New initiatives to promote ‘Food as Medicine’ throughout the US


By Dr. Tim Sandle
July 22, 2024
DIGITAL JOURNAL

The rate of food price rises in the eurozone slowed significantly in February - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Anna Moneymaker

Food nourishes our bodies, and it is also a powerful cultural symbol. For a researcher in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, food is also medicine.

Dr. Bailey Houghtaling is a a registered dietician, is working to promote overall wellness among low-income individuals experiencing food insecurity, aiming to prevent or treat diet-related diseases.

“Access to enough nutritious food is essential for individual well-being,” said Houghtaling. “Food is Medicine can encompass a variety of interventions.”

The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, held in September 2022, renewed national attention and issued a call to action to end hunger and reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases in the U.S. by 2030. Food is Medicine programs could help reach this goal.

“These programs are promising, and there is a lot of emphasis at the moment on understanding effectiveness for promoting food and nutrition security, although it is important to recognize that Food is Medicine programs are implemented in diverse communities and health care organizations with varying levels of support or capacity,” Houghtaling continues.

The academic continues: “It is critical to understand factors about these contexts that influence program adoption, implementation, sustainment, and scalability for public health impact.”

Houghtaling has recently assessed, in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the organizational factors in healthcare settings that affect the success of Food is Medicine programs.

Electronic medical record functionality appears necessary to identify and track patients for Food is Medicine programs and increase the sharing of data between partner organizations was important to support implementation and evaluation. Strategies to help health care staff implement these programs were also important, such as providing reminders and problem-solving and technical assistance support.

A second line of inquiry, published in BMJ Journals, outlines how to leverage nationally representative data among U.S. households to identify individual, household, and community factors that likely influence participant engagement and utilization of these programs.

“Households experience heightened barriers to fresh fruit and vegetable access in the United States, depending on several factors,” Houghtaling said. “It is important to understand the implications of this policy limitation to inform future Food is Medicine policy that maximizes impact and equity.”

Both papers were funded by a National Institutes of Food and Agriculture grant awarded to the Center for Nutrition and Health Impact. It established the Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center through the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program. The second paper also was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

EU opens probe into possible online food-delivery cartel


By AFP
July 23, 2024


Delivery Hero warned this month it faced a possible fine of more than may exceed 400 million euros ($434 million) - Copyright AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI

The EU launched an investigation on Tuesday to determine whether online food-delivery companies Delivery Hero and Glovo engaged in anti-competitive practices.

The probe comes after surprise raids at the firms, which are two of the largest food delivery companies in Europe, in June 2022 and November 2023.

From July 2018, Delivery Hero, based in Germany, held a minority share in Glovo, and in July 2022 it acquired sole control.

The European Commission is concerned that before the takeover, the two companies “may have allocated geographic markets and shared commercially sensitive information (e.g., on commercial strategies, prices, capacity, costs, product characteristics)”, it said.

Delivery Hero’s then minority share could have “facilitated” these practices.

Earlier this month, Delivery Hero warned that it faced a possible fine of more than 400 million euros ($434 million) for allegedly violating antitrust rules.

Delivery Hero and Glovo said in separate statements they were “fully” cooperating with the EU and “committed to meeting all compliance and regulatory requirements”.

“The opening of an investigation does not mean that the European Commission has concluded on whether an actual infringement of competition law may have occurred,” Delivery Hero said.

The commission said the probe was part of the powerful EU competition regulator’s “efforts to ensure that online food delivery and the groceries sector deliver choice and reasonable prices to consumers”.

The EU is also suspicious the firms agreed not to poach each other’s workers, and said this probe was the first on “no-poach agreements formally initiated by the Commission”.

“This investigation is also part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure a fair labour market where employers do not collude to limit the number and quality of opportunities for workers but compete for talents,” it added.

– ‘Negative effects’ on prices? –

The opening of a probe does not prejudge its outcome and there is no deadline for the investigation to be completed.

