable energy which guarantees employment not only for the short term, but for a long time."

Chen agrees, saying there was "pushback" from communities. "There's sometimes a disconnect between a national bilateral agreement and what those on the ground actually want," he said.

Ezekiel launched the Children for Climate Action (C4C) initiative to involve children (as well as young people) in the fight against climate change and the no coal debate. As a national coordinator of 350 Ghana Reducing our Carbon (350 G-ROC), Ezekiel is also encouraging other African countries (particularly Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria) to resist foreign investment in coal.

"A huge mobilization of young people is needed to create more public awareness and education, but we must provide skills and facilities for the youth to be employed, so we can demonstrate that energy indeed provides more job opportunities," Ezekiel said.

Campaigners draw public attention to Chibeze Ezekiel's movement on the dangers of coal and the need for renewables at a shopping mall in Accra, Ghana in September 2017.

The pan-African activism has had some success and in recent years coal projects have been shelved in Nigeria, Mozambique and Botswana, among others.

In recent months, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa and chairman of the African Union, has dramatically shifted his country's energy stance toward renewables. About 11,800-megawatts will be added to South Africa's energy capacity by 2022, with "more than half" coming from renewable sources, he said in an address on October 15, adding that steps like these can help achieve a "sufficient, secure and reliable energy supply."

CER has successfully stopped the construction of a proposed 557-megawatt plant at Thabametsi alongside environmental organizations Earthlife and Groundwork. It is challenging the environmental authorization for another at Khanyisa, where a water-use licence has already been rescinded.

On the intercontinental stage, Ezekiel is encouraged by the election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

"I would say it is a victory not only for the US, but for the world as a whole," he said. "He has made comments to the effect that he is prepared to put America back into the Paris agreement. That's a very big plus."

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China has actually become the largest green finance market, with about 11 trillion yuan ($1.7 trillion) in green credit and about 1 trillion yuan ($150 billion) in green bonds, according to Green-BRI. Growing this market has helped control the pollution and ecological damage resulting from 40 years of extreme economic growth.

Ultimately coal is a fading industry and China is almost alone in financing coal power in Africa. As banks in other countries continue to snub the fuel, it's likely that Chinese money will build the last ever coal plant.

If the economic behemoth wants to take its commitment to fighting global warming seriously, it needs to stop financing coal plants overseas. For Ezekiel and other activists, the war is turning in their favor.

USA

The Covid Divide: The pandemic has plunged some into poverty, and boosted savings for others

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Business

Updated Thu December 10, 2020

For many Americans, the economic effects of the pandemic have been devastating. Millions have lost jobs. Food and housing insecurity has soared. And roughly half of US households reported a drop in income this year, according to Bankrate.com.
Life will get worse for them if they don't get more financial help or paying work soon.
But others -- lucky enough to keep their jobs and even work from home -- have ended up financially better off, or at least unaffected, thanks to such factors as a rising stock market, increased savings, or a boost in demand for their business.

He never imagined he'd be in this situation


Unfortunately, Barnell Garrett finds himself in the "worse off" category.
In March, his job as a hotel sales manager in Seattle disappeared -- first through a furlough, then a permanent layoff.

Garrett's unemployment benefits expire at the end of December, and he doesn't know if he'll qualify for an extension. His health insurance costs are now $641 a month, well above the $150 he was paying when his employer subsidized his premiums. He's considering withdrawing about $25,000 from his 401(k) to pay off the extra credit card debt he accrued during the pandemic to pay for groceries and insurance, as well as a private loan he took out a few years ago.

Laid off from his hotel sales job, Barnell Garrett says he can only pay his bills through January.
He says he can pay his bills through January, but if he doesn't get help soon, he will have to move in with his mother if he can't find a much cheaper place to live. Now approaching 40, he never imagined he'd be in this situation.

Garrett said he doesn't expect the hotel industry, where he's built his career, to bounce back quickly so he's looking at other industries for a job. He's willing to take a pay cut, but is shocked at how low the pay on offer is -- even when an employer requires a college degree and years of experience.

"Several of the jobs I interviewed for initially looked like good-paying jobs, but during the interview I learned that they pay barely above Seattle's $15 minimum wage and are lower than my monthly unemployment," Garrett said.

