'Environmental nightmare': French authorities hunt for source of plastic pellet spill


Rosie Frost
Tue, 24 January 2023 


Last year, tiny white pellets of plastic began washing up on beaches in France and Spain.

The round beads measure less than 1.5mm and are known as “mermaid tears”. Officially they are called industrial plastic granules (IPG) and are melted down to make everyday plastic objects.

Their small size makes them incredibly difficult to clean up despite the best efforts of volunteers.

Several waves of these plastic pellets have polluted Brittany’s beaches over the last two months. In December they were found in Finistère, then Sables d’Olonne and most recently in Pornic. Winter winds and water currents have brought more and more plastic to the shore.

On Saturday (21 January) Ecological Transition Minister Christophe Béchu announced that the French government was taking legal action over this “environmental nightmare”.

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Where did the plastic pellets come from?

No one knows exactly where the pellets are coming from. Officials have tested samples but the results have not yet been released.

NGOs and environmentalists involved in cleaning up this plastic pollution, such as the Surfrider Foundation, have their theories. They believe the “mermaid tears” may have come from shipping containers that fell into the Atlantic Ocean, spilling the beads into the water.

This photograph taken on January 21, 2023, shows plastic beads, also called "mermaid's tears". - LOIC VENANCE/AFP

“It could very well be that one or more loaded containers of plastic pellets have been lost in the North Atlantic and are spilling their cargo on adjacent beaches or released from a container already lost some time ago,” says Cristina Barreau, Surfrider's microplastics research officer.

The legal complaint is being launched “against x” - persons unknown - but officials say it is impossible to fully identify the origin of these plastic pellets. The Surfrider Foundation says prosecutors now have to start the "long and fastidious" process of working out who is guilty.

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What is being done to clean up the plastic pellets?

Last weekend, the Surfrider Foundation organised a day of action across beaches in France. They estimate that hundreds of thousands of the white plastic beads have so far washed up.

In December at Tréguennec in Finistère, volunteers collected more than 80,000 pellets from the beach in less than an hour. An estimated 160,000 tonnes of these tiny beads are “lost” every year during the production processes in the European Union alone.

The Surfrider Foundation says the industry needs to take action and responsibility for this plastic pollution. French anti-waste and circular economy laws already mean producers have to take measures to stop the pellets from escaping into nature - but they don’t apply outside of the country’s territory.

Dozens of volunteers look for plastic beads, also called "mermaid's tears", on a beach in Pornic. - LOIC VENANCE/AFP

The NGO is calling for strong European regulations to put an end to this pollution. It says the EU needs to reduce plastic production with quantified targets and strict deadlines. Cleaning up spills like this once they have happened is practically unachievable meaning prevention is key.

In January, the mayor of Pornic, Jean-Michel Brard and mayor of Sables d’Olonne, Yannick Moreau, as well as the president of the Pays de Loire region, Christelle Morançais, filed legal complaints over this plastic pollution.

Béchu praised elected officials, NGOs and volunteers for highlighting bad industrial practices that lead to pollution like this.

“The state is on your side, we have decided to file a complaint,” he announced on Twitter.

Pakistan says country-wide power outage could have been caused by cyberattack

Stuti Mishra

Tue, 24 January 2023 

Pakistan‘s energy minister said on Tuesday there was a “remote chance” that hackers could be behind a grid failure that led to two days of nationwide blackout.

Khurram Dastgir told the media that the country’s power supply has been restored.

“Today, at 5.15 in the morning, the power was fully restored,” Mr Dastgir told reporters in capital Islamabad. “All 1,112 grid stations restored within 24 hours.”

Millions of people in Pakistan were plunged into darkness on Monday as the power supply abruptly cut off in many areas, including capital Islamabad and financial hub Karachi, leaving schools, hospitals and factories without electricity.

In northern city of Peshawar, people complained of not being able to get drinking water because their pumps weren’t working without electricity, while the metropolitan city of Lahore saw its driverless Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) shut abruptly, forcing people to walk along the railway lines.

Authorities had turned off electricity during low-usage hours on Sunday night to conserve fuel, according to a government energy-saving plan. Efforts to turn power back on early on Monday morning led to a system-wide meltdown.

The minister said an investigation will show what exactly caused the outage, which he blamed on a technical glitch, and lauded the efforts of technicians in bringing the supply grid back to functionality.

He also floated a theory that there was a “remote chance” that the outage was caused by hackers targeting the Pakistani grid’s systems and expressed faith a three-member committee set up Monday by prime minister Shehbaz Sharif would get to the bottom of it.

“We will fully cooperate” with the committee, which is expected to complete a preliminary investigation within days, he said.

Mr Dastgir also cautioned that some may still face “routine power outages” this week as Pakistan’s two nuclear power plants and coal plants have yet to come fully online.

After Mr Dastgir’s address, Prime Minister Sharif issued an apology on Tuesday for the inconvenience caused by the power outage and vowed to fix responsibility for the major breakdown.

The premier tweeted: “On behalf of my government, I would like to express my sincere regrets for the inconvenience our citizens suffered due to power outage yesterday.”