The companies risk fines of up to 10 percent of their annual worldwide turnover if found at fault.

“Online food delivery is a fast-growing sector, where we must protect competition,” said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

“If confirmed, such conduct may amount to a breach of EU competition rules, with potential negative effects on prices and choice for consumers and on opportunities for workers,” she added.

Delivery Hero, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, operates in more than 70 countries while Glovo is present in 25 nations.

‘Sexist’ falsehoods target Kamala Harris after Biden drops out


By AFP
July 22, 2024

Kamala Harris faces a wave of gendered disinformation in the race to the White House. - Copyright AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Anuj CHOPRA

Doctored images, sexual slurs, racial innuendos — false narratives around Kamala Harris surged online as she emerged as the Democratic frontrunner in the US presidential race, with researchers warning of an incoming flood of gendered disinformation.

President Joe Biden exited the race on Sunday and endorsed Harris — the first Black, South Asian and woman vice president in US history — who vowed to win her party’s nomination to take on Donald Trump in November.

An online explosion of misogynistic and sexist narratives about Harris quickly ensued, including previously debunked falsehoods.

Some social media posts repeated suggestions Harris “slept her way to the top” in American politics, citing her brief relationship in the 1990s with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.

The charge was refloated by conservative influencers such as Candace Owens, Matt Walsh, and Clay Travis.

Meanwhile, posts on the platform X recirculated a doctored image of Harris appearing to pose alongside disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The picture — debunked years ago by AFP’s fact-checkers using a reverse image search — had been manipulated to include Epstein instead of Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff.

Online posts also derided US-born Harris as a “Black African woman,” with some attributing her success solely to her ethnicity.

“It’s important to label these narratives and lies as what they are: an attempt to undermine a powerful woman’s public service because of her gender, her background, her skin color,” said Nina Jankowicz, co-founder of the disinformation watchdog American Sunlight Project.

“I challenge anyone who opposes Harris’s candidacy to engage in a substantive debate on the merits of her policies and track record, rather than calling her disgusting names.”

– ‘Lies and conspiracies’

In 2020, Jankowicz led a study that found more than 336,000 instances of “gendered abuse and disinformation” used to attack 13 women politicians. Some 78 percent of that targeted Harris.

The disinformation involved not just sexual tropes but also false transphobic narratives, such as Harris could not have ascended politically without secretly being a man.

Also included were racist narratives falsely asserting Harris was “ineligible” to run for office because both her parents were immigrants, while some insisted that she was “exaggerating” her racial identities for political gain.

Roberta Braga, executive director of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, warned internet users to be alert for “lies and conspiracies” about Harris in the coming days.

“The misinformation will be laced with gender-based attacks. And it won’t be new,” Braga said.

Women candidates of color in the 2020 elections were twice as likely as other candidates to be targeted with disinformation, according to a report from the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology.

They were also four times as likely as white candidates to be targeted with violent abuse, the report added.

– ‘Full spectrum’ –

Gendered disinformation –- when sexism and misogyny intersect with online falsehoods — has relentlessly targeted women politicians around the world, tarnishing their reputations, undermining their credibility and, in many cases, upending their careers.

AFP’s global fact-checkers have regularly debunked falsehoods targeting politically active women, who are often sitting ducks for online abuse and sexually-charged trolling.

As the White House race — already vulnerable to an avalanche of disinformation — heads into its final months, researchers are bracing for a flood of falsehoods targeting Harris.

Widely available artificial intelligence tools are expected to add fuel to the fire on social sites such as X -– the platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, who is strongly backing Trump.

Platforms including X have scaled back content moderation, removing many of the guardrails against false information, and reinstated accounts of known purveyors of falsehoods.

“We should expect a full spectrum of disinformation,” said Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab, a research center affiliated with the University of Toronto.

That will range from “well-organized and professional influence operations, in some cases backed by foreign adversaries, through to amateur productions created by miscreants,” Deibert told AFP.

