It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, February 13, 2023
Canada promises Indigenous partnerships, 10 new marine conservation areas as international oceans summit kicks off
Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday
Canada is promising to establish 10 new federal marine protected areas as IMPAC5, a global summit on ocean conservation, kicks off Friday in Vancouver.
The goal is critical to the federal government’s 30x30 pledge to protect 30 per cent of Canada’s waters and lands by 2030 in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, said federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
“Protecting marine ecosystems in Canada is a critical nature-based solution to the dual challenge of biodiversity loss and climate change,” Guilbeault, who is also responsible for Parks Canada, said in a statement Friday.
The minister also unveiled a new policy blueprint enshrining collaboration and stewardship with Indigenous Peoples in all existing and future national marine conservation areas.
The policy honours Indigenous Peoples’ role as stewards of their traditional lands and their use and connections to the land, waters and ice in Canada for millennia, while prioritizing the protection of marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
“It also delivers nature conservation that lives up to our commitment for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples,” said Guibeault, noting traditional land uses will be protected in conservation areas.
Work is well underway for seven of Parks Canada’s proposed marine protected areas in the Southern Strait of Georgia, the Central Coast of British Columbia, the northern coast of Labrador, along James and Hudson bays and in the Magdalen Islands. Three more conservation areas will be determined in the future, according to the ministry.
First Nations anticipate federal announcements at IMPAC5 around an Indigenous-led effort to create a vast network of marine protected areas along the B.C. coast. Led by 15 nations, B.C. and Canada, the proposed Great Bear Sea MPA network will protect the rich biodiversity of the central coast and iconic species like salmon, herring, eulachon and others while ensuring a range of uses and activities important to coastal communities.
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Joyce Murray celebrated the new federal policy at the launch of IMPAC5, where she stressed how vital it was to protect oceans in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and combat climate change.
The largest ecosystem on the planet, the ocean produces 50 per cent of the planet’s oxygen, mitigates global warming and regulates the climate and weather patterns. It also sinks nearly a third of carbon dioxide produced by humans.
“Oceans are as crucial to our survival as the air we breathe, and if we truly want to protect our planet, we must protect the oceans,” Murray said. “And we can’t do this without Indigenous Peoples.”
IMPAC5 is the first chance to set the course for a global network of marine protected areas worldwide after international leaders adopted the 30x30 pledge at the United Nations biodiversity conference (COP15) in Montreal in December.
Despite the challenges oceans face from warming water, biodiversity loss and pollution, there is cause for optimism, Murray said.
Less than one per cent of Canada’s coastal areas were protected, but over the last eight years, that number has grown to 14 per cent and the federal government is on track to meet its targets in 2025 and beyond, she said.
The more than 3,000 scientists, Indigenous knowledge holders, scientists, policy experts and young professionals attending the summit from across the globe represent the best and brightest pushing the envelope on ocean conservation, she added.
“IMPAC5 can help us truly put marine conservation front and centre on the global agenda and ensure oceans are firmly anchored in all future climate negotiations.” Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer
Canada women's soccer team reluctantly returns to training under protest in Florida
Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday
As promised, the Canadian women's soccer team returned to training Sunday in Florida.
"We are being forced back to work for the next few weeks." midfielder Quinn, who goes by one name, said on social media. "While stepping on a field continuing to provide labour for an organization that upholds gender inequality goes against every fibre of my being, I will continue to do so (for now) in protest."
Added captain Christine Sinclair: "To be clear. We are being forced back to work for the short term. This is not over. We will continue to fight for everything we deserve and we will win. The She Believes (Cup) is being played in protest."
The sixth-ranked Canadian women are scheduled to open the four-country tournament on Thursday against the top-ranked U.S. in Orlando.
The Canadian women boycotted training Saturday, saying they would not take the field unless Canada Soccer addressed their grievances. They were supported by the Canadian men, who refused to play a friendly against Panama in Vancouver last June over dissatisfaction with ongoing labour talks.
The women are demanding the same backing in preparing for this summer's Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand that the men received last year before Qatar. And they want Canada Soccer to open its books.
Both teams are also upset at cuts to their program this year.
In a statement Saturday night, Canada Soccer said the players "were not and are not in a legal strike position under Ontario labour law."
"Canada Soccer was not prepared to jeopardize the SheBelieves Cup tournament, the preparation it would afford the women’s national team for the upcoming World Cup, nor the experience it would afford countless fans who had undoubtedly travelled to Orlando to see their Olympic heroes," it said.