Her 401(k) is already tapped out

Olivia Bukosky said last year she was a working mom living a middle class life in Owings Mills, Maryland.

This year, she lost her job in property management, drained her 401(k) and has been collecting unemployment benefits and food stamps.

She's behind on rent and worries she'll be evicted in January if her landlord can't secure rental subsidies from the state.


Olivia Bukosky went from middle class working mom last year to living off food stamps and unemployment benefits this year.

If that happens, Bukosky said, she'll either have to stay with friends or move back to the home she still co-owns with her husband, whom she is divorcing. "But it's not a good environment."

She wishes the divorce could proceed, but that will have to wait. "I cannot collect alimony until we go to court. I can't afford a lawyer and Legal Aid will not even look at divorces until the pandemic is over," she said.

'Tired of being sad.' The financial stress from Covid is taking an emotional toll
Like Garrett, Bukosky is also looking for work outside her chosen field. She's been applying for jobs and even getting interviews, but so far no offers. "I'm looking for everything. I just need to work."

She has friends to lend emotional support, but she's hesitant to open up. "A friend reached out today and I didn't want to tell him how I was doing because I didn't have anything good to say. I'm like a broken record," Bukoski said. "It's just been a terrible year."

Humbled by how lucky they've been

The economic story has been very different for folks like real estate lawyer Paul Levine, veterinarian Danielle Sawyer, and adventure travelers Michael and Melissa Harlow.

Levine, who works on both residential and commercial real estate deals, initially saw a huge drop off in business from mid-March through mid-May. But ever since, he said, his practice has been "staggeringly busy... There's a lot of money pouring into the market."

While he doesn't know yet whether his total revenue this year will top last year's, he expects it may. And even if it didn't, he still considers himself better off financially because the money that he's saved from not traveling or going out to eat has gone toward his savings and paying bills.

"I feel humble and thankful that I can pay my mortgage and pay for my household expenses," Levine said.


A surge of pet adoptions during the pandemic has meant a lot more business for veterinarians like Danielle Sawyer.

Sawyer's veterinary practice has seen a 50% uptick in clients because so many people have gotten dogs during the pandemic. It's also because many have done so via Craigslist or through unscrupulous breeders online and they end up with pets who are sick and need medical care. "It's been like one long day for us," Sawyer said.

But it's also meant she's had the best year financially since becoming a vet. And that has helped her pay down her school debt and buy the condo she and her toddler daughter now live in.

For empty nesters Michael and Melissa Harlow, the pandemic affirmed the wisdom of their decision years ago to pay off debt and downsize their belongings so they could quit their corporate jobs. While they still need to work so they don't have to touch their retirement savings, they do so in ways tied to their love of adventure.

Michael and Melissa Harlow's RV rental business did well this summer as people sought Covid-safe ways to travel.

For instance, they run an online rental RV service. Business this summer was very good as people sought to find Covid-safe ways to travel, they said. Melissa also works as a freelance voice over artist, which she does from a studio she created in the guest house they rent on a ranch near San Diego.

Also, they noted, their savings have increased because they are spending less on travel and other activities this year.

"I'm grateful we bit the bullet for so many years (downsizing). It was worth the pain ... to be where we are now," Melissa said.

Financially steady, but not unaffected

For some people, the pandemic has meant neither boon nor bust.

Originally from the Netherlands, Jan Jansen, a retired physician, and his wife, Catharine, moved to Santa Fe a few years ago, after decades of living and working in Indianapolis.

Their income has remained steady -- thanks in part to a rising stock market. And they've ended up spending less because they aren't able to go to restaurants or travel. Instead, they're donating to food banks and giving money through their church.

"It's sad to see how a country can completely fail its population,"Jansen said.

Retiree Jan Jansen, with his wife Catharine, misses traveling to see family but feels fortunate the pandemic hasn't hurt their income.

The main thing they've lost, Jansen said, is a year of their lives. "Our main problem is a lost year, which counts more when your horizon becomes shorter."