The coconut tree presidency? Harris memes break the internet


By AFP
July 22, 2024


The so-called 'KHive' -- Kamala Harris's online fandom -- is hoping memes about the vice president will help propel her all the way to the Oval Office - Copyright POOL/AFP Haiyun Jiang
Sarah TITTERTON

Last-minute US presidential candidate Kamala Harris is racing to craft her image — and social media users are moving even more swiftly to signal support, flooding the internet with jokes about coconuts and “brat summers.”

Harris memes have been surging for weeks as the so-called “KHive” — her online fandom — pushed her as an alternative to her boss, President Joe Biden, to face Donald Trump at the polls in November.

And with Biden’s momentous decision Sunday to step aside and throw his support behind her, many have rallied to the vice president with a tsunami of jokes and unburdened enthusiasm.

It began, as most good summer things do, with coconuts.

Last year Harris was speaking at the White House on education when she quoted a comment her mother often made during her childhood.

“She would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us: ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you,'” Harris said.

The oddball quote, along with clips of her dancing, her at-times awkward laughter, and some of her other slightly baffling anecdotes, became an instant data point in the — at best, bemused — way the internet understood Harris.

But after Biden’s disastrous debate against Trump on June 27 inflamed fears about his age, prompting calls for him to step aside, the KHive asserted itself, with social media users admitting they were “coconut-pilled.”

Content creators made “fancam” edits of her speeches and dancing on TikTok, and palm tree emojis were suddenly everywhere.

Bars in Washington — always quick to capitalize on political moments — began offering coconut-themed drinks, with pina coladas threatening a comeback.

Another of Harris’s offbeat but philosophically inclined sayings — talking about “what can be, unburdened by what has been” — also went stratospheric as Americans, weary of the long slog between Trump and Biden, began to hope a change might really come.

By the time Biden announced he was dropping out and endorsing Harris, the memes were no longer ironic.

“Madam Vice President, we are ready to help,” posted Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz above a photo of a man climbing a coconut palm, as top Democrats swiftly lined up behind Harris.

“You think I just fell out of a coconut tree?” posted Illinois Governor JB Pritzker shortly after ruling himself out as a Harris rival and endorsing her.

– ‘kamala IS brat’ –

The Harris meme fever riffs on what Biden’s campaign attempted to do with “Dark Brandon” — take something that had been derogatory (Republican jokes about Biden) and flip the script.

But Biden had long struggled to win over younger voters, and some Americans saw the Dark Brandon posts as a forced, cringeworthy attempt to connect with Generation Z.

“Harris’s efforts are likely to appear more authentic, maybe even fun,” wrote Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic.

Still, the internet is fickle, and the Harris campaign will walk a thin line as it attempts to lock down the youth vote.

Its first deliberate attempt to do so appears to have been a success: her campaign’s account rebranded itself on X with a lime green logo inspired by the album cover from singer Charli XCX’s “Brat.”

The album, released in June, has been a hit, with “brat” — defined by Charli XCX as “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe say some dumb things sometimes” — inspiring fans to declare a “brat summer.”

Encapsulating Harris’s memeability, Charli XCX posted “kamala IS brat” in the hours after Biden’s announcement.

“This tweet will reach more young people than a million dollar cable ad,” posted one user on X.

“Brat vote secured,” agreed Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost, 27.

The election remains in uncharted waters, but it all signals a broader generational shift as Biden passes the torch — and Trump, 78, becomes the oldest presidential nominee in US history.

As Slate writer Mark Stern put it on X, “Republicans who gleefully watched Biden get destroyed on TikTok for the past year are now realizing with horror that they can’t stop the Zoomer meme machine from turning Kamala into a brat summer icon.”

Indian priests invoke heavenly powers for Kamala Harris

By AFP
July 23, 2024

A picture of Kamala Harris stands in the US presidential candidate's ancestral Indian village - Copyright AFP Idrees MOHAMMED
Arunabh SAIKIA

The god of truth and righteousness is on the side of the Democratic Party in this year’s US presidential election, according to Hindu priests in likely nominee Kamala Harris’ ancestral Indian village.