“On my orders an inquiry is underway to determine reasons of the power failure. Responsibility will be fixed,” he tweeted.

It was the second major outage in Pakistan in four months and the first countrywide blackout since January 2021 as the country suffered an unprecedented economic crisis and tried to recover from last year’s catastrophic floods that left one-third of its land underwater.

In January 2021, the country witnessed a similar blackout which was attributed to a technical fault in its power generation and distribution system.

Electricity supplies are regularly cut off across the country during low usage hours overnight, especially during winters, to conserve fuel. In the first week of January, authorities in Pakistan ordered shopping malls and markets to close by 8.30pm as part of a new energy conservation plan aimed at easing Pakistan‘s economic crisis.

Pakistan gets at least 60 per cent of its electricity from fossil fuels, while nearly 27 per cent of the electricity is generated by hydropower. The contribution of nuclear and solar power to the nation’s grid is about 10 per cent.

Pakistan, along with United Nations, also launched a multi-year plan to invite funding and technical support from countries and international insitutions for its flood-hit areas, receiving pledges for $9bn in financial aid from countries including the US and France.

The country is also in talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) to soften some conditions on a $6bn bailout that could help it the country with its dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistans-premier-apologizes-to-nation.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistans-energy-minister-sought-to.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistan-power-grid-hit-by-nationwide.html

UK GENERAL STRIKE FEB 1
Biggest strike day in NHS history will be ‘difficult’, chief warns

Ella Pickover, PA Health Correspondent
Tue, 24 January 2023 

The biggest strike in the history of the NHS will be a “difficult” day, a senior health service leader has warned, as a top emergency doctor described ongoing chaos in A&E departments.

Chris Hopson, chief strategy officer for NHS England, said that combined action on February 6 is a “step change” in the dispute.

Nurses and ambulance staff will stage strikes on the same day for the first time in the ongoing row over pay and conditions.


It comes as the health service faced criticism over its winter preparedness plans, with one senior medic saying that December was the “worst ever” in emergency departments.

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said that ongoing issues in the NHS “came to a head” in December, which he described as “awful”.

Dr Boyle told the House of Commons’ Health and Social Care Committee of his concern that during ambulance strikes, some vulnerable people who need support may not seek help.

Nurses and ambulance workers are set to strike on February 6 which could be the biggest day of industrial action the NHS has ever seen (Ben Birchall/PA)

Regarding the strikes, he said: “We worry that there will be people who don’t want to make a fuss, who are desperate not to go into hospital and not to bother people.”

Mr Hopson told MPs: “Next month will see a step change in the action arising from the dispute between the trade unions and the government.

“So, we expect February 6 to be the biggest strike day in NHS history for five reasons: Firstly, we’re going to have nursing and ambulance unions planning coordinated industrial action across the country.

“Secondly, we know that the nursing stoppage will last for two days, rather than one.

“Thirdly, we know that the numbers of trusts affected will go from 44 in December to 55 in January to 73 in February; there is now a shorter gap between the strikes; and this strike starts on a Monday, which effectively makes it difficult to deploy the discharge of patients to improve flow, which is what we’ve been doing in previous strikes.

“So, just to make the point, we are now entering a new and more difficult phase in the dispute

“But that said, we’re doing all we can to make sure that those who need care receive it as we’ve done so far.

“I particularly wanted to stress that is is incredibly important that any patient who does have a life-threatening emergency does call 999 and that for any other urgent care, please use 111 online.”


When asked whether winter preparation plans had worked, Dr Boyle told MPs: “I think the answer actually is demonstrated by the outcome, and we’ve had such an awful December with such terrible outcomes.

“You can make a plan, but actually the measure of whether a plan succeeds is in the outcome, and the outcomes we’ve had over this December… We’ve said the plans have not worked in the way that we needed them to.”

He added: “We’ve certainly had the worst ever December we’ve had – if you look at performance figures on every metric, what went on in in December was terrible.

“This is a complex, multi-faceted problem. I think we need to be realistic that just a little bit of money may not be just a magic fix. It’s not a magic wand.

“We’ve got serious structural problems that impair our ability to deliver urgent and emergency care.

“Things have been going wrong for quite a long time and came to a head over December.”

Data from NHS England show that a record 54,532 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments last month from a decision to admit to actually being admitted.

But Dr Boyle said that some of these patients could have been waiting hours before a decision was made to admit them.

The figures also show that the proportion of patients seen within four hours in England’s A%Es fell to a record low of 65% in December.

Dr Boyle called for improvements in 111 services to prevent unnecessary A&E trips, and for hospitals to share the burden of an influx of patients – instead of leaving crowds of people in emergency departments for hours on end.

He said more must be done to stop the “haemorrhage” of emergency care nurses, saying that he signed a leaving card every time he went to work.


It comes as another A&E doctor likened her department to a “war zone”.

Writing in the Express and Star, senior middle-grade emergency medicine doctor Amy Attwater said: “When I get to work, it is chaos, like a war zone.

“The noise is unbelievable and there are patients everywhere – they can be squeezed in cupboards and blocking fire exits; it scares me that if there was a fire, we might not be able to get everyone out alive as the department is like an obstacle course.”