Meanwhile, federal government employee Leigh Ramunni in Massachusetts said she has lost family members to Covid-19. But she is grateful she didn't lose her job and can work from home, since her husband is no longer working due to a disability.

Ramunni noted that she has stocked up on food for six months because she has asthma and tries not to go out much. But she is also donating more -- both in terms of money and food.
"We're lucky to have more, so we have given more," she said. "We count ourselves blessed, but also pray for something positive to emerge... As a rich and powerful nation, we should not have food lines and evictions during a pandemic."

Hanukkah Is About Resistance. Let’s Resist This COVID Spike Through Mutual Aid.

Volunteers from a nonprofit organization provide food supplies to people who line up ahead of Thanksgiving amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on November 20, 2020.TAYFUN COSKUN / ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

BY Brant Rosen, Truthout December 10, 2020

With Hanukkah now upon us, the internet is abuzz with articles offering guidance on how to celebrate the holiday in the age of COVID-19. While most of them focus on practical issues such as socially distanced Hanukkah parties and Zoom candle lightings, I’ve been thinking a great deal on what the story of Hanukkah might have to offer to all of us as we gear up for a winter like none we’ve ever experienced in our lifetimes.

Hanukkah, of course, is based upon the story of the Maccabees, the small group of Jews who successfully liberated themselves from the oppressive reign of the Seleucid Empire in 167 BCE. The legacy of this story, however, is a complex one because the Jewish struggle against religious persecution took place within the context of a bloody and destructive Jewish civil war. In contemporary times, the meaning of Hanukkah has become even more complicated given its proximity to Christmas, subjecting it to the uniquely American religion of unmitigated commercialism.

Beyond all these complications, I’d argue that the essence of Hanukkah is the theme of resistance. At its core, the Hanukkah story commemorates the victorious resistance of the people over the power and might of empire. On a deeper level, we might say that the festival celebrates the spiritual strength of our resistance to an often harsh and unyielding world.

In this regard, it is significant that Hanukkah takes place in the winter. Apropos of the season, the festival prescribes resistance to an increasingly colder and darker world by lighting increasing numbers of candles during this eight-night festival. Those of us who celebrate this holiday are instructed to place our menorahs in our windows as an act of “spiritual defiance,” directing the light outward into the night where it may clearly be seen by the outside world.

There have indeed been moments in Jewish history in which lighting the menorah was literally an act of resistance. One powerful example can be seen offered in a single image: the famous photograph taken in 1932 Germany showing a menorah on the window sill of a Jewish home, with a Nazi flag clearly visible across the street. Another well-known moment of Hanukkah resistance occurred in 1993 when, after a brick was thrown through the window of a Jewish home in Billings, Montana, scores of citizens showed their solidarity with the Jewish community by taping paper menorahs in their windows. More recently, on the Hanukkah after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, one local Jewish leader commented that the menorah is “not just something that we display in our homes for ourselves … but something we light so that passersby can see. For us, this year that feels like an act of resistance.”

In 2020, we find Hanukkah arriving amid a winter that medical experts are calling “the darkest days of the pandemic” and “COVID hell.” In a recent interview, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said, “the next three to four months are going to be, by far, the darkest of the pandemic.” Another expert has predicted that more lives will be lost in December than the U.S. saw in March and April combined.

With such an unprecedented and terrifying winter bearing down upon us, I’d suggest that the ideal of Hanukkah resistance is more powerfully relevant than ever. This resistance, of course, presents us with profound challenges. After living with the pandemic for the better part of a year, so many throughout the U.S. are succumbing to “COVID fatigue” — following months of social isolation and anxiety, increasing numbers of people are becoming less vigilant about the pandemic practice of masking and social distancing, even as infection rates spike precipitously.

With the darkest days of the pandemic ahead of us — even as we agitate for rent cancellation, eviction resistance and universal health care — we have another form of resistance at our disposal: We can resist government inaction/abandonment of its citizens by participating in the grassroots, self-organized networks of support known as mutual aid.

While these community-based efforts are not new, they have proliferated widely since the onset of the pandemic. As Jia Tolentino pointed out in a New Yorker article last May:

[Mutual aid] is not a new term, or a new idea, but it has generally existed outside the mainstream. Informal child-care collectives, transgender support groups, and other ad-hoc organizations operate without the top-down leadership or philanthropic funding that most charities depend on. Since COVID, however, mutual aid initiatives seemed to be everywhere.

The concept of mutual aid was coined in 1902 by the Russian anarchist/scientist/economist/philosopher, Peter Kropotkin, who argued that mutual aid could be traced to the “earliest beginnings of evolution.” Kropotkin posited that solidary provided the human species with the best chance of survival, particularly given the emergence of private property and the rise of the State:

It is not love and not even sympathy upon which Society is based in mankind. It is the conscience — be it only at the stage of an instinct — of human solidarity. It is the unconscious recognition of the force that is borrowed by each man from the practice of mutual aid; of the close dependence of every one’s happiness upon the happiness of all; and of the sense of justice, or equity which brings the individual to consider the rights of every other individual as equal to his own. Upon this broad and necessary foundation, the still higher moral feelings are developed.

Some of the most well-known examples of mutual aid in U.S. history, in fact, were the survival programs created by the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the community-based initiatives organized by the Puerto Rican Young Lords Party in the 1960s and ’70s. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover himself grasped the radical power of these mutual aid projects. In a now infamous internal memo, he wrote that the Black Panther breakfast programs represented “the best and most influential activity going for the BPP, and is as such, the greatest threat to efforts by authorities.”The true miracle of resistance occurs when we show up for one another.

Another important aspect of mutual aid is the understanding that disenfranchised people cannot ultimately depend on state institutions to save them. According to Puerto Rican scholar Isa Rodríguez, “‘Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo’ — ‘Only the people save the people,’ became a rallying cry for Puerto Ricans following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 as multiple organizations — mostly based on grassroots groups that existed prior to the hurricane — quickly organized to channel aid.”

The community-based solidarity of mutual aid is also fundamentally different from the approach of private humanitarian charities in which the needy are “saved” through the beneficence of those of greater means. And it must not be viewed through the lens of “crisis response.” Mutual aid, rather, is rooted in long-term alliances between people engaged in a common struggle. As historian/writer, Elizabeth Catte has observed:


Mutual aid can be a form of resistance, but the practice itself requires discipline. We can’t do it because it helps us sugarcoat our trauma, or because it lets us say we have claimed goodness in a world where it is often lacking. Mutual aid is incompatible with charity and should offer no pleasure to the well-resourced person or do-gooder who hopes to find worthy recipients of their kindness, because the practice of mutual aid is intended to destroy categories of worth.

Since mutual aid is rooted in the ideal of solidarity, the first step for anyone interested is to cultivate genuine and accountable relationships within their own local communities. This will be undeniably challenging in a time of pandemic, when our mutual safety literally depends upon socially distancing from one another.

Mutual aid projects, however, are adapting to meet these challenges through creative use of commercial internet platforms, online databases and toolkits. Additionally, mutual aid projects in the age of COVID insist on strict adherence to public health protocols.

In the words of anarchist organizer Cindy Milstein: “While ‘social’ aka ‘physical’ distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing are necessary tools to help stop the spread of this virus, they will only be effective if it’s grounded in an ethics and practice of social solidarity and collective care.”

The most famous Hanukkah story says that when the Maccabees entered the Temple to relight the menorah, they only found enough oil to last for one day. Miraculously, however, the menorah burned for eight days. At the core of this seemingly simple parable are profound lessons about the power of sustainability and resilience. We know from history that popular movements of resistance have the ability to succeed even against the most daunting of foes.

The prospect of the coming winter — and the new year ahead — are undeniably daunting. Amid it all lie fundamental questions: Where will we find the strength to meet these challenges? How will we keep the fire of our commitment to each other from burning out? Who can we depend upon to see us through the coming season and beyond?

The resistance embodied by mutual aid provides us with a compelling answer — in the end, we have each other. As Dean Spade, who recently published a book titled Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next), so aptly puts it, “what happens when people get together to support one another is that people realize that there’s more of us than there is of them.”

True resistance can never occur as long as we expect an external human force to somehow show up to save us. In the end, the true miracle of resistance occurs when we show up for one another.