A single narrow road lined with coconut trees leads to Thulasendrapuram, a village surrounded by paddy fields deep in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and once home to Harris’ maternal grandfather.

A huge picture of the smiling Democrat stands at the village entrance near its main temple, a sprawling structure with a towering, decorated gate.

Community prayers began there the day after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, paving the way for Harris to ascend to the top of the ticket, and are expected to continue daily until voting day.

Hours after sunrise, sarong-clad head priest M. Natrajan paid obeisance with offerings of sweets and rice pudding to Dharmasastha, the Hindu god of truth and righteousness, to whom the centuries-old temple is dedicated.

“We prayed for her, and she became vice president,” the 61-year-old holy man told AFP.

“With the blessing of our all-powerful deity, we are confident she will now become president too.”

Another enormous image of Harris stands outside the temple’s gates, adorned by intricate artwork, and dozens of villagers thronged the premises.

The scale of the prayers will increase as the elections approach, said Natrajan — who doubles as a veterinarian at the animal dispensary next door.

Harris’ name appears on a list of donors on one of the temple walls, but she has not visited the village since being sworn in as vice president in 2021.

“This time if she wins again, the celebrations will be grander than anything the village has ever seen,” the priest said.

“After becoming president, she must visit.”

The offerings were “donated by the people of the village”, said J Sudhakar, 50, an influential local leader whose wife is the local councillor.

“It is a collective effort of everyone in the village for one of our own.”

– High profile –

Harris’ maternal grandfather PV Gopalan left the village decades ago, but residents say the family has maintained close links and has regularly donated to the temple’s upkeep.

Harris, 59, was born in California, but was often taken to India by her mother — breast cancer specialist Shyamala Gopalan — and has spoken about the influence of her maternal grandfather.

She has a diverse religious background — she is a Baptist, while her husband is Jewish.

Government employee Vijay Kumar insists that the village has benefited from Harris’ high profile.

A local commercial bank donated 10 million rupees ($120,000) to rejuvenate a long-dead reservoir in the area.

“They did that only because of Kamala Harris’ association with our village,” the 59-year-old said.

But even before she seeks to become leader of the world’s most powerful country, Harris is facing demands from a constituency continents away.

“Only the very bright can go to America, but if she can get some companies to open in our area, our kids can work there,” said Sudhakar, the local politician.

And farmer T Selvi, 53, added: “She was vice president, and now she will become president, but she should do something for us too.

“What is the point otherwise?”

Harris shines light on Trump’s women problem


By AFP
July 22, 2024

Donald Trump holds a sign that reads 'Women for Trump' during his 2016 presidential campaign, which was beset by scandal over his treatment of women - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File JOE RAEDLE
Frankie TAGGART

Accused of sexual misconduct and affairs spanning decades, blamed for strict abortion curbs and criticized for sexism, Donald Trump has a women problem — and Democrats are gambling that Kamala Harris can use it as a cudgel.

Trump was accused of misogyny by his Democratic 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton — the only woman ever nominated for a White House run by a major party — and is facing similar attacks from a vice president looking increasingly likely to be the second.

Broadening Trump’s appeal to women is seen as key to the Republican’s electoral success in November, after he won just 42 percent of the female vote on his way to defeat in 2020, against Joe Biden’s 57 percent.

There was an coordinated push at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week to soften the 78-year-old billionaire’s rougher edges, with former and current associates effusive in their praise.

Several female family members also weighed in, with Kai Trump, his oldest grandchild, sharing stories of “a normal grandpa” who “gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking.”

The praise was at odds with his public persona as an adjudicated sexual predator who has bragged about groping women and has a reputation for being unfaithful, allegedly cheating on third wife Melania Trump with a Playboy model and a porn star.



– ‘Fat pigs, dogs, slobs’ –



Trump was found liable last year for a mid-1990s sex attack on writer E. Jean Carroll — the judge called it “rape” — and ordered to pay $88 million in damages for the assault itself and for defaming her.