Regarding winter planning, Mr Hopson told the Committee: “It is just worth noting that without the 7,000 extra bed or bed equivalents – virtual wards; without the extra 1,000 111 and 999 call handlers; the community falls service; the respiratory hubs; and the system control centres that we’ve added this winter, those pressures would have been significantly greater.”

He added: “We prepared for this winter we prepared for it earlier than we had done before.

“The issue was always going to be this winter was the degree to which we saw prevalence of both Covid and flu and the degree to which they combined.

“Now we’re obviously not through winter yet … but both Covid and flu peaked so far, on December 29, when we had 9,500 people with Covid in our hospital beds, and we had 6,500 people with flu in hospital beds, and then we had around 12,000 people who were medically fit to discharge and we were unable to discharge.

“So if you add that together, that means 28,000 of the approximately 100,000 beds that the NHS has, were effectively occupied by a combination of Covid, flu and medically fit to discharge patients.”

But Dr Boyle also told MPs that he was “sceptical” about plans for virtual hospital wards.

“We are a little bit sceptical about the virtual wards as a solution – I know it’s an attractive option because it looks very cheap.

“But unless it is properly evaluated we are not going to know whether it works.”

UK Border Force strikes: Travellers warned to expect disruption as walkouts confirmed for 1 February

Charlotte Elton
Tue, 24 January 2023 

UK Border Force strikes: Travellers warned to expect disruption as walkouts confirmed for 1 February


Travellers entering the UK on 1 February could face long queues as Border Force workers go on strike.

Members of the Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union, including Border Force staff, previously walked out over the Christmas and New Year period.

Now they are set to take part in what PCS says will be the "largest civil service strike for years". The industrial action is set to start on 1 February and last until 7 am on 2 February.


The government has advised travellers planning to enter the UK on this date to check the latest travel advice and be prepared for longer queues than normal. Anyone who can use eGates is also being advised to do so.

"If you are travelling into the UK via any entry point, you should prepare for disruption and check before you travel," the Home Office and Border Force said in a statement.

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Where in the UK could be the worst affected?

While the initial Border Force strikes primarily targeted UK airports, those on 1 February will also include ports.

International arrivals at all UK airports and ports including Dover will be impacted. UK border controls at Calais, Dunkirk and Coquelles in northern France are likely to be affected too.

Last summer, holidaymakers faced hours-long delays at the Port of Dover because of slow border checks caused by staff shortages and new Brexit controls.

Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, UK travellers face stricter border checks when travelling to the continent. At Dover, they are performed on the English side of the channel by French staff.

An arrivals board displays a message warning users of terminal 5 about industrial action by Border Force staff, at Heathrow Airport. - REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

How did Border Force strikes impact Christmas travel?

During the Christmas Border Force strikes, passport checks at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham were affected. Border Force staff at the port of Newhaven, East Sussex, were also included in the strikes.

In response, the government drafted more than 800 military personnel and civil servants to staff entry gates.

Heathrow was challenged with recruiting and training up to 25,000 security-cleared staff before the festive period, a task the airport described as “a huge logistical challenge”. Passengers who were not eligible to use eGates faced longer wait times at Border Control.

At Manchester Airport, 200 new security staff are being recruited, but won't start work until April 2023.

More than 10,000 flights carrying up to 2 million passengers arrived at the affected airports during the strike period, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

France, Italy and the UK: A full list of the travel strikes planned in January and February

New EU border checks delayed until the end of 2023. Why are airlines supportive?
How might the government reduce disruption?

"Military personnel, civil servants and volunteers from across government are being trained to support Border Force at airports and ports across the UK in the event of potential strike action," the UK government said in a statement.

"Border Force are ready to deploy resources to meet critical demand and support the flow of travellers and goods through the border, however, those entering the UK should be prepared for potential disruption."

But the head of the armed forces said during previous strikes that they should not be thought of as "spare capacity" for striking workers.

"We're busy and we're doing lots of things on behalf of the nation - we've got to focus on our primary role," chief of defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the Sunday Telegraph.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union take part in a border force workers strike action near Heathrow Airport. - REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Is there a danger of problems with passport checks?

Steve Dann has insisted that safety and security at borders will be "non-negotiable" during strike action.

However, unions have warned that military personnel are not properly qualified to carry out these jobs. PCS said that Border Force members "are specialists in their fields and can't be replaced by people with just days of training."

Why are border force officials striking?

The strike is part of a larger coordinated action by thousands of civil servants. 100,000 PCS members in 214 government departments and other public bodies voted to take action

Members are demanding a 10 per cent pay rise, citing eye-watering inflation of 10.6 per cent.

Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said that the strike would cause "significant disruption" - but added that the cost of living crisis has left workers "desperate" with no choice but to strike.

"We have no option but to take industrial action because our members are using food banks and not able to switch on the heating right now," he said.

"The government can stop these strikes tomorrow if it puts money on the table."

AUSTRALIA
Record levels of renewable energy push demand for electricity to all-time low for December quarter


Peter Hannam

 Guardian Australia

Tue, 24 January 2023 

Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP

Milder temperatures and record levels of renewable energy drove electricity demand to its lowest levels for any December quarter, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Wholesale power prices also retreated during the period, particularly after the Albanese government imposed price caps on black coal and gas that are used to generate power, AEMO said in its quarterly report released on Wednesday.