The governing body said it took "the necessary steps" to ensure that such games will be played as scheduled.
"Canada Soccer has heard the women’s national team and has committed to a path to addressing each of the demands made by the players. But Canada Soccer knows that is not enough. There is still work to do."
It said a labour settlement "once concluded, will be a historic deal that will deliver real change and pay equity in Canadian Soccer. It is a goal worth getting right."
In a separate statement, the women said Canada Soccer told them if the job action continued it "would not only take legal action to force us back to the pitch, but would consider taking steps to collect what could be millions of dollars in damages from our Players’ Association and from each of the individual players currently in camp," the women said.
"As individual players who have received no compensation yet for any of our work for Canada Soccer in 2022, we cannot afford the risks that personal action against us by Canada Soccer will create. Because of this, we have advised Canada Soccer that we will return to training (Sunday) and will play in the SheBelieves Cup as scheduled."
Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane and president Nick Bontis held emergency talks with the team after Sinclair and other players said they could no longer represent the federation unless the issues around the national teams were resolved.
The governing body has repeatedly said that pay equity will be a pillar of the new deal.
That has not been the case in the past. In 2021, Canada Soccer spent $11 million on the men's team and $5.1 million on the women. Sinclair notes some $2.5 million of that women's funding came from Own The Podium, not Canada Soccer.
The men played 19 games that year, including 14 World Cup qualifiers. The women played 17 and won Olympic gold.
"We are not mad at the men's team. They deserve what they get. They deserved to be treated how they were treated last year (a World Cup year). These teams deserve to have proper preparation for the biggest stage. We're just asking for the same," Sinclair said before Saturday's meeting.
"The financial struggles of the CSA (Canadian Soccer Association) didn't just happen overnight. People made decisions in recent years that have put us here. And it just constantly seems like it's the women's team that has to take the brunt of it."
Canada Soccer's total revenue for 2021 was $33.1 million while reported expenses were $28.1 million.
The labour dispute has drawn attention.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, suggested the parliamentary committee should look into Canada Soccer.
"I think it is crucial we now move this organization to the top of the list and hear from Women’s Team members as well," he said on Twitter.
And the Canadian men's team, in an open letter Friday, asked for the government to intervene.
The women sent Canada Soccer a list of their demands Thursday, opting to take job action when they did not get a response. They include playing a home game ahead of the World Cup.
"We stand with Canada's women's national team," Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, CEO of Canadian Women & Sports, said on social media. "This team has expanded the national view of what's possible for women's sport in Canada. There are essential players in the growing movement to support more opportunities for girls and women in sport at all levels. They deserve to be treated equitably. The time is now."
A key part of the labour impasse is Canada Soccer's deal with Canada Soccer Business, which represents all corporate partnerships and broadcast rights related to Canada Soccer’s core assets including its national teams.
Under the deal, Canada Soccer Business pays Canada Soccer an agreed-on amount each year. It keeps the rest under an agreement that helps fund the Canadian Premier League.
Canada Soccer saw the deal — announced in March 2018 — as short-term pain for long-term gain. But it soon found its hands tied in terms of reaping the financial awards of the women winning Olympic gold and the men becoming the toast of CONCACAF in returning to the World Cup for the first time in 36 years.
The prize money from the men's World Cup — Canada earned US$9 million from the tournament purse plus US$1.5 million to prepare for the soccer showcase — is not part of the Canada Soccer Business deal.
"How Canada Soccer is allocating or using funds is unclear and cloaked in secrecy," the men said in a statement Friday.
Both teams are currently negotiating labour agreements with Canada Soccer. The women's previous deal expired at the end of 2021.
The men are negotiating their first formal agreement in the wake of forming their own players association, the Canada Men’s National Soccer Team Players Association.
The women have their own group, the Canadian Soccer Players' Association.
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Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2023.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
'More whitewashing': Smith stands by her account of Canadian history Story by Hamdi Issawi • Yesterday On her Saturday morning Corus Radio program (Your Province. Your Premier.), Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on what a caller called asked.
On her Saturday morning radio show, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on her controversial version of Canada’s history with Indigenous people when a disappointed caller asked her to explain and apologize.
Identified only as Bev from Banff, the caller who dialled into the weekly Corus program (Your Province. Your Premier.) described Smith’s account as disrespectful, referring to a recent video in which the premier shared her vision.