During his first primary campaign, he criticized the looks of his only female Republican rival and implied that the wife of another opponent– Senator Ted Cruz of Texas — was ugly.

Then the “Access Hollywood” footage of him boasting about being able to grab women by their genitals almost brought a swift end to his campaign.

Years earlier he had boasted on Howard Stern’s show about entering beauty pageant changing rooms with “incredible-looking women” in various states of undress.

Voters were reminded of Trump’s controversial statements during one of the primary debates in 2015, when moderator Megyn Kelly brought up his descriptions of women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”

He later criticized the questioning, saying Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever.”

Clinton accused Trump of “stalking” her during their debate in October 2016, after a bizarre performance during which he often stood closely behind her glowering.

After he won that election, more than 500 Women’s March protests were held in America and scores of foreign cities.

Trump has denied more than a dozen sexual misconduct allegations, from groping and harassment to rape. The official Trump White House position in 2017 was that the women were all lying.



– ‘Formidable female contender’ –



He avoided jail in the Carroll case because it was a civil trial, but incarceration has not been ruled out in his September sentencing for falsifying business records to cover up an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt told AFP the media’s portrayal of his treatment of women was “entirely false,” pointing to his efforts to expand access to paid family leave and child care in his first term.

Meanwhile, reproductive rights have become a hot-button 2024 election issue after Trump’s appointment of three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn federal abortion protections.

Harris, as well as being a former prosecutor who used to put men away for fraud and rape, is a leading proponent of abortion access.

A coalition of 22 progressive and women’s groups released a statement calling Harris “the leading voice in the Biden administration to restore abortion rights — the issue galvanizing voters in red states and blue.”

Political strategist Sergio Jose Gutierrez says that while Harris might struggle with moderate and older women, the 2020 Democratic coalition of suburban women and working moms could help her across the line.

“Trump’s stronghold remains among small-town voters, seniors, and economic conservatives,” said Gutierrez, the CEO of consultancy Espora.

“But he must adapt to the dynamics of running against a formidable female contender.”

July 21 hottest day ever recorded globally: EU climate monitor

THE DAY OF THE GOD SET

By AFP
Published July 23, 2024


Climate change is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods - Copyright AFP Idrees MOHAMMED

July 21 was the hottest day ever registered globally, according to preliminary data published Tuesday by the EU’s climate monitor.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said the global average surface air temperature of 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday was the warmest in their record books, which go back to 1940.

It comes as heatwaves and wildfires ravage swathes of Europe and the United States.

“The Earth has just experienced its warmest day,” the monitor said in a statement.

The new daily high was 0.01 degree Celsius above the previous record temperature of 17.08 registered on July 6, 2023.

“On July 21st, C3S recorded a new record for the daily global mean temperature,” C3S director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement.

“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years,” he said.

Though just a tiny rise above the previous record, what was “truly staggering” was the streak of unprecedented global heat recorded over the past 13 months, Buontempo added.

Every month since June 2023 has eclipsed its own temperature record compared to the same month in previous years.

Copernicus said in this context, and at the peak of the northern hemisphere summer, it was not “completely unexpected” that this new daily high would be breached.

It could be eclipsed by the soaring heat experienced earlier this week, the monitor said, pointing to a streak of record-breaking days that occurred in July and August 2023.

Global temperatures were expected to peak and drop soon though there could be further fluctuations in coming weeks, Copernicus said.



– Heat and fire –



Climate change is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods, and this year has been marked by major disasters across the globe.

Deadly heatwaves have already hit North America, Mexico, India and Thailand this year, to name a few, while flooding has devastated parts of East Africa, China and Brazil.

Wildfires are torching a path across southern and eastern Europe and in Canada and the United States as prolonged scorching temperatures in parts of the northern hemisphere make conditions tinder dry.