“Electricity futures prices saw steep falls in the mainland states through to the end of the quarter” after the price limits were imposed on 9 December, said Violette Mouchaileh, an AEMO executive.

The average price of $93/megawatt-hour across the national electricity market (NEM) that serves eastern Australia was less than half the $216/MWh cost in the September quarter. Still, it was almost 80% higher than for the final three months of 2021.

Related: Household solar boom back on track after severe weather and supply disruptions lead to 14% drop in capacity

Renewable energy from wind, solar and hydro supplied an average of 40.3% of power in the NEM, a record for any quarter since the NEM started in 1998.

It exceeded the previous high, set a year earlier, of 35.8%, AEMO said.

The tail end of the third La Niña event in as many years trimmed power demand for daytime air-conditioning.

A 16% increase in electricity output from rooftop solar panels, or 410MW on average, also decreased demand from the grid.

As a result, operational demand fell 2% from a year earlier to an average 19,431MW, the lowest December quarter reading. New record lows for a quarter were set in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, while the 11,892MW use on 6 November was a new low for the NEM in the December quarter.

The government hailed the early signs of a retreat in wholesale power prices as early proof that its price caps were having an effect on household bills. However, wholesale prices make up only about a third of retail costs and are subject to external events, such as an extended fault at coal-fired power plant, or heatwave-driven spikes in demand that could erase price falls.

Wholesale costs may also have been lower due to a drop in gas prices from record highs in June and July. At an average of $17.79/gigajoule, though, the price remained two-thirds higher than a year earlier.

Gas demand actually fell 7% in the December quarter from a year ago in part because of lower LNG production after unplanned outages at export plants in Queensland.

Power generation from black and brown coal-fired plants was the lowest since the NEM started. Higher prices for the fossil fuel in Queensland and NSW – at least before the price caps began – was one factor for the reduced use but also plant failures, particularly in Queensland.

Increased output from renewable energy, with its near-zero fuel cost, also nudged more coal and gas out of the generation market.

New instantaneous renewable penetration records were set in the NEM at 68.7% on 28 October – up 4.6 percentage points on the previous record – and in the Western Australian market at 84.3% on 12 December, up 3.7 percentage points. The records were “largely driven” by rooftop solar, AEMO said.

During a fault that cut South Australia off from other states for several days in November, renewables’ share of generation peaked at 91.5%.

“Output from wind and grid-scale solar grew strongly as new facilities were connected and commissioned,” AEMO said. Even with relatively calm days producing the lowest recent quarterly utilisation rate, total windfarm output exceeded any previous December quarter.

THE GUARDIAN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Carbon offsets are a licence to pollute

Tue, 24 January 2023 

Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

Your report (Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows, 18 January) makes uncomfortable reading for enthusiasts of nature-based solutions to climate change. While forest protection should provide a win-win situation, benefiting both biodiversity and climate, it can too easily become lose-lose, because carbon offsets allow emissions to continue, worsening global heating and threatening not just forests but all natural ecosystems. The problem is that reliable quantification of the “additionality” of nature-based climate mitigation is near-impossible.

The answer is that ecosystem protection (and restoration, wherever possible) must become the default, not the add-on. Until that happens, any carbon trading based on natural processes should be limited to the offset of biologically based emissions, excluding those from fossil fuels.

Dr Phil Williamson
University of East Anglia

• Your reporting of the phantom carbon credits scandal is very welcome. But the bigger problem lies with the concept of offsetting itself, whether in the established market in carbon or the quickly emerging market in biodiversity. Such schemes offer a licence, indeed an incentive, to polluters to carry on polluting. Without damage – emissions or ecological vandalism – there is nothing to offset, a situation that would make investors and speculators in these markets very unhappy. As George Monbiot remarked in 2006, this setup is reminiscent of the indulgences scam run by the medieval church.

Richard Middleton
Crossmichael, Dumfries & Galloway

SIR KEIR AT DAVOS

UK Labour party outlines its vision for government

Jitendra JOSHI
Tue, 24 January 2023 


Confident of taking power at the next UK general election, the Labour party is setting out its vision to the country's allies with vows of reconnecting with Europe after Brexit and delivering economic competence.

Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and this week with a set-piece foreign policy speech, Labour bigwigs are globalising their fight against the crisis-ridden Conservatives.

The centre-left party -- a political force under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010 -- promises continuity on the Conservatives' unflinching support for Ukraine, along with scepticism towards China.

But in general, Labour's would-be foreign secretary David Lammy attacked the Conservatives' "ideological leadership and reckless choices", vowing to "fix the Tories' bad Brexit deal".

"It doesn't have to be this way," he told European and other foreign diplomats on Tuesday at the Chatham House international affairs think-tank in London.

"The UK is home to cutting-edge technology and services, world-leading universities, vibrant cultural industries, and it has the potential for unparalleled global connections.

"Labour will reset our foreign policy to create a 'Britain Reconnected', for security and prosperity at home," Lammy said.