“To me it’s such a slap in the face,” the caller said, adding that Smith’s words compare to an October comment in which the premier described unvaccinated people as “the most discriminated against group” she’s seen in her lifetime.
The video, which was recorded in Ottawa, shows Smith characterizing Canada’s origins as a cooperative effort between overseas settlers and Indigenous people “united to tame an unforgiving frontier, ensuring prosperity for countless future generations.”
‘A genocidal policy’
Smith did not apologize for the comments made in the video, and chose instead to describe and affirm Alberta’s “partnership with First Nations” who the province aims to include in its economic activity.
The answer said nothing of Métis or Inuit people.
“This part of the world would not have been opened up if our First Nations partners had not been willing to trade with us, and show us the routes and develop a vibrant industry,” Smith told the caller. “We would not have been able to settle here if they hadn’t been willing to sign Treaties 6, 7 and 8.”
The account Smith related in the video imposes a kind of “contemporary multicultural narrative” on past centuries that doesn’t align with Canada’s policy toward Indigenous people at the time, said Kim TallBear, a professor in the University of Alberta’s faculty of native studies.
“It was a genocidal policy, because genocide is not only about killing people, it’s about eliminating a nation as a nation,” she told Postmedia in an interview, adding that settlers attempted to clear Indigenous inhabitants from the land and tried to replace their permanent structures, ceremonies and religious lives.
“Children were incarcerated in residential schools,” TallBear added. “This was not multiculturalism. This is settlement replacement — the elimination of Indigenous peoples by eliminating the possibilities for them to exercise their life ways that had developed over millennia in these lands.”
Koren Lightning-Earle, legal director of Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge at the university, took issue with the vision of Indigenous societies and lands described in Smith’s video.
“I don’t know if my ancestors would categorize our land as ‘unforgiving frontier,’” she said. “We lived and we thrived and we had societies before people came across the ocean.” ‘An obligation to Albertans’
Moreover, Lightning-Earle had trouble reconciling the purportedly shared goal of settlers and Indigenous people ensuring prosperity for future generations.
“I’m just wondering where the word ‘prosperity’ comes in when we have a clean drinking water class action (lawsuit) going across Canada — where First Nations communities don’t have access to clean drinking water,” she said. “People rely on the statement she’s making, so she has an obligation to Albertans to apologize and correct her facts.”
In answering the caller, Smith said that while the country has fallen short on living up to its treaty commitments, she believes there are efforts underway to provide historical reparations.
“You will hear me talk a lot about our First Nations partners because I don’t want people to forget that history,” Smith said. “I want people to understand that this is an equal relationship, and we’ve got to do our part to make amends for the errors of the past.”
For TallBear, the history Alberta’s premier evokes is “more whitewashing” that barrels over Indigenous perspectives on history, and flies in the face of reconciliation.
”Reconciliation is about non-Indigenous Canadians learning about Indigenous peoples, learning about their history, and changing the way that they think about and treat Indigenous people.”
Lightning-Earle referred to a free Indigenous Canada course offered online by the University of Alberta.
Premier rejects NDP claim oilwell cleanup help is linked with her leadership campaign
Story by The Canadian Press • Saturday
EDMONTON — Alberta's premier is rejecting Opposition claims her planned $100-million pilot project for cleaning up old oil wells was influenced by her United Conservative party leadership campaign, arguing that federal money to get the job done missed many of the province's worst sites.
Speaking on her province-wide radio call-in show Saturday, Danielle Smith noted the worst wells have been inactive for decades and repeated her argument that government shares some of the blame for the fact regulators let companies off without fulfilling their responsibilities.
Smith said many of the companies that left those wells without cleaning them up aren't around anymore.
"Because we're targeting it so closely on the worst wells, we're looking at sites, for instance, that have been inactive for 20 years that were drilled prior to 1990, so these are kind of the worst of the worst sites," Smith told listeners Saturday after being asked about the NDP's claims the program is linked with her leadership fundraising.
"Now we're left with somebody holding the bag that may not have been responsible for the initial liability. We have regulators who allowed for those transfers to occur. We have regulators in the past who didn't require cleanup."
"I think we have to take some of the responsibility as government for the fact that we didn't manage it the way that we should have historically."
NDP Energy critic Kathleen Ganley said Friday it's a "huge concern" that before Smith re-entered politics, she lobbied for an oil well cleanup bailout that she made a government priority when she became premier.