The burning of fossil fuels is the primary driver of global warming but emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases keep rising, despite international efforts to switch to clean energy and slow rising temperatures.

2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 could follow in step considering the “sufficiently warm” temperatures experienced to date, Copernicus said.

But it was “too early to predict with confidence” which would be hotter between the years, it added.

Four Unexplored Indian Basins May Hold More Oil Than The Permian

             Alex Kimani - Jul 16, 2024, 

• S&P Commodity Insights: the Mahanadi, Andaman Sea, Bengal, and Kerala-Konkan could hold up to 22 billion barrels of crude oil.
• 
  
• Currently, only 10% of India's 3.36 million sq km wide sedimentary basin is under exploration.
• 
  
• Of India's 3.14 million square kilometers of sedimentary basins, 1.3 million sq km are in deep waters.

Four largely unexplored sedimentary basins in India could hold up to 22 billion barrels of oil, S&P Global Commodity Insights has reported. In effect, lesser-known Category II and III basins, namely Mahanadi, Andaman Sea, Bengal, and Kerala-Konkan contain more oil than the Permian Basin, which has already produced 14 billion barrels of its 34 billion recoverable oil reserves. 

Rahul Chauhan, an upstream analyst at Commodity Insights, has emphasized the potential of India's unexplored Oil & Gas sector, "ONGC and Oil India hold acreages in the Andaman waters under the Open Acreage Licensing Program (OALP) and have planned a few significant projects. However, India still awaits the entry of an international oil company with deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration expertise to participate in current and upcoming OALP bidding rounds and explore these frontier regions," he has declared.

Currently, only 10% of India's 3.36 million sq km wide sedimentary basin is under exploration. India boasts significant discoveries in the Krishna-Godavari, Barmer, and Assam basins, but exploration in other areas have been slower to develop. Of India's 3.14 million square kilometers of sedimentary basins, 1.3 million sq km are in deep waters. India had its first foray into deepwater exploration in the Bay of Bengal earlier this year in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, courtesy of India's state run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). ONGC said it was planning to spend over $10 billion developing multiple deepwater projects in its KG-DWN-98/2 block in that basin.

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri says that this 10% figure will jump to 16% in 2024 following the award of blocks under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds. So far, OALP has resulted in the award of 144 blocks covering about 244,007 sq km.  Under OALP, India allows upstream exploration companies to carve out areas for oil and gas exploration and put in an expression of interest for any area throughout the year. The interests are accumulated thrice a year following which they are put on auction. According to Puri, India's Exploration and Production (E&P) activities in the oil and gas sector offer investment opportunities worth $100 billion by 2030.

In February, Oil India said it was targeting a 100% increase in its exploration acreage in the coming years, and was looking for partners to help it explore offshore areas.

Over the past couple of years, global E&P companies have been venturing into deepwater and ultra-deepwater offshore areas in pursuit of major discoveries. According to Wood Mackenzie, deepwater oil and gas production is set to increase by 60% and contribute 8% of overall upstream production. More impressive: Ultra-deepwater production is set to continue growing at breakneck speed to account for half of all deepwater production by 2030. According to Woodmac, global deepwater production will exceed 17 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 2030, up from just 300,000 boe/d in 1990.

India has just this week raised its windfall tax on petroleum crude effective today, to $83.75 per metric ton, up from $71.78 per metric ton. India levied the windfall tax on oil producers and refiners back in 2022 as an incentive to keep more oil in-country as opposed to exports. The country reviews the windfall tax on oil companies every couple of weeks to ensure the levels are aligned with market prices to properly incentivize keeping more oil at home.

India's oil production declined in the early 2000s, but its thirst for oil is only growing. It is the world's third largest importer of oil, depending on imports for 85% of its petroleum needs.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

 HALT DEEP SEA MINING

India to Apply for Deep-Sea Critical Minerals Mining in the Pacific

By Charles Kennedy - Jul 22, 2024, 

India plans to apply for obtaining licenses for deep-sea mining of minerals key for the energy transition in the Pacific, a senior government scientist told Reuters on Monday.  