However, both Lammy and Labour leader Keir Starmer are ruling out the ultimate reconnection -- taking the UK back into the European Union, or at least its single market.

Labour argues that the 2016 Brexit referendum settled that debate, and EU allies themselves would rather the UK gets on with building permanent new arrangements free of the never-ending rancour that characterised the Conservatives' approach to Brussels.

Labour's slogan contrasts with the "Global Britain" promised by Boris Johnson when he took the country out of the EU at the start of 2020.

But trade deals promised by Johnson and his short-lived successor Liz Truss have done little to compensate for the loss of the UK's friction-free relationship with its biggest markets across the Channel.

Johnson's many scandals, and a disastrous economic experiment launched by Truss during her September-October tenure, left the UK a "joke" abroad, Lammy argued.

- 'Mission statement' -

After Johnson and Truss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to steady the ship financially while also reaching out to the EU in a bid to overhaul contentious post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland.

But with inflation in double digits, strikes crippling key sectors, and many Britons enduring cold and hunger this winter, all opinion polls point to a Labour triumph -- and potential Tory wipeout -- at the next general election.

With the vote likely next year, Labour knows it needs to be ready with credible policies for home and abroad.

At Davos, Starmer called for a "clean power alliance" of countries to fight climate change and bring down sky-high energy prices.

The alliance would be an "inverse OPEC", he told financial big-hitters in the Swiss Alps, referring to the cartel of oil-producing countries.

Starmer also criticised Sunak for failing to come to Davos this year, stressing that his own presence and that of shadow finance minister Rachel Reeves showed "the United Kingdom will play its part on the global stage in a way I think it probably hasn't in recent years".

Lammy vowed a new security pact with the EU, and to restore the UK to the bloc's "Horizon" programme for scientific collaboration, pending a wider review of the two sides' Brexit trade treaty in 2025.

And he promised a new "mission statement" for the UK foreign office to deal with challenges from cyber governance to artificial intelligence.

The Conservative government said there was nothing new in Lammy's vision.

"We are focusing on promoting our values with a broader range of countries to help them become more resilient against threats, including from climate change, disease and hostile states," a foreign office spokesman said.

jit/phz/gw

Gaza: ‘24 hours of electricity a day? This is beyond a dream for us’

Paddy Dowling
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Enas’s family of 10 live in a settlement near Beit Hanoun. Their electricity access varies from four to eight hours each day (Paddy Dowling)

Since 2007, Gaza has been sealed off from the world. Its 2.1 million residents living in a 40km (25 miles) ribbon of land on the Mediterranean coast, have endured no less than four wars.

The conflicts not only claimed the lives of thousands of civilians, but they also damaged vital infrastructure in the enclave, including Gaza’s Power Plant (GPP), targeted by Israeli airstrikes in 2006 and again in 2014, during its third war. The repercussions of these premeditated attacks still hamstring Gaza’s efforts to meet the electric demand in the strip today.

Illuminated by the tungsten fluorescence from her television, engrossed as she watches her favourite programme, Sobhia, 72, explains: “It is hard to imagine, but we used to experience 24 hours of electricity each day in Gaza; now we are lucky if we get six.”

Sobhia lives among the alleyways of Al-Shati refugee camp in a ground-floor flat. ‘In my senior years with decreased mobility, the TV has become my best friend, it’s all I have to look forward to’ (Paddy Dowling)


Omar, 32, and his friends are perched on the pavements near their homes in search of the night breeze. Occasionally they glance up from their mobile phones and watched the neighbourhood children playing football in the pitch-black streets, using only the headlights of passing cars.

“24 hours of electricity a day? This is beyond a dream for us. Gaza’s youth only know this life, without power. Especially in times of conflict when the Kerem Shalom border crossing closes, there is no fuel for the power station and this affects our homes, hospitals, schools, water and sewage treatment facilities. Everything”, they explain.

They return to studying their phones, their faces lit by the glow as they keep tabs on the world outside.

Omar and his friends barely remember Gaza ever having 24 hours of electricity (Paddy Dowling)

Electricity to the Gaza Strip originates from two sources, the Israeli electric company and from the fuel-dependent GPP, donated by Qatar Fund for Development. The Qatari government has pledged to build a liquefied natural gas pipeline from Israel into the Gaza Strip, with the EU funding €20m (£18m) in aid to complete the pipeline project’s extensions.

A home in Gaza City where the family live with around six hours of electricity each day (Paddy Dowling)

Children of Shati camp play football in the pitch-black streets and alleyways using only the headlights of passing cars (Paddy Dowling)

A toddler sleeps in an old car seat in a darkened room (Paddy Dowling)

The pipeline project is expected to ease the energy crisis in the strip. However, whether the output will keep pace with future demand in the enclave remains to be seen.

“The new pipeline will bring us the hope Gaza desperately needs. But creating enough supply is one challenge, being able to afford the electricity is another challenge entirely,” says Salah, 71, a retired fisherman from Gaza city.