The sources of the $1.3 million Smith raised for her leadership campaign last year have not been revealed, and her office has not responded to requests to address questions about how her campaign fundraising has affected her governing priorities.
The Liability Management Incentive Program proposes to give $100 million in royalty breaks to companies that fulfil their legal obligations to restore old oil and gas wells. A royalty is the price Alberta charges a company to develop a resource.
Analysts with Scotiabank said in a report that the proposal "goes against the core capitalist principle that private companies should take full responsibility for the liabilities they willingly accept."
An Independent legislature member and former member of the UCP caucus, Drew Barnes, has called the plan "corporate welfare."
Smith on Saturday praised the federal government's Site Rehabilitation Program which provided $1 billion for well-site recovery, but she noted the program is about to end and that it missed the worst sites.
She said flare pits -- which she described as pools of water where waste materials were just thrown in -- are the biggest problem and have sat in some cases for 40 to 60 years. She said they're not being cleaned up because "it's a huge environmental liability expense companies are worried that they're not going to be able to get the signoff on it."
Landowners, she said, are left with the unremediated sites.
"The reason I advocated for this program when I first heard about it was because I feel so passionately about landowner rights. I feel so passionately that this has been a long-term problem. No one's ever found a way to address it," Smith told listeners.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2023.
The Canadian Press
France's lynx at high risk of extinction: study
Mon, February 13, 2023
The elusive Eurasian lynx is at risk of vanishing completely from France, according to a study Monday that called for urgent measures to boost the population of isolated wild cats.
There are at most 150 adult lynx hidden in the mountains of northeastern France, cut off from healthier wild cat populations in Germany and Switzerland, according to the scientists behind the genetic study published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.
"Given the rapid loss of genetic diversity, we estimate that this population will go extinct in less than 30 years," said co-author Nathan Huvier of the Centre Athenas, a wildlife refuge in eastern France.
"This population urgently needs new genetic material to become sustainable."
The lynx, which disappeared in France in the early 20th century, was reintroduced in the 1970s, spreading through the Jura mountains along the French-Swiss border, where the majority of the population remains.
Huvier said poaching may be occurring but that the main threat to the lynxes is cars because their territory is "highly fragmented" by roads.
Last year conservationists in the area recorded 22 collisions with vehicles. Only one lynx survived.
To study the population in the Jura, the researchers collected genetic samples between 2008 and 2020 from lynxes that were treated for injuries, orphaned cubs or those that were found dead.
They compared 78 of the samples to reference data from the parent population in central Europe's Carpathian Mountains in central Europe.
The researchers found that while the total French population is estimated to be between 120 and 150 individuals, there are only an estimated 38 lynxes thought to have sufficient genetic diversity for healthy breeding.
The authors warned that without a breeding programme to introduce new genetic material into the population, it will likely collapse.
"The lynx is an apex predator and thus a keystone of its ecosystem," Huvier told AFP.
"The fact that it is back in France is excellent news and that's why it is so important to protect this population (as well as all the other populations) and help it to develop further."
French authorities last year expressed concern at the decline of the lynx population and launched a national plan to restore the species.
But calls to boost the population by introducing more lynxes have met with resistance from hunters and farmers, who prefer that the animal's population is left to increase naturally.
klm/mh/rox
'Enlightened tingle': Aussie cafe offers $140 cup of coffee
Melbourne (AFP) – At US$140 a pop, one cafe in Melbourne, Australia is serving up no ordinary cup of joe.
Melbourne has long been famed for its coffee culture, with Italian and Greek migrants infusing the city with all things bean and cup since the 1940s.
And for those looking for a next-level experience, one cafe is selling a cup at 50 times the price of a regular flat white or espresso.
The coffee -- hailed as one of the world's finest -- is grown in Panama's Chiriqui region.
Dubbed "Black Jaguar", the beans came first at the prestigious 2022 Best of Panama auction in the Natural Geisha category, scoring 96.5 out of 100.
They sold for over US$2,000 per pound (450 grams). Only 100 pounds were up for grabs and Australian cafe group Proud Mary snapped up a pound.
"I had an out-of-body, enlightened kind of tingle. It was really clearly a special cup of coffee, taste-wise, character-wise," said Proud Mary owner Nolan Hirte, who was on the judging panel.
"It was right in your face, so expressive and so clear.
"There's something about it that's just 'wow'."
The Black Jaguar is the most expensive coffee Proud Mary has ever bought.
They made 22 cups available in Melbourne, and a limited amount was stocked at their cafes in Austin and Portland in the United States.