India has been exploring ways to own and develop critical minerals assets abroad as its renewable energy rollout is soaring and as it seeks to have its own stream of supply of key metals such as lithium, nickel, and copper.

Now the country is getting ready to apply in 2025 with the UN-backed International Seabed Authority (ISA) for exploration licenses in the Pacific, M. Ravichandran, the top scientist at India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, told Reuters.

The ministry will be working jointly with the Indian Ministry of Mines in the preparatory work to apply for licenses, the scientist told Reuters.  

ISA is an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Jamaica-based ISA is the organization through which the member states, including India, organize and control all mineral-resources-related activities.

So far, ISA has issued 31 deep-sea exploration licenses, including two for India to mine the Indian Ocean. However, mining is not allowed yet by the authority as it is still finalizing regulations.

India is also looking at onshore South America to potentially develop resources of lithium and copper.

For example, state-held giant Coal India and a U.S. company are considering joint development of lithium assets in Argentina, under the U.S.-led pact for Minerals Security Partnership, Reuters reported last month, citing an Indian source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Earlier this year, India signed an agreement with the state-owned enterprise of Catamarca province in northwest Argentina for a lithium exploration and mining project in the Argentinian province.

To boost its energy transition efforts, India is also betting on acquiring lithium and copper assets overseas and sent earlier this year a delegation to search for such resources in Chile, a top producer of both critical minerals. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

The Dramatic Fall of Mexico’s Oil Giant

By Felicity Bradstock - Jul 20, 2024

• Pemex, once a global oil giant, is now burdened by debt and declining production.
• 
  
• The Mexican government's support for Pemex has come at a high cost.
• 
  
• Pemex faces challenges in both addressing environmental concerns and attracting investment.

Once one of the world’s most successful oil companies, the Mexican state-owned firm Pemex, has been falling increasingly into debt over the last decade, only surviving by pursuing cheaper shallow-water oil operations and being bailed out by the government. The recently elected incumbent Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is expected to continue supporting President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s (AMLO) ambitious oil and gas plans despite Pemex’s failings, in addition to adding renewable energy capacity. However, following years of safety failures and ongoing financial issues, many are questioning just how long Mexico’s oil and gas major can stay afloat. 

Mexico has long relied on oil and gas production to bring in revenue. It is home to 5.978 billion barrels of proven reserves of crude and production stands at around 1.8 million bpd. The state-owned oil company Pemex has been an important player in Mexico’s oil industry, particularly as AMLO curbed foreign participation in the country’s energy market as he pursued nationalisation policies. However, for several years, the government has been investing heavily in supporting Pemex as it fell into debt. Since 2019, for each peso the government invested in Pemex, it received a return of just 1.4 pesos, compared to 5.7 pesos between 2015 and 2018 and much more in previous years. 

Under the previous Enrique Peña Nieto administration, the government sought to end Pemex’s monopoly of Mexico’s oil industry, reducing the need for risky exploration activities by attracting greater private investment in the sector. However, President AMLO aimed to make Mexico more self-sufficient by nationalising much of its energy industry. This included the development of the new Dos Bocas oil refinery in Tabasco, run by Pemex, which is expected to boost Mexico’s crude refining capacity to provide greater energy security. Considering the country’s six existing refineries operate at just 50 percent capacity at present this could offer a major boost. However, this is expected to lead to a reduction in oil revenue, as Mexico will stop exporting a lot of its crude. AMLO’s government has invested around  $53 billion of public money in fossil fuels, as well as offering $25 billion in tax cuts. 