Salah, like so many others, is in debt to the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company and cannot afford to repay it (Paddy Dowling)

Mains electricity from Gaza’s grid remains the most cost-effective source at £0.12 per KWh, when accessible. Alternatively, a private network line using a generator can typically cost eight times as much at £1 per KWh, which most families cannot afford.

“I still owe 76,000 new Israeli shekels (£19,700) in arrears for electricity that I will never be able to repay. I cannot afford to pay on account either. Therefore, with little choice, I am forced to access our electricity the ‘informal’ way, straight from the nearby mains,” Salah concludes.

An elderly lady sits near the entrance to her family home waiting for a breeze to cut through the relentless coastal humidity (Paddy Dowling)

Estimates indicate that at least 25 per cent of Gaza’s residents obtain their electricity through informal means.

Thomas White is head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the enclave. Speaking exclusively to The Independent, he says: “Gaza is now on life support, it is being left behind and the humanitarian crisis is getting worse each year.

Mahmoud, 18, stands motionless in the humidity of his family home in Beit Lahia (Paddy Dowling)

A family bathroom in an informal makeshift dwelling near Khan Younis (Paddy Dowling)

“There is no doubt that the approved pipeline will change the lives in Gaza for so many who are forced to live with a rolling blackout schedule of electricity. But with unemployment rates amongst the highest in the world and more than 80 per cent living below the poverty line, Gazans will undoubtedly continue to use negative coping mechanisms to keep their heads above the water line, including risking their lives to have free electricity.”

Enas, 40, lives in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Gaza City along with her husband. They are both unemployed and rely solely on UN emergency food parcels and a cash assistance programme ($100 per month to 100,000 families) to sustain themselves and their eight children.


The heating element resting on a bucket of water (Paddy Dowling)

“We cannot afford electricity so of course, like many, we risk our lives to take it informally,” she says, as she points to the numerous blackened and charred plastic plug sockets around the dwelling, as well as the soot stains from a past electrical fire that set the kitchen ablaze.

Enas untangles some well-used wires attached to a heating element, which she lowers into a bucket of water. It hisses and fizzes. She continues: “I realise how dangerous this is. I know that my children could lose their mother, but to have warm water in which to wash is the only time of the day we feel like human beings and not like animals.”

Lights out at 10pm. The only glow visible is from low wattage LEDs in residential units and shops powered by car batteries or, for the lucky few, generators or private networks (Paddy Dowling)

The cruel irony for Gazans living in the strip – in the absence of any political horizon, continued lack of investment and rising unemployment – is that despite their dreams and prayers, they will most likely never be able to afford the price of 24 hours of electricity a day.

Prices indicated are at time of writing

UK

Self-driving bus trial launched at science park


Miranda Norris
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Janette Bell, First Bus MD and Richard Holden MP, Buses Minister (Image: First Bus)

The UK's first self-driving electric bus service has been unveiled in Didcot as part of a project to explore “the art of the possible”.

First Group said it will analyse how passengers, drivers, other road users and pedestrians respond to autonomous buses at Milton business and technology park.

A 16-seat fully accessible electric minibus providing a circular service around Milton Park, which is home to 250 companies and 9,000 employees, near Didcot was demonstrated on Monday.

It will begin taking passengers in early February.

READ MORE: 'Don't blame the bus driver!'

A full-size single-decker will be added later this year for journeys between the park and Didcot Parkway railway station.

The Milton Park Circular Service 1 is being operated by First Bus.

First Bus head of policy John Birtwistle said it is “only a matter of time” before electric buses are used across the UK, but “the autonomous side of things is more about exploring the art of the possible”.

He told the PA news agency: “The technology is spreading to different forms of transport, including potential use in buses and coaches.

“We need to explore how it works, how well accepted it is by the general public, how it works for operations, how drivers react to it, and how people who aren’t using the services react to it.”

Mr Birtwistle said “rigorous” testing has taken place to ensure the vehicles will “absolutely” be safe.

The buses are “capable of coping with all the different experiences you would have from day-to-day”, he explained.

“They can deal with traffic signals. They can deal with roundabouts. They can deal with parked vehicles.

“They can make all the turning manoeuvres as well as simple braking and acceleration.

“They can wait for gaps in traffic (before pulling out).”

Despite the vehicles being fitted with autonomous technology including cameras and sensors, a trained driver will be behind the wheel to provide assistance to passengers and take control if needed.

The experience of drivers and passengers will be a key part of the project’s assessment.

Mr Birtwistle said: “We want to try and understand is this (technology) something that makes the (driver’s) job easier – or does it actually make the job harder, because they’re concentrating on different things, there’s a different focus of their attention?

“We don’t know how individual types of passengers might react to it.

“It could be something that’s more accepted by the young, with older passengers perhaps being less keen to travel on such a vehicle.

“There’s quite an extensive programme of research which is going to address all these issues, and give us some learning and insight for potential future deployments.”

Oxford Mail:

The service is being developed alongside partners including Oxfordshire County Council, transport information company Zipabout, Milton Park, automated vehicle systems provider Fusion Processing and the University of West England.

The £4.3 million project has been funded by a £3 million grant from Government agency Innovate UK.

Buses minister Richard Holden MP joined senior directors of the consortium at Milton Park and was among the first to travel on the autonomous bus as part of a special demonstration.