One connoisseur flew two hours from Sydney to buy the deluxe drop, which is served as a pour-over.
Melbourne is one of the richest cities in one of the richest countries in the world. Even so, US$140 is well above what most people would pay for a cup of coffee.
But cinematographer Jake Reeder, a self-described "massive coffee nerd" who won a taste of the Black Jaguar in a competition, said he would have no qualms paying for it.
The 27-year-old described it as a "moving experience".
"Anytime you're on the receiving end of a product that's received so much love and care and attention," he said, "it makes you feel something."
Hirte believes coffee is a snip compared with more expensive drinks such as wine and tea.
"Coffee is far more complex than wine will ever be, but it often gets roasted dark, has sugar added to it and milk poured on it -- it can be so much more," he said.
"And does anyone talk about how expensive tea can be, because it outplays coffee massively."
"Why are we trying to hold it back, to think coffee can just have a ceiling?"
Phnom Penh (AFP) – A handful of protesters gathered in Phnom Penh on Monday to condemn the shutdown of one of Cambodia's last independent media outlets, with rights groups also slamming the portal's closure just months before national elections.
Prime Minister Hun Sen -- among the world's longest-serving leaders -- ordered the shuttering of online Khmer- and English-language outlet Voice of Democracy (VOD) on Sunday over what he said was an erroneous report about his eldest son.
Sitting in the meeting room at VOD, journalist Khan Leakhena burst into tears as management halted broadcasting at 10 am following the revocation of the outlet's licence.
"I have been here since I was an intern," she said. "I do not want to cry, but I am so shocked."
"Shutting down VOD is like shutting down the voice of the people," she added.
Outside the outlet's offices, protester Prum Chantha said: "It's only VOD that speaks about the truth... The government must not shut them down."
"They are cracking down (on VOD) so that other media outlets don't dare to rise up, to speak the truth," she added. "Other media outlets will be scared -- this is a threat."
A dozen police officers blocked the road as information ministry officials delivered the closure notice.
In the now-empty VOD studio, Ith Sothoeuth, media director of the Cambodian Centre for Independent Media which oversees VOD, told reporters: "For now we will stay silent".
"We hope that this is not the end of everything yet," he said, adding they were working with stakeholders to find a solution.
In the run-up to the election later this year, Hun Sen has increasingly cracked down on dissent and freedom of speech.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday condemned the "outrageous and ridiculous order" to shut VOD, which "barely masks the government's real intent to further suppress media freedom".
"Going after VOD is a good indication that (the) scheduled July 23 poll will be neither free nor fair," HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement.
"The real losers in all of this are the people of Cambodia." 'A clear warning'
VOD, which has broadcast since 2003, published a story on February 9 alleging that Hun Sen's son, Lieutenant General Hun Manet, had signed off on funds to help earthquake-hit Turkey.
Hun Manet has denied the claim, with Hun Sen stating that he himself authorised the $100,000 relief package.
The Cambodian leader demanded an apology from VOD, but has refused to reconsider his decision to revoke its licence even after the outlet complied.
As of Monday afternoon, some Cambodian internet service providers had blocked access to the site, requiring readers to use a VPN.
"This is a blatant attempt to slam the door on what's left of independent media in the country," said Amnesty International.
They added it was "a clear warning to other critical voices months before Cambodia's national elections".
Damar Juniarto, executive director and co-founder of digital rights group SAFENet, called the shuttering "bad for democracy".
The United States embassy said it was "deeply troubled" by VOD's closure, urging authorities to reconsider.
The German and French embassies also expressed concerns about the move in the run-up to the national polls.
In 2017, the Cambodian Daily was forced to close after it was hit with a disputed multi-million dollar tax bill, though it later restarted operations online.
And ahead of 2018's elections, many independent outlets were forced to close after being stripped of their operating licences.
Turkey's Justice Minister says 131 people are under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. Although the quakes were powerful, many in Turkey blame faulty construction for worsening the devastation. The country's construction codes are in line with current earthquake-engineering standards but they are rarely enforced - a possible explanation for the thousands of buildings that fell or collapsed. This report from FRANCE 24's Shona Battacharyya and our team on the ground.
Greenpeace Joins Suit to Block New FSRU at Italian Seaport
Piombino (Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mar Tirreno Settentrionale)
Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Federation have joined the city of Piombino in a suit to block the installation of an FSRU at the city's seaport. The project has already been approved by the regional government, but opponents contend that it could potentially be harmful to the marine environment and to local aquaculture interests.
State-owned gas company Snam wants to bring in an FSRU to the western Italian port of Piombino as early as April, and it is moving ahead with preparations. The project has urgency for the Italian government because of the need to reduce reliance on Russian natural gas. According to Reuteres, Italy is looking to source over eight billion cubic meters of LNG from other suppliers, primarily in Africa, Qatar and the U.S., before the next winter. Italy's existing terminals do not have that much extra capacity, but the Piombino project alone could handle five billion cubic meters.
Piombino's mayor, Francesco Ferrari, opposes the FSRU project and filed a court challenge to block it last year. The suit sought an injunction to halt work pending further study, citing safety and environmental concerns.
"We are aware of the energy emergency and that new gas supply measures are in the national interest, but this cannot disregard safety guarantees for the community in Piombino," said Ferrari at the time.
WWF and Greenpeace have joined the suit as supporting parties, calling for a more thorough review of the project's impact.
"There was a lack of risk assessment for the environment (starting from the [environmental impact assessment]) and for people, above all of an entire phase of the life of the work . . . which is certainly worrying. Very little attention was also paid to the study of emissions and pollutants," said President of WWF Italy Luciano Di Tizio and President of Greenpeace Italy Ivan Novelli in a joint statement.
Separately, Italian trade union USB has filed a criminal complaint with the Livorno prosecutor's office, accusing Snam of "environmental crimes" in connection with the FSRU project. The union has objected to purchasing American natural gas (LNG) at a price "four times that of Russia," and it has expressed displeasure at development projects in Piombino which it considers objectionable, like the FSRU and a new landfill at Ischia di Crociano.
China is Putting New Energy and Investment Into Tidal Power
The ebb and flow of the tide powers a turbine while the sun shines on solar panels. In May 2022, China’s first combined tidal and solar power station started feeding electricity to the grid, and the media waxed lyrical: “The sun and moon work together to generate power both above and below the waves.” This is a new model for power generation in China and marks an important step forward for integrated ocean energy. It is expected the electricity generated will power 30,000 homes.
With the need to achieve a global energy transition ever more pressing, the ocean and its vast and widespread energy are getting more attention.
The EU, US, Australia and China have all put policy frameworks in place to promote development of ocean energy. The EU has moved fastest. In terms of generating capacity, the bloc accounted for two-thirds of new tidal installations worldwide in 2021, and half of all wave energy.
According to estimates from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), generation capacity from ocean energy installations could reach 3 gigawatts (GW) in the next five years, then 70 GW in 2030 and 350 GW in 2050 – the equivalent of over 100 Three Gorges Dams.
That might seem a drop in the ocean given China’s total installed power generation capacity of 2,000 GW. But ocean energy is being seen as key for energy security, relieving coastal and island energy shortages, and boosting international competitiveness in marine tech. China has, therefore, put top-level plans in place to encourage research and utilisation in the field. According to a 2019 report from the Ministry of Natural Resources’ National Ocean Technology Centre, by the end of 2018 China had 7.4 MW of ocean-based generating capacity, which had produced a total of 234 GW hours of electricity since being installed.
There are ocean energy installations scattered along China’s coast. But the overall amount of energy available for exploitation is low. Below we will explore in detail the development of the five types of ocean energy and their future prospects in China. In short, tidal barrages are already in commercial use, while tidal stream generation, after almost ten years of development, is in the early stages of commercialisation. Wave power installations are undergoing sea trials. China’s technology in these fields is among the best in the world. In March, the country’s first megawatt-scale tidal stream station was hooked up to the grid in Zhejiang and is expected to generate at least 1 GWh a year. Meanwhile, ocean thermal energy is undergoing scale-model tests and salinity gradient energy is being tested in laboratories.
However, Wu Lixin, head of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, and vice president of the Ocean University of China, says China still lacks strategic plans and policy support for ocean energy, while construction and generation costs remain high. To accelerate growth, he calls for mid- and long-term development plans, regulation and funding.
Tidal barrages
Tidal barrages work much like hydropower dams. A dam-like structure is used to retain tidal waters and the differences in water level are then used to drive turbines. This is currently the most commercially viable form of ocean energy and has been in use for decades. France’s Rance Tidal Power Station, an early tidal barrage, has been in operation since 1966.