One of the main reasons that Pemex’s revenue has fallen is due to a decrease in oil production in recent decades. Previously a top-five oil producer, Pemex dropped out of the top-10 crude producers worldwide in the last decade. Much of the reason for Pemex’s reduced oil production is due to the underinvestment in oil operations in recent years. For years, the government used oil and gas revenues irresponsibly instead of introducing fiscal reforms that would support the development of new assets, which forced Pemex to borrow money. It has now become the most indebted oil company in the world, with a debt of around $102 billion, equivalent to around 7 percent of Mexico’s GDP. It is still turning a profit on its exploration and production activities, but downstream operations are making a loss. Due to its poor financial records, credit agencies have downgraded Pemex, making it more expensive for the firm to borrow.

Pemex is now worried that concern around climate change could hinder its investment opportunities, as many banks and other investors are divesting from the fossil fuel industry. In 2022, Pemex stated, “Limitations from ESG financing" are posing a threat, as is the "acceleration in energy transition that is decreasing the market for Pemex's crude oil and products,” an issue about which it is still concerned. The company launched its first ESG strategy this year in a bid to encourage investors to back its operations, despite its poor financial situation. Pemex has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and was successful in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2.3 percent between 2021 and 2022. The firm plans to invest between 10 and 14 percent of its annual capital expenditure to its sustainability strategy.

However, it has a poor track record when it comes to sustainability. As other countries reduce their gas flaring activities to reduce emissions, Pemex continues to be one of the world’s worst culprits for flaring. Mexico flared the seventh-highest quantity of gas worldwide in 2022, while it was the 10th-largest methane emitter in 2021. Nevertheless, Pemex has the potential to attract greater investment if it reduces flaring and diversifies its energy activities to focus on renewable energy and critical mineral mining, but this has yet to be seen. 

Despite previous failings, Sheinbaum aims for Pemex to boost production from 1.5 million bpd to 1.8 million bpd. It is still uncertain whether the government will absorb $40 billion of Pemex’s debt to help the company expand its oil activities as well as potentially expand into renewable energy and lithium mining. Meanwhile, attracting foreign investment will depend heavily on Pemex’s efforts to decarbonise and improve its ESG practices. While there is some hope for Pemex’s future, there are still several challenges standing in the way of a comeback.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Trans Mountain Corp. Arranges Bond Sale To Refinance $18B Debt

By Alex Kimani - Jul 22, 2024,

Trans Mountain Corp., Canada's newly expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, is arranging a bond sale to refinance part of its debt ahead of the Canadian government’s eventual sale of the oil pipeline operator. 

The company had C$25.3 billion ($18.4 billion) debt as of March 31, including credit agreements with a syndicate of lenders containing two facilities totaling C$19 billion. 

The Canadian government bought and nationalized the existing pipeline from a unit of Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE:KMI) in 2018 to ensure that the expansion would be built. In effect, the federal government acquired its corporate owner Trans Mountain, which became a federal Crown corporation with Ottawa framing this decision around the desire to secure a key Canadian asset. TMX ended up witnessing massive cost overruns, with the project costing C$34 billion, more than six times the original estimate.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is now looking to offload TMX after the expanded pipeline commenced operations in May. 

TMX is expected to  triple the flow of crude from landlocked Alberta to Canada's Pacific coast to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd). The pipeline is viewed as a boon to Asian refiners since it provides them with an opportunity to diversify their imports while also giving Canadian producers more access to U.S. West Coast and Asian markets.

TMX crude exports are expected to clock in at ~350,000-400,000 bpd, and compete with heavy grades from the Middle East and Latin America. Cold Lake crude is about $10 per barrel cheaper than Iraq's Basra Heavy for deliveries to China.

"Canada's TMX crude attracts interest from Asian buyers who are keen to secure cheap supplies of heavy grades but do not have access to U.S.-sanctioned Venezuelan crude," XU told Reuters. 

"It will still take some time for refiners to experiment with and test TMX crude as the first few cargoes have just arrived," Muyu Xu, a senior crude oil analyst at analytics firm Kpler, has revealed.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

Solar Companies Forced To Borrow To Finance Growth

By Alex Kimani - Jul 21, 2024, 

Solar companies raised $12.2 billion across 50 debt financing deals in the first six months of 2024.

Solar IPOs have recorded the biