WHAT IF…WE SAID ‘NO’ TO CONCRETE?

The world is turning grey as more and more concrete is poured. Vanessa Baird posits an alternative.

Credit: Andy Carter

Vanessa Baird

ANALYSIS
10 June 2022
Climate

Concrete is magic. It gives form to the boldest civic ambitions and allows the wildest flights of architectural imagination; it can house millions or give expression to towering phallic capitalist hubris.

It’s also handy if you want to make a patio outside your back door.

The Romans used it (see the Colosseum), but the 20th century was when the world went concrete crazy – and it became synonymous with development and progress. It’s often confused with cement, the kiln-fired limestone-based substance that binds sand, aggregate (usually gravel or stones) and water to make concrete. The result is so incredibly strong and durable – especially when reinforced with steel – that it is today the second most widely used substance on the planet, after water.

Since 2003, China has poured more concrete every three years than the US managed in the entire 20th century. And thanks to its global Belt and Road programme of big dams, ports, roads, railways and cement factories across 50 countries, China will keep doing so.

Let’s pause there… and consider. Half of concrete’s CO2 emissions are created during the manufacture of cement; and as concrete hardens, it releases yet more CO2. ‘If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world… surpassed only by China and the US,’ writes Jonathan Watts in The Guardian.

Concrete is thirsty – accounting for one-tenth of the world’s industrial water use. It makes strong storm defences – but concreted towns and cities trap floodwater. Its wind-borne dust causes silicosis and other respiratory diseases. It’s a dirty business. ‘Sand mafias’ operating illegally to supply the concrete industry terrorize local communities.

But given the power and ubiquity of concrete, isn’t giving it a miss just fanciful?

Luckily those developing alternatives don’t think so. Hempcrete is gaining traction as a viable construction material and alternative to standard concrete and clay bricks (which also emit CO2 in their manufacture). Made from a mix of hurd (a hemp by-product), lime binder and water, it is moulded into blocks and hardened in the open. Hemp grows fast and uses little land (10 tonnes can grow in 100 days on 0.4 hectares). Instead of emitting CO2, hempcrete actually absorbs it.

It weighs six times less than concrete, its makers say it can be made as strong, but you wouldn’t build a dam with it. It’s especially suitable for domestic construction and insulation, and being more flexible and fungus-resistant than concrete is better in earthquake-prone and humid regions.

Timber is also seeing a revival. Thanks to advances in construction systems, wooden eco-buildings are now reaching for the sky. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) was used to build the 14-storey Treet apartment block in Bergen, Norway. Hybrids of wood-and-steel and wood-and-concrete allow for more height. The HoHo building under construction in Vienna, will be 76 per cent wood in structure and 24 storeys high. According to woodskyscrapers.org, these advances ‘meet and exceed modern construction requirements including fire codes, building costs, construction times and structural requirements’.

Of course, to be eco-friendly all timber needs to be 100 per cent certified sustainable.

Benjamin Gill is a sustainable construction expert with social enterprises Bioregional and One Planet Living. He says: ‘We need construction to be a carbon sink rather than a source. That means scaling up an entire new supply chain and industry to deliver sustainably grown and sourced bio-based construction materials like FSC timber and hempcrete.’

Whether sustainable forestry practices are able to meet the demand if timber takes off as the primary building material remains to be seen. The shift would certainly incentivize us to value forests more. Other big mindset shifts might happen too. If something can only be built in concrete, should it be built at all? The higher and heavier you build, the bigger the carbon footprint, says Gill, so more human-scale construction could be beneficial in many ways. Concrete will still be needed for some things – securing wind-turbines, for example. But a wisely allocated concrete CO2 budget would rule out destructive (big dam) and vanity (the highest building) projects.

‘Concrete is one of the tools that allows humans to see themselves as separate from nature and our planet,’ says Gill. To move beyond it is ‘a huge opportunity to create a different construction industry that is carbon absorbing rather than emitting’.

Saying ‘no’ to concrete is a challenge, but it could be saying ‘yes’ to living with nature within planetary limits, to realism, to survival.

Vanessa Baird

Vanessa Baird lived and worked as a journalist in Peru during the tumultuous mid-1980s, and she maintains a passionate interest in South America. She joined New Internationalist as a co-editor in 1986 and since then has written on everything 

This article is from the May-June 2022 issue of New Internationalist.

‘AS LONG AS THE WORLD KEEPS RUNNING, WE’LL BE HERE’

Branded as terrorists by President Erdoğan’s hardline regime, LGBTQI+ people in Turkey are finding ways to express themselves and build solidarity, writes Tuğçe Özbiçer.

Unstoppable: Celebrating Pride in central Istanbul on 30 June 2019, despite the ban on the event.
MURAD SEZER/REUTERS/ALAMY

Tuğçe Özbiçer

REPORT

11 June 2022

Turkey

As my friends and I climb the old staircase to a bar in Istanbul’s vibrant Taksim district, I’m surprised to hear the establishment’s name. I thought Şahika had shut down but it seems my friends had just stopped going. ‘Queer managers took over,’ they explain, ‘so we have all migrated back!’

Passing familiar faces in colourful outfits, laughing and kissing, we enter a room overflowing with life. Akış Ka, a drag artist, performs to a cheering crowd. People from the LGBTQI+ community come here to be with each other as they are, true to themselves, despite the hate that the government spreads.

In February 2021, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the nation: ‘LGBT – there is no such thing.’ There are continuous attempts to exclude the LGBTQI+ community, as well as the feminist movement, from the public sphere. But in underground spaces such as Şahika, it’s clear that Erdoğan is wrong.

Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been ruling Turkey for almost two decades now. Since a sweeping electoral win in 2002, the AKP has slowly and meticulously made the transformation from being a conservative rightwing party to becoming an authoritarian far-right regime. When Erdoğan was re-elected as president in 2014, winning 51 per cent of the vote, the most populist chapter of his leadership began. It has been marked by attacks on minority groups and increased suppression of the political opposition in academia, media and civil society.

Istanbul’s annual Pride March has been running since 2003 and has been steadily growing in popularity. In 2013, almost 100,000 people attended and by 2014 it was the biggest LGBTQI+ event in Turkey’s history. But in 2015 Pride was officially banned by The Istanbul Governor’s Office, citing security concerns. Although it still takes place, the event is brutally attacked by police every year. In 2021, officers fired tear gas into the crowd and around 20 people were arrested.

Turkey was ranked as having Europe’s highest trans murder rate in 2016

Making minority groups ‘enemies’ is a useful tactic for Erdoğan as he deepens his grip on power. It’s a strategy that has proved effective in the past. ‘AKP has been systematically violent towards Kurds, Alevis, working-class people and women. The LGBTQI+ community is the easiest to attack. In a way it is mathematical: individuals from all social, ethnic or class backgrounds can be united by homophobia and transphobia,’ Akış Ka says.

CRUCIAL SOLIDARITY

In the face of increased oppression, solidarity has grown, often fostered in spaces like Şahika. This solidarity is crucial for the LGBTQI+ community in Turkey where discrimination often begins within the family and expands into all areas of the society.

This solidarity appears in different forms: listening to each other’s troubles, being there for support when someone has suffered from violence, or sharing creative work to help queer groups and individuals to reach a bigger audience.

‘The solidarity in the LGBTQI+ community made me the person who I am today,’ says Akış Ka, whose stage name comes from the word ‘Akışkan’, meaning ‘fluid’ in Turkish.

Akış Ka points to the core of solidarity and its importance on an emotional level: ‘It is, first of all, being together. And crying together. It means the world. Crying with someone, for the same thing.’

Stronger ties have been made with other social justice movements. Co-operation between the queer movement, political parties, and human rights organizations increased in 2013 when anti-government protests swept the country. These coalitions have made it easier for the LGBTQI+ community to voice their concerns and demand recognition and acceptance. ‘Suddenly we were labelled a “threat” because we had so much support and we were very visible. Erdoğan’s conservative supporters were scared their children would also come out as gay!’ Akış Ka comments.

‘ABSURD AND SCARY’

In 2021, a six-month-long student protest movement calling for the democratic election of a university rector turned into a fight for LGBTQI+ rights, with many detained and arrested for offences including ‘displaying rainbow flags’.

Students at Boğaziçi University opposed the appointment, by Erdoğan himself, of rector Melih Bulu. One of the AKP’s parliamentary candidates in 2015, Bulu had remained a close ally of the party and the President.

‘Those who joined the protests are not students,’ said Erdoğan in January 2021. ‘This is something involving terrorists.’

Hazar is an activist and artist from Istanbul and a former student of Boğaziçi University. She was one of the founders of BOUN Art Collective (Boğaziçi University Art Collective) which, as part of the protest, organized a campus-wide exhibition displaying over 400 works submitted by artists across the world.

One piece entitled ‘Yılanı Güldürseler’ (To make the serpent laugh) showed a picture of Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, with various LGBTQI+ solidarity flags in each corner. Hazar says that conservative students posted a photo of it on Twitter, saying ‘it is insulting Islam’.

Erdoğan divisively commented: ‘We will lead our young people to the future not as the LGBT youth but as the youth that existed in our nation’s glorious past.’ Following him, interior minister Süleyman Soylu tweeted that ‘the government would not tolerate the LGBT perverts who attempted to occupy the rector’s office’.

Hundreds of students were detained, including Hazar and six others from the Collective. They were charged with ‘provoking the public to hatred and hostility.’ Hazar, who now lives in Berlin, was put on trial – a process she describes as ‘absurd and scary’.

‘The judge asked me if I’m serving for LGBT. As if being LGBTQI+ means that you belong to some kind of illegal organization that you could serve for!’ explains Hazar. She was sentenced to house arrest for a month.

THE FINGER OF BLAME

‘Attempts to present the LGBTQI+ movement as a terrorist organization have a lot to do with the state’s increasingly militarist, transphobic and homophobic ideology,’ says lawyer and activist Eren Keskin, who is the founder of the Legal Aid Office Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention.

This terrifying trend is led by the President but echoed by many others, including anti-LGBTQI+ ministers and corrupt media platforms that continue to spread hate.

LGBTQI+ people have even been made scapegoats for the Covid-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Ali Erbaş, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, delivered a sermon in which he said that homosexuality caused disease. ‘Let’s come and fight together to protect people from this kind of evil,’ he said. President Erdoğan backed him up, stating that Erbaş was ‘totally right’ in what he said.

Erbaş was also massively influential in relation to Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on Combating Violence Against Women in March 2021. As the most comprehensive agreement to tackle gender-based and domestic violence, it bothered some conservatives because it recognized the abuse of a husband, boyfriend, father or a brother.

According to Keskin, ‘Erdoğan’s government and its supporters are terrified by the feminist and LGBTQI+ movement because both are bravely fighting against so-called “traditional Turkish family values”.’

At least 280 women were murdered in 2021 according to the ‘We Will Stop Femicide Platform’ – the majority killed in their homes. In 2020, Turkey was ranked by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association as the second worst place in Europe for LGBTQI+ rights out of 49 countries. Turkey was also ranked as having Europe’s highest trans murder rate in 2016.

SPACE FOR EXPRESSION

‘Most of my clients who have experienced human rights violations are trans people. Even when they are wandering the streets, police come to them and charge them with “polluting public areas” or “abusing public spaces”,’ says Keskin.

In prison trans people face a double punishment; if they haven’t had gender-affirming surgery they are held in solitary confinement. Although it is legal to apply to undergo gender reassignment whilst in prison the Turkish state will usually refuse, illegally claiming that ‘gender-reassignment surgery is a type of plastic surgery’.

In 2018 Buse Aydin, a trans woman inmate, applied and went through all the necessary processes to get surgery. She ended up on a 38-day long hunger strike for the approval of a human right that’s covered in the 8th and 14th articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Even after that, the Ministry of Health refused to cover the costs of the necessary surgeries. ‘After all Buse was forced to go through, she cut her penis in solitary confinement in 2019. With the incredible work of women’s and LGBTQI+ organizations, she finally had her gender-affirming surgery and the state covered the costs. She is happy now, recovering,’ says Keskin, Buse’s lawyer.

Despite all the oppression that Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community has been facing, its existence is more visible than ever. Asserting themselves in various state and non-state spaces, queer people continue to resist, especially through creative works and a growing arts and culture scene in big cities.

‘We’re expressing ourselves through art, music, performance... We’re telling our own empowering stories out loud, writing our own history. If we don’t, then there will be no memory or evidence of a LGBTQI+ community in Turkey,’ says Akış Ka.

‘Our stories inspire and empower others. The state doesn’t support us, but what can they really do? As long as the world keeps running, we’ll be here. If we lose our hope for equality, justice and freedom, there is nothing to hold on to.’

Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community is more resilient than vulnerable. And, the fight will go on.

Tuğçe Özbiçer is a journalist from Istanbul. She worked for several Turkish left-wing newspapers before moving to London in 2020, Due to the increased oppression of the media in Turkey. She covers mostly LGBTQI+ issues, women, arts and culture, and human rights stories.

This article is from the May-June 2022 issue of New Internationalist.

KHARKIV’S PATCHWORK RESISTANCE

Without networks of civic activism, the war might be going very differently for Ukraine, writes Jen Stout.

Kharkiv’s musicians came together in a secret underground bunker for a fundraising gig, in aid of the city’s defence efforts.

JEN STOUT

THE NEW INTERNATIONALIST

REPORT
30 May 2022
Ukraine

Kharkiv, which lies just over 30 kilometres from Russia in northeast Ukraine has been shelled since the first hours of the invasion. Whole streets are devastated, left in ruins. Entire residential districts are burnt out.

But deep in a secret bunker under the city, Kharkiv’s best musicians and writers livestream a concert from their makeshift studio. The atmosphere is heady and happy, with an overwhelming sense of solidarity and purpose. This gig is just one small part of the society-wide effort to crowdfund for the army.

Enjoying the show are Igor and his teenage son Maksim. Igor, in normal times, is a judge. Now he’s a volunteer in the civil defence. On their army fatigues, they both wear a patch that reads ‘MRIYA’ and features a large white plane: their Kyiv battalion is named in honour of the world’s largest cargo plane which was destroyed by the Russian army in late February. In Ukrainianmriya means ‘dream’. It reflects Ukraine’s dream of freedom, Igor says earnestly.

Volunteer work proceeds at a frantic pace. A trendy cafe has become a hub for aid, each room stacked with sacks of rice and sugar. Nappies are piled up to the ceiling and there is a constant flow of volunteers and cars

The patches are eye-catching: stylized and colourful. The ones for the Kharkiv’s battalion feature the spectacular 1920s constructivist ‘Derzhprom’ building which somehow escaped with just broken windows when rockets hit the central square on 1 March.

A thin, softly-spoken young man explains with pride that he designed this patch. He is in fact responsible for many of the most used pro-Ukraine posters and patches. ‘This is my part in the war,’ he says, ‘my battleground’.