In China, tidal barrages can be traced back to the 1950s. Over the past seven decades, China has built over 100 small-scale tidal barrages, but due to technical problems, planning issues and operational factors only two are still running, in Jiangxia and Haixia, both in Zhejiang province. The Jiangxia Experimental Tidal Power Station has been expanded and upgraded several times and is now the world’s fourth largest, with a 4.1 MW capacity.
Unfortunately, China’s coasts tend to see only small differences in water levels between high and low tide, which reduces efficiency. Between 2009 and 2015, China carried out initial feasibility studies at a number of locations suitable for tidal barrages between 10 and 99 MWs. It found the “factory gate” cost of electricity would be between 1.386 yuan and 2.6 yuan per kilowatt hour. This was similar to costs seen internationally, but higher than hydropower or solar. In 2021, wind and solar power in China was generating electricity for no more than 0.50 yuan per kilowatt hour.
However, new tech could make up for the limitations of tidal barrages. Combined tidal and solar generation can’t reduce costs yet but can increase stability of supply. Meanwhile, researchers in the UK, Holland and Australia are working on “open barrages” which will not block waterways and so would have less environmental impact.
In May 2022, China’s first combined tidal and solar power station started feeding electricity to the grid, in Wenling, Zhejiang province (Image: Alamy)
Tidal streams
Unlike tidal barrages, tidal stream generation relies not on differences in water levels between high and low tide, but on tidal water flowing in and out. They work in a similar way to wind turbines, converting flow into electricity.
In 2003, the world’s first tidal stream installation, a 300-kilowatt turbine, was placed in the waters off Lynmouth in the UK. The technology has been improving ever since. In 2015, the UK, Switzerland and other partners started work on the world’s largest tidal stream power station, Meygen, in Scotland’s Pentland Firth. A year later, it had a generating capacity of 6 MW. Eventually it is slated to have a capacity of 398 MW, almost 100 times the output of China’s Jiangxia site. That success spurred the tidal stream market and shifted the technology from pilot projects to commercial operation.
Globally, tidal stream is now the focus for commercial ocean energy generation. A report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre listed ten emerging ocean energy technologies. Of those, four were tidal stream technologies and three are relevant to the field of ocean power generation.
China has been researching tidal stream generation since the 1980s and is one of the few countries to have mastered its use at scale. One project near Xishan Island, Zhoushan, Zhejiang has been creating electricity since 2016. In March 2022, a 1.03 MW turbine was added – reportedly the world’s largest individual tidal stream unit.
As of 2021, China ranked second globally for installed tidal stream generation, behind the UK. The prospects for commercial operation see bright.
The country does have plenty of resources to exploit. According to 1988 mapping, China had 13.95 GW of tidal energy generation potential in its waters. But that estimate would have been limited by the technology and survey techniques of the time, and the real number is likely to be larger. The province of Zhejiang is particularly rich in tidal stream potential, with 40% of the national total. In particular, Hangzhou Bay and the islands of the Zhoushan archipelago are world-class sites and it is fair to say China has a natural advantage here.
Wave power
The wind makes the waves, and their energy can be harnessed to drive generators. But capturing energy from waves is less efficient and less stable than doing so from tides.
Significant investment by countries including the UK, US, Australia and China has led to rapid development, but many different methods are used and the technology is mostly still in the demonstration stage. There is still some way to go before sea trials and commercial application.
Some technologies have progressed more rapidly through the research and development, sea trials and commercialisation stages. In the US, Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy uses a direct drive generator; while Denmark has the Wave Dragon overtopping device. These have all undergone extensive sea trials and are being hooked up to the grid.
Because China has a long coast, it has a lot of wave power resources to exploit. Geographical factors and monsoons make Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian particularly suitable. But wave intensity – wave power by area – is relatively low. Even China’s most wave-intense sites are only a tenth as powerful as the global average. That makes it hard to scale up devices and bring costs down.
Wu Bijun, an ocean energy researcher at the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, has said in a media interview that there are also challenges associated with protecting installations from typhoons as well as increasing efficiency.
Wu and his research team have focused on oscillating water column systems, which are relatively simple, safe, reliable and efficient. One such device developed in Scotland features a partly-submerged concrete structure that’s open at the bottom. As the sea oscillates up and down, it forces air through a turbine.
In 2019, tests by the National Ocean Technology Centre saw conversion efficiency of 50.73%. Such devices could be used to power marine instrumentation, marine ranches or islands.
Thermal and salinity gradients
The possibility of generating power from thermal and salinity gradients is also being investigated, but commercial use remains a way off.
Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) harnesses the temperature difference between the sun-warmed surface and colder deeper waters. This technique was initially proposed in the 19th century, while the first OTEC installation was built early in the 20th century, in Cuba. The 21st century has seen renewed interest in OTEC systems, thanks to improvements in heat circulation technology and on-land thermal gradient systems.
This form of ocean energy has more potential in Chinese waters than any other. According to calculations by Wang Chuankun, a researcher at the State Oceanic Administration’s Second Institute of Oceanology, and others, developing 1% of the potential (about 360 GW) would generate more power than all of China’s PV solar installations. But China only started research in this field in the 1980s and systems are still undergoing sea trials.
Salinity gradient systems, meanwhile, are even more recent and high cost. This technology remains in the proof of concept and lab test stage. Salinity gradients are found between seawater and freshwater, or two bodies of seawater with different levels of salt. This most commonly means where rivers flow into the sea.
In 2009, Norway’s Statkraft built a 10-kilowatt demonstration system. Seawater and freshwater are filtered and placed on either side of a membrane, creating an osmotic gradient. Water molecules from the freshwater side cross the membrane, creating pressure which can be used to drive turbines.
Interest in this technology is increasing around the world, particularly for the manufacturing of hydrogen from seawater and in deep-water aquaculture. Liu Weimin, a researcher at the First Institute of Oceanology who studies ocean renewables, has written that thermal gradient technology is suitable for remote islands in tropical waters, both in terms of potential resources and feasibility. The power generation could be combined with sea water air conditioning and desalination, he added.
Conclusions
China has funded over 100 ocean energy research projects since the 1980s. Currently, hundreds of researchers are working on these issues, with notable results. Costs remain the main obstacle, but as development of the coasts, islands and ocean continues, we will better know where to place such projects.
According to Li Wei, chief ocean energy researcher at Zhejiang University’s Ocean Academy, ocean energy can be located close to island power users. As the diesel-fuelled power generation currently used on islands can cost between 2 and 6 yuan per kilowatt hour, ocean energy is already a viable alternative. Also, offshore and underwater facilities have a pressing need for ocean-generated energy.
As Li Wei says, ocean energy is a triple-win for China’s strategic goals on carbon neutrality, renewable energy and high-end manufacturing. “We’ve got a good research foundation and conditions for commercialisation, representing a major opportunity.”
Han Qing is a former environmental journalist for Jiemian and Beijing News, with a focus on climate and biodiversity.
This article appears courtesy of China Dialogue Ocean and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
Russian forces appear to have used an unmanned surface vessel (USV) to attack a strategic bridge between Ukraine and Moldova, according to social media reports and defense analysts. It represents the first known Russian use of a USV in combat, though not the first use in the Black Sea.
The Zatoka road and rail bridge connects the Ukrainian port of Odessa with Moldova. It is the only road and rail link between the two nations. The bridge was hit previously by a Russian cruise missile strike in 2022, and photos from the missile attack have circulated again on social media, purporting to show the aftermath of Friday's drone strike. The extent of any damage from the drone boat attack was not immediately clear.
Ukraine's top military officer, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, appeared to confirm the attack in a statement on Saturday. In a readout of a recent telephone call with U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Gen. Zaluzhny noted his concern over "Russia's use of maritime surface drones, which pose a threat to civilian shipping in the Black Sea."
In October, Ukraine used unmanned surface vessels armed with explosive warheads to attack the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The strike may have resulted in a successful hit on the frigate Admiral Makarov, the current flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed that eight unmanned aerial vehicles and seven unmanned surface vessels (USVs) were involved in the attack, and reported that the minesweeper Ivan Golubets sustained "minor damage."
After the Ukrainian attack, Russia withdrew the majority of its vessel assets to Novorossyisk, further away from Ukrainian shores. It also emplaced multiple floating barriers between its warship berths and the harbor entrance in order to thwart small-craft attacks. Analysts were quick to note that similar low-tech barriers would go a long ways towards warding off future attacks at Ukraine's fixed targets, like the Zakota bridge.
Though Russia has not previously announced a drone-boat development program, Russian forces captured a similar Ukrainian drone on the beach near Sevastopol in September, and would have had the opportunity to examine it. Russia also has extensive engineering capabilities of its own, along with access to technical assistance from the Iranian military, which has experience in the development of explosives-laden drone boats.