He said: “Hopefully it’s going to be the start of something quite radical here in the UK.

“It’s thrilling to see our £3 million investment help British firms and engineers pioneer new, exciting ideas to achieve our vision of a truly efficient and sustainable transport network.

“The launch of the UK’s first autonomous, zero-emission bus today is yet another key step towards achieving net zero, creating high-wage, high-skilled new jobs and opportunities while truly levelling up transport across the country.”

Last week another bus operator, Stagecoach, carried passengers on a full-size self-driving bus for the first time in the UK.

Twenty-two volunteers were taken on a journey by the diesel-powered single-decker over the Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh as part of testing.

Public services are expected to begin in the spring.

In August last year the Department for Transport said it expected self-driving cars to be available for public use by 2025.

Oxford Mail:

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This story was written by Miranda Norris, she joined the team in 2021 and covers news across Oxfordshire as well as news from Witney.

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Norway to offer record number of Arctic oil, gas exploration blocks

Tue, 24 January 2023 


Norway on Tuesday said it plans to offer a record number of gas and oil exploration blocks in the Arctic, with environmental NGOs condemning an "aggressive" promotion of fossil fuels.

The Scandinavian nation -- Europe's primary natural gas supplier and a major oil producer -- proposed 92 exploration blocks, including an unprecedented 78 in the Barents Sea in the far north.

The other 14 are in the Norwegian Sea near the Arctic Circle.

"New discoveries remain necessary to continue to develop the Norwegian plateau" and are important for Europe, Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said in a statement.

The announcement is part of the annual granting of oil licences in so-called "mature" zones that have already been widely explored.

The centre-left government, lacking a parliamentary majority, reached an agreement with the Socialist Left party last year to forbid prospection in unexplored areas by 2025.

The government's propositions sparked outrage among environmental organisations.

Truls Gulowsen, head of the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth, condemned an "extremely aggressive" cycle of concessions presented as the United Nations and the International Energy Agency discourage further oil exploration to achieve climate goals.

The NGO said the proposal would violate the commitment not to explore virgin territory as some blocks were to be located far from existing infrastructure.

The right-wing opposition, a fervent defender of Norway's oil sector, said the move was a "tactical game" by the government to give itself bargaining chips to use in future negotiations with the Socialist Left.

Oil industry body Offshore Norge welcomed the fact that "attractive areas" would be opened to prospection.

The proposals will go to a public consultation. Oil companies must submit their applications later this year and licences will be granted in January 2024.

The Barents Sea has long been seen as a productive area for the energy sector, but oil and gas extraction is so far only taking place at two sites in Norwegian waters.

phy/map/imm/ea

Norway’s fossil fuel bonanza stokes impassioned debate about how best to spend its ‘war profits’

Story by Sam Meredith • Yesterday - CNBC

Norway's skyrocketing oil and gas wealth is expected to climb to new heights this year, boosted by higher fossil fuel prices in the wake of Russia's nearly year-long onslaught in Ukraine.

It has ignited an impassioned debate about international justice, with many questioning whether it is fair for Norway to rake in record oil and gas revenues at the expense of others' misfortune.

"Most European countries are getting poorer because of the war. Norway is getting richer — much richer," Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, director of the Norwegian Climate Foundation think tank, told CNBC via telephone.


Norway is making more money from oil and gas exports than ever.© Provided by CNBC

Norway's skyrocketing oil and gas wealth is expected to climb to new heights this year, boosted by higher fossil fuel prices in the wake of Russia's nearly year-long onslaught in Ukraine.

The ballooning petroleum profits of the Scandinavian country put Oslo in a unique position: As many in Europe are struggling to cope with the region's worst energy crisis in decades, Norway — already extremely rich — is getting richer still.

It has ignited an impassioned debate about international justice, with many questioning whether it is fair for Norway to rake in record oil and gas revenues at the expense of others' misfortune.

Opposition lawmakers, prominent economists in the country, and even titans of Norway's energy industry have called on the government to set an example to the world by pumping its fossil fuel revenues into a new international solidarity fund that helps countries meet their climate goals.

Norway's Finance Ministry expects the state's revenues from oil and gas sales to climb to 1.38 trillion Norwegian krone ($131 billion) this year. That's up from a previous record of 1.17 trillion krone last year, and a nearly fivefold increase from 288 billion krone in 2021.

"They are war profits," Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, director of the Norwegian Climate Foundation think tank, told CNBC via telephone.

"Most European countries are getting poorer because of the war. Norway is getting richer — much richer."


Opposition lawmakers, prominent economists and even titans of Norway's energy industry have called on Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store's government to set an example to the world by pumping at least some of its fossil fuel revenues into a new international solidarity fund.© Provided by CNBC

Michelsen said he was fearful that by choosing to pocket its bumper oil and gas profits, Norway is damaging its international reputation, warning that the country is at risk of being perceived as "very egocentric."

"We are in a completely different position than the rest of Europe and I think, with that, it also bears a responsibility," Michelsen said. He called for the government to redirect its extraordinary windfall to further help Ukraine, accelerate Europe's energy transition and provide climate finance for low-income countries.

Related video: Fossil fuel industry takes gaslighting to new level with dark money campaign (MSNBC)   Duration 4:11   View on Watch

"This situation is certainly not of our making and not to our liking," Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Eivind Vad Petersson told CNBC via telephone. He argued that it is critically important for Europe's energy security that Norway keeps gas production high.

Petersson said the government's financial support to Ukraine is approaching 1.5 billion euros ($1.63 billion), adding that the country's policymakers are working on a multi-year program to continue to help Kyiv.

When asked about accusations that the country is war profiteering, Petersson replied, "No, not really … The indirect effect, we fully acknowledge, is that our revenues have increased, but I do not accept that label."

"We are very well aware of the responsibility that comes with the fact that we have these resources. Of course, the responsibility to protect it, bearing in mind the crucial role of energy security now in Europe for this winter and possibly next," Petersson said.

He added that Norway's government is also "fully aware of the responsibility that comes with being a supporter and donor, not only to Ukraine but also other countries across the world suffering the effects of Russia's war."

'We should contribute more with this money'

Norway, which last year overtook Russia as Europe's biggest natural gas supplier, has been one of the world's top crude producers for the past half-century. That's thanks to its gigantic North Sea petroleum deposits — the spoils of which have been used to provide a robust safety net for current and future generations.

The Norwegian government's net cash flow from petroleum sales is transferred into Norway's $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The government can only spend a small part of the fund each year, but this is still estimated to amount to nearly 20% of the government budget.

The so-called Government Pension Fund Global, among the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of Norway's oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has invested in more than 9,300 companies in 70 countries around the world.


Norway, which last year overtook Russia as Europe's biggest gas supplier, has been one of the world's top crude producers for the past half-century.© Provided by CNBC

"These excess profits, as we may call it, are a direct result of the war," said Ingrid Fiskaa, foreign affairs spokesperson for Norway's Socialist Left, whose support is critical for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store's minority government.

Fiskaa highlighted that legislation in Norway limits the use of oil revenues in the domestic economy to avoid high inflation — and that, she argues, strengthens the case for investing in international solidarity.

"There should be a lot more debate on this issue," Fiskaa told CNBC via telephone. "Oil companies are getting richer and richer, but we don't see that money — and who is really paying for this? It is the rest of the world. We should contribute more with this money."

Norway's aid budget has hovered near 1% of its gross national income for more than a decade, making it one of the world's most generous donors.

Store's government was sharply criticized last year for proposing to cut the proportion of GNI it spends on foreign aid to 0.75%. That level is still significantly above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's average of 0.3%, but civil society groups described the move as "embarrassing" at a time when Oslo was making money like never before.

Norway's foreign ministry has since pledged to deliver on its aid budget target of 1% of GNI in 2023.

Norway sovereign wealth fund excludes AviChina, Bharat Electronics

Tue, 24 January 2023 

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said on Tuesday it has excluded China's AviChina and India's Bharat Electronics from its portfolio.

The two were excluded due to "unacceptable risk that (the) companies are selling weapons to a state that uses these weapons in ways that constitute serious and systematic breaches of international rules on conduct of hostilities," the fund said.

"The background for the decision is sales of light airplanes and other military material respectively to the military in Myanmar," Norges Bank Investment Management said.

UK must review decision to block UK-France power cable project - court ruling

Sam Tobin
Tue, 24 January 2023 

French flag and British national flag in Violaines

By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain must review its refusal to grant development consent for a high-voltage undersea power cable project linking Britain and France, London's High Court ruled on Tuesday.

Investment firm Aquind, which says its undersea cable linking England and Normandy would be able to transmit 16,000,000 MWh of electricity each year, took legal action after then-Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng refused consent in January 2022.

Judge Nathalie Lieven said in a written ruling on Tuesday that Kwarteng failed to take into account evidence about an alternative location for a substation in England and wrongly applied the business department’s planning policies.

Aquind’s director Richard Glasspool said in a statement the decision was "wonderful news".

"We look forward to re-engaging with local residents, stakeholders, environmental experts and energy professionals in order to pursue the commitment to meeting the UK’s Net Zero energy target," he said.

A government spokesperson said: "The UK Government is disappointed by the outcome but we will be considering the judgment carefully before deciding next steps."

The project – which would be able to transmit around 5% and 3% of the total consumption of Britain and France respectively – was recommended for approval in a report sent to Kwarteng in June, 2021.

After requesting further information, Kwarteng last year decided that Aquind had given "insufficient consideration" to an alternative connection point in Dorset in southern England, which Aquind had previously rejected.

However, the High Court ruled that it was "irrational" for Kwarteng to refuse Aquind’s application without making further inquiries about the feasibility of the location in Dorset.

Lieven said the inspectors who initially recommended approval found that "the development could meet 4-5% of Britain's electricity need with the obvious public benefits that would follow".

The judge added that "the level of this public benefit meant that any reasonable (minister) would have inquired into the feasibility and viability" of the alternative site before rejecting the development on a "purely speculative basis".

(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Elizabeth Piper, editing by William James, Ed Osmond and Angus MacSwan)