Elsewhere in the city, the volunteer work proceeds at a frantic pace. A trendy cafe has become a hub for aid, each room stacked with sacks of rice and sugar. Nappies are piled up to the ceiling and there is a constant flow of volunteers and cars. The big problem is fuel, as it is all over Ukraine. Bombs destroy fuel depots and supplies can’t get in.

Ivanna Skyba-Yakubova, in her thirties, has like many of her generation been helping the army and humanitarian efforts since Russia annexed Crimea and the war began in 2014, but now this is her whole life.I meet her at Kharkiv’s main fire station, a beautiful 1980s building full of Soviet murals and marble. It’s a big day: they are finally delivering the state-of-the-art equipment needed to find survivors under rubble. Rescuers have been trying to work without this kit for two and a half months, while Ivanna and her friends tried desperately to source it.

Through their charity Kharkiv With You, they eventually found a supplier. The kit being handed over this rainy morning came from the US, via Finland, and cost more than $10,000.Should the state be doing the work of getting equipment to emergency services and the army, rather than these exhausted volunteers?

‘No state in the world could be ready for the challenge we’re facing now,’ Ivanna says. ‘Of course there are “holes” – our task is to “patch” them. The state is us too.’

People like Ivanna have been building this massive network of civic activism and self-organization since the Maidan revolution in 2014. Without it, this war might be going very differently.

This article is from the May-June 2022 issue of New Internationalist.

Pope Francis sends ‘powerful message’ by elevating liberal Bishop over Archbishop who banned Pelosi from communion

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
May 30, 2022

Pope Francis (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)
Pope Francis on Sunday sent the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) a clear and strong rebuke by elevating the Bishop of San Diego to Cardinal, just days after the Archbishop of San Francisco's repeated and very public attack against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone ten days ago banned Speaker Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion, one of the most sacred elements of Catholic worship, despite the Vatican's and the Pope's insistence the Eucharist not be politicized. Cordileone says he did so because of her pro-choice stance on abortion. But as Pelosi remarked, the Catholic Church has never banned anyone from communion for supporting the death penalty.

Not only did Cordileone, a right-wing activist who has refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, ban Speaker Pelosi from taking communion, he did so extremely publicly. Cordileone went as far as to post his letter to Pelosi on Twitter, calling her stance on abortion a “most serious scandal,” and a “grave evil.” He then appeared on EWTN, a Catholic news cable network to defend his decision, and even posted that interview on social media. Seven days after his very public rebuke of Pelosi, he again chastised her on Twitter, writing that she "has strong opinions on what the Church teaches but she is wrong. And that is part of why I had to act."

Pope Francis has made clear no one should be banned from communion, certainly not for political reasons.

“What must the pastor do?” Pope Francis said last year, The New York Times noted when a reporter asked him about another Catholic, President Joe Biden and his stance on abortion. “Be a pastor, don’t go condemning. Be a pastor, because he is a pastor also for the excommunicated.”

“I have never refused the eucharist to anyone,” Pope Francis also told reporters.

On Sunday, in that apparent strong rebuke against Cordileone, Pope Francis announced he is elevating a lower-ranking Bishop, progressive Robert McElroy of San Diego, to Cardinal, a position over Cordileone's.

"The choice of Bishop McElroy is the biggest surprise of this consistory [the council of cardinals] for the church in the United States," reports the Jesuit publication America. "A graduate of Harvard, Stanford and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Bishop McElroy has demonstrated that he is one of the strongest supporters of the pope’s vision of church among the American bishops since Francis appointed him to be bishop of San Diego in March 2015. By choosing him to be a cardinal, instead of others, Pope Francis is sending a powerful message to the American bishops and church."

In reporting McElroy's elevation, The San Francisco Chronicle adds that Cordileone has engaged in a "very public campaign against Pelosi and abortion rights as a whole — in October, he started digital and radio ads urging Catholics to pray to change the minds of Pelosi and other politicians who support abortion rights."

One year ago this month Bishop McElroy wrote in America, "The Eucharist is being weaponized for political ends. This must not happen."

He added: "The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist will bring tremendously destructive consequences."

TNA MP calls on Canada to support ‘interim governing mechanism’ for Eelam Tamils

 30 May 2022

A Tamil lawmaker thanked Canada’s parliament over a landmark motion that recognised May 18th as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day and called for an internationally monitored referendum for Eelam Tamils and the diaspora to determine their political future.

S Sritharan, a parliamentarian with the Tamil National Alliance, wrote that he wanted to “wholeheartedly convey my gratitude to the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament for acknowledging the Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka”.

In particular, he thanked Canadian MP Gary Anandasangaree for bringing forward the motion and said he hopes the move would be the “first step towards justice, and non-recurrence”.

His letter to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau concluded with three further calls; for an internationally monitored referendum, an interim governing mechanism for the Eelam Tamils to govern and protect themselves and their lands, until the referendum is held and for Sri Lanka’s genocide of the Tamil people to be referred to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.

See the full text of his letter below.

Related Articles: 

18 May 2022 : Canada's Parliament recognises Tamil Genocide in landmark motion

20 May 2022 : Canadian parliament's recognition of Tamil genocide an 'important step in the right direction' says NCCT

20 May 2022 : Sri Lanka 'categorically rejects' Canadian parliament's recognition of Tamil genocide

SOUTH AFRICA
CCMA-facilitated talks deadlock after Sibanye and unions reject proposed offers


Attempts by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to bring an end to a protracted wage strike at Sibanye-Stillwater deadlocked after the employer accepted the dispute resolution body’s proposal while striking unions rejected it.

In a meeting that ran late into Monday night, the CCMA proposed a three-year wage deal that would have resulted in workers receiving pay hikes of R700, R1,000 and R900 over a three-year period, a one-off ex gratia payment of R3,000, and an annual 5% increase for artisans, miners and officials.

“This proposal was accepted by Sibanye management but rejected by workers because it’s an insult to our members,” Livhuwani Mammburu, spokesperson of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) told Business Day on Tuesday.

About 25,000 gold miners led by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and NUM downed tools on March 9 demanding a pay increase of as much as 9.8% after rejecting Sibanye’s offer for an increase in basic wages of 7.8% for the first year. The Reserve Bank forecasts a headline inflation of 5.9% for 2022.

The two unions rejected the company’s revised offer of an R800 wage increase, a R50 increase in the living-out allowance and a 5% increase for miners, artisans and officials.

Sibanye, the world’s largest platinum group metals (PGMs) producer, has said the final settlement offer will translate into a 7.8% rise in basic wages in year one, 7.2% in year two and 6.8% in year three. It will increase the mining group’s wage bill by R1.67bn over the three years.

The two unions had been demanding a R1,000 increase, which amounts to a 9.8% rise in year one, 8.8% in year two and 8.2% in year three for entry-level workers, including surface and underground miners.

Mammburu said during the meeting, which ended at about 10pm on Monday, that the two unions tabled a revised offer for increases of R800, R1,000 and R900 over three years, a R3,000 one-off ex gratia payment, and a 5% increase for artisans, miners and officials, rising to 5.5% in the third year, which was rejected by Sibanye.

“This counter proposal was rejected last night [Monday]. We are in a deadlock. The parties will meet again today [Tuesday] under the section 150 process, but the unions will hold a brief caucus first to try to find a way forward,” Mammburu said.

The protracted industrial action has halted operations at Sibanye’s gold operations that make up a small portion of its portfolio, which is dominated by PGMs. It has also left striking workers R1bn out of pocket and prompted minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe to threaten to revoke the company’s mining licence.

Sibanye has said its gold operations will resume when the strike ends, workers report for work and operations are made safe. However, it has said it is “premature to attribute accurate numbers to production losses”, it has published production guidance of between 813,000oz and 873,000oz for 2022. It could lose at least 203,250oz if the strike goes on for three months.

Amcu’s five-month strike from November 2018 at Sibanye’s gold operations cost the company R1.6bn and 110,000oz in lost production of gold. Nine people died. Workers forfeited R1.5bn in pay during the strike, after which Amcu accepted terms that had been accepted by NUM, Solidarity and Uasa.

SA’s mining industry contributes about 9% to GDP and employs about 450,000 people directly.

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za

INLATION IS THE FALLING RATE OF PROFIT

Could a cartel of large energy consumers cut oil and gas prices?


Italy’s PM Mario Draghi suggests big consumers club together to limit how much is paid and raises idea of EU gas price cap

A protest against the rising cost of living in London. Draghi suggested the idea of creating a ‘cartel’ of oil consumers to counter rocketing energy prices. 

Photograph: Thomas Krych/SOPA Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Angela Giuffrida in Rome

Mon 30 May 2022

Energy prices are skyrocketing as the world confronts the economic ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supply chain bottlenecks and the lingering effects of Covid-19 lockdowns. But Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has a plan.

The celebrated former European Central Bank president recently broached the idea of creating a “cartel” of oil consumers at a meeting with Joe Biden. Just as the biggest oil-producing nations club together through Opec to agree annual oil production quotas, Draghi has suggested big energy consumers join forces to increase their bargaining power.

He suggests two options: either “a cartel of buyers” working together to negotiate prices, or a “preferred path” of persuading Opec and other big producers to increase output.

Draghi and the US president also discussed implementing a cap on wholesale gas prices, an idea pushed by Italy within the EU for the past three months – although with little detail on how it would operate in practice – but opposed by Germany, the region’s biggest importer of Russian gas. In what the Italian press called “a small victory”, Draghi has managed to raise the topic for discussion at the European Council meeting taking place in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday.

European Council president Charles Michel, Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi and France’s president Emmanuel Macron attend a summit of EU leaders on Russian oil sanctions, in Brussels. 

Photograph: Johanna Geron/Reuters

“It will be discussed, and there is the possibility that the commission will then have the job of verifying the conditions of [such a scenario],” Paolo Gentiloni, European commissioner for the economy, told journalists in Rome on Monday. “But I don’t think a decision [on a gas price cap] will be made in these two days.”

Before the war 40% of EU gas and 25% of its oil came from Russia. Italy has made the cap a priority as it seeks alternative sources for its energy. The price of gas imported from Russia has leapt from €20 per megawatt-hour before the invasion of Ukraine to €120.

Since September 2021, the EU’s four largest economies – Germany, France, Italy and Spain – have each spent €20bn-€30bn to artificially lower gas and electricity bills, as well as gas and diesel prices, according to Brussels thinktank Bruegel. These subsidies undermine the EU’s support for Ukraine by helping to fund Moscow, as well as draining public finances and harming the environment.

The way to lower inflation is to directly address the issue of high gas prices, Francesco Giavazzi, Draghi’s economic adviser, said. “The point is that all forms of energy, whether from renewable sources or Russia, are currently priced in the same way,” he said. “What needs to be done is to separate the different prices as a function of the source of energy, and this is proving difficult.”

Russia uses a small fraction of its gas at home, and sends the bulk to Europe via pipelines. Once gas starts being poured from wells, you can slow the flow but not stop it. “So the position of the supplier, Russia, is relatively weak,” said Giavazzi. “They could burn the gas in the air but that would be very costly for them, like a big sanction.”

Italy has managed to get many EU states on board for a price cap, including France and Spain, but not the Netherlands or Germany. Roberto Cingolani, Italy’s minister for ecological transition, said: “Countries that oppose [the idea] defend the concept of a free market … this free market has allowed gas prices to increase five or six-fold without there being a real physical reason, for example a shortage, which has affected the cost of electricity. Citizens are unable to bear the costs, and businesses suffer the high energy costs of manufacturing.”

Yet the EU executive has rejected a cap. In a policy paper last week, the European Commission argued the proposal should only be a last resort for an emergency, such as Russia cutting off all gas to the EU. It appeared to have been swayed by analysts arguing that caps could imperil the EU’s climate goals, by blunting the signal for consumers to reduce energy demand.

Meanwhile, the proposed oil buyers’ cartel, more a priority for the US, is simply at the idea stage, but could become a mechanism to convince Opec to increase production should the EU decide to block imports of Russian energy.

Currently the EU is more focused on creating a gas-buyers’ cartel. EU leaders agreed in March to buy gas together to use the union’s heft to get better prices. “We have important leverage,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said. “So instead of outbidding each other and driving prices up, we should pull our common weight.”

The EU’s “platform for the common purchase of gas, LNG [liquified natural gas] and hydrogen” launched last month and will look at voluntary common purchase of gas, with the priority of ensuring the refilling of storage facilities. Last winter, EU gas storage fell to unusually low levels, a factor seen as exacerbating surging prices and higher bills. In the long run the group will also turn its attention to hydrogen and renewables, although details remain vague.

The EU consumes three-quarters of the world’s pipeline gas and 16% of ship-transported LNG. Inspired by the example of EU purchasing of Covid vaccines, supporters argue that EU procurement could ensure security of supply and ensure greater transparency about prices. Yet many details are yet to be worked out.

It remains unclear whether all 27 EU member states will sign up, or how easily they could exit existing gas contracts. And the EU still has to agree a law allowing it to buy energy together, which will also have to get round one of the EU’s raisons d’être: breaking up cartels.

Having the EU negotiate deals for private or public companies raises antitrust concerns, as it would put those companies dealing with the cartel in a privileged position vis-a-vis outsiders. “We have a strong antitrust authority in Europe,” says Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at the Bruegel thinktank. “Now how can you create a cartel to buy gas? Probably the only way to do that is to ground the initiative on energy security measures.”

Meanwhile other plans to curb the price of crude are gaining ground. Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said last week that the commission and the US were working on a proposal to cap global prices.

Michael Bloss, a German Green MEP, says the EU should be creating an oil-consumers’ cartel with other developed countries including the EU, US, Japan and South Korea and the UK, which represent “a huge share of oil consumption” on the global market. “If they together say this is the price we are going to pay, but not more, the sellers, they will have to abide by it … This special time needs special action.”

Why young protesters in Sri Lanka are wary of traditional politics

Sri Lanka is facing one of the worst economic crises in recent decades, triggering public anger and mass protests, which have fostered unity across ethnic and religious lines.


Sri Lanka has been rocked by mass protests amid acute shortages of essential items like food, fuel and medicines

Sri Lanka, which was torn by ethnic and religious violence in recent decades, has witnessed something new in the wake of the ongoing mass protests against the government's economic mismanagement, which has sparked one of the worst financial crises in the South Asian country's history.

The demonstrations have brought together young people from traditionally opposing sides and fostered unity across ethnic and religious divides.

Some young Sri Lankan protesters told DW that they're fed up with traditional politics, which exploited ethnic and religious divisions for political gain.

In the past, for educated, middle class Sri Lankans, policies concerning ethnicity and religion were the deciding factor in elections, said Rajitha Hettiarchchi, a writer and lawyer.

For poorer sections of society, however, the state of the economy was the most important issue, he added.

"With the current protests, there was finally a meeting between the two. There is a widespread realization that the corruption in politics was propelled by using ethnic and religious divisions."

Economic turmoil and political unrest

The island nation has been rocked by mass protests over the past couple of months amid acute shortages of essential items like food, fuel and medicines as well as soaring inflation while the government struggles to tackle a severe balance of payments crisis.

A number of factors contributed to the economic turmoil, including the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged the country's lucrative tourism industry and foreign workers' remittances, ill-timed tax cuts by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa draining government coffers and rising oil prices.

Many young people have taken part in the demonstrations and launched a social media campaign with a simple message: "Gota go home," which became a trending hashtag on Twitter.

Violence erupted two weeks ago after clashes between government supporters and protesters in the capital Colombo sparked nationwide unrest, leaving nine people dead and about 300 injured.

The violence drew global attention to the worsening political and economic situation in the South Asian country.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president's elder brother, resigned as prime minister after the unrest.

President Gotabaya then appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe, a 73-year-old veteran politician who previously served as prime minister five times, as prime minister.

Despite efforts by Wickremesinghe to stabilize the economy, the situation remains dire.
Crisis hitting people hard

Nuzly Hameem, a civil engineer in Colombo, says he is spending nearly 25 times more on food now than what he did at this time last year.

"I live alone and cook for myself. I used to spend 72 Sri Lankan rupees (€0.19, $0.20) per day on food and now I spend about 2,000 rupees," he told DW.

Hameem is afraid he won't be able to afford to buy food in a few weeks if the situation doesn't improve. While the prices continue to surge, the threat of losing his job looms large.

"The company I work for has informed me that my salary will be slashed by half from next month. A bag of cement used to cost 800 rupees and now it is over 6,000 rupees," he said, underlining the difficulty of carrying out construction projects in the current circumstances.

Despite efforts by PM Wickremesinghe to stabilize the economy, the situation remains dire

Mahin (name changed), a junior project manager working for a tech start-up, says he isn't sure if he will be able to commute to work in the coming days.

He told DW that he had spent around 21 hours on May 21 standing in a line at a gas station to refuel his car. Still, he was able to buy only 15 liters of petrol despite his car's capacity to take in 33 liters.

"It takes more than an hour to book an Uber, and it's practically impossible to find a tuk-tuk driver anymore. Most of them cannot afford the fuel," Mahin pointed out.

In recent weeks, there have been reports of young people leaving Sri Lanka to escape the economic misery.

While the economic turmoil and unrest have hurt the key revenue-generating tourism sector further, some youngsters like Shenelle Rodrigo, a popular Sri Lankan model and traveler, are trying to change the narrative and promote the country as a safe tourist destination.

They hope that an influx of foreign tourists and currency would help the country overcome the crisis.

Losing faith in political parties

Hettiarchchi said that many Sri Lankans, particularly the youth, have lost faith in political parties, both ruling and opposition ones.

"Neither the government nor the opposition has presented a concrete economic plan we can trust. Even the smaller parties are keen to criticize but don't offer a solution," he pointed out.

The lawyer said that the ongoing protests, which managed to unite Sri Lankans across ethnic and religious divisions, were putting a lot of pressure on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government.

At a protest site recently, he said, "there was a girl wearing a hijab who spoke about unity in both Sinhala and Tamil languages and the speech was beautiful. Muslim men were cheering and filming her. It was a powerful moment. It was really helpful."

Need for urgent support

Hettiarchchi believes that the protests won't die down until the economy recovers and there are genuine political reforms, which would reduce the executive power vested in the presidency.

The World Bank last week said it was not planning to provide any new financing to Sri Lanka until an adequate economic policy framework has been put in place.

Colombo is also in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva recently said the lender was "working relentlessly" at a technical level on Sri Lanka.

Even if the country manages to strike a deal with the IMF, it will take a few months for the financial help to kick in, Hettiarchchi noted, stressing the need for the government to come up with a stop-gap solution until then in order to improve their electoral prospects at the time of next elections in two years.

"This will provide the time for a new political party to form as well," he said.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

Do more for environment or risk planet becoming ‘human sacrifice zone’: UN experts

© UNICEF/Christian Åslund
Youth climate activists take part in a Fridays for Future global strike in Stockholm, Sweden. (file)

30 May 2022
Climate and Environment

It’s been five decades since Sweden hosted the world’s first conference to make the environment a major issue, in recognition of the “human sacrifice zone” it could become if we fail to look after it, according to rights experts. On Monday, ahead of fresh discussions in Stockholm this week to discuss further action, the experts warned that much greater efforts are needed which could save millions of lives every year.

Leading the call for countries to implement constitutional change and strong environmental laws to bring about positive change, UN-appointed independent rights expert David Boyd said that all such discussions should stem from the recognition of everyone’s right to a healthy environment.

Rights inspiration

Echoing that call, Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, also said that we should not forget how human rights inspired key elements of the original 1972 Stockholm Declaration.

“This is a key moment for international environmental law to change direction and embrace a human rights-based approach to environmental protection,” he added.

Multiple benefits

The experts insisted that “putting human rights at the centre of environmental action will have positive implications for air quality, clean water, healthy soil and sustainably produced food”.

A rights-based approach would also help “green energy, climate change, biodiversity and the elimination of toxic substances and (the) protection of indigenous people’s rights”, they added.

Standing in the way of progress on environmental action are multiple challenges, including climate shocks, biodiversity loss and pollution – all of which impact on the enjoyment of human rights, the experts maintained.

Date to remember

In October 2021, in a landmark resolution, the Human Rights Council in Geneva recognised for the first time the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

The resolution marked the culmination of decades of efforts by civil society organisations, including youth groups, national human rights institutions and indigenous peoples.

Kaye and Orellana, together with fellow Special Rapporteurs Francisco Calí Tzay and Ian Fry - encouraged States to encourage the UN General Assembly to consider recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment at its earliest convenience, just as the UN Human Rights Council had done.

General Assembly call

“A General Assembly resolution on the right to a healthy environment would reinforce the urgency of actions to implement the right,” they said in a statement, adding: “We are all extraordinarily fortunate to live on this miraculous planet, and we must use the right to a healthy environment to ensure governments, businesses and people do a better job of taking care of the home that we all share.”

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. They are independent from any government and are not paid for their work.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Exclusive: After Ukraine, 'whole world' is a customer for Turkish drone, maker says

 A Bayraktar TB2 drone is seen during a demonstration flight at an aerospace and technology festival in Baku

 A Bayraktar TB2 drone is exhibited at an aerospace and technology festival in Baku

 A Bayraktar TB2 drone is exhibited at an aerospace and technology festival in Baku

An aerial view shows Ukrainian UAV Bayraktar hitting Russian landing craft vessel with missiles, at Zmiinyi Island

A Bayraktar drone is seen during a rehearsal for the Independence Day military parade in central Kyiv

Mon, 30 May 2022
By Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) - Ukraine's destruction of Russian artillery systems and armoured vehicles with Turkish Bayraktar TB2 aerial drones has made "the whole world" a customer, according to its designer.

Selcuk Bayraktar, who runs the Istanbul firm Baykar with his brother Haluk, said the drones had shown how technology was revolutionising modern warfare.

"Bayraktar TB2 is doing what it was supposed to do – taking out some of the most advanced anti-aircraft systems and advanced artillery systems and armoured vehicles," he told Reuters in English beside the new Akinci drone at an exhibition in Baku. "The whole world is a customer."

At least for a time, the TB2, which has a 12-metre wingspan and can soar to 25,000 feet before swooping to destroy tanks and artillery with laser-guided armour-piercing bombs, helped undermine Russia's overwhelming military superiority.

Such is the drone's renown that it became the subject of a patriotic expletive-strewn hit song in Ukraine that mocked Russian troops, with the chorus "Bayraktar, Bayraktar".

Beyond satire, the Bayraktar drone has received attention from Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the defence ministry has mentioned it at least 45 times in public since the war began on Feb. 24.

Baykar, founded in the 1980s by Bayraktar's father, Ozdemir Bayraktar, began to focus on unmanned aircraft in 2005 as Turkey sought to strengthen its local defence industry.

The TB2 has been such a factor in the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh as well as Ukraine that it now spearheads Turkey's global defence export push.

President Tayyip Erdogan says international demand is huge for the TB2 and the newer Akinci.

Bayraktar, who is married to Erdogan's daughter, said Baykar can produce 200 TB2 drones a year.

COMBAT AIRCRAFT AND TAXIS

He said he was proud that the drones had been used in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave of Turkey's ally Azerbaijan where Baku's forces recaptured swathes of territory in 2020, and in Ukraine.

"It is an illegal invasion so TB2 is helping the honourable people of Ukraine defend their country," he said.

"The illegal occupation of Karabakh was like a heart wound since our youth. And as engineers developing the technology, it is an honour to have helped our brothers and sisters here to regain their land."

Russia two weeks ago touted a new generation of laser weapons including a mobile system that Moscow said could blind orbiting satellites and destroy drones.

But Bayraktar, who was born in Istanbul and studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said such weapons were ineffective against the TB2.

"Their ranges are limited so if your sensory and munition range is longer, they are not going to be effective," he said.

Baykar is working on a TB3, which has foldable wings and can take off or land on short-runway aircraft carriers, and an unmanned combat aircraft called MUIS or Kizilelma.

"Inshallah, the first flight of Kizilelma will be next year, and TB3 either by the end of this year or the beginning of next year," Bayraktar said.

"If you look at the longer time horizon, we are working on taxi drones – for that we need to develop more higher-level autonomy technology – which is AI basically – but it will revolutionise how people will be transported in cities."

Russia's invasion has killed thousands of people, displaced millions, and raised fears of a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.

Putin says Washington was using Ukraine to threaten Russia through NATO enlargement, and that Moscow had to defend Russian-speakers from persecution.

Ukraine and its Western allies reject these as baseless pretexts to invade a sovereign country.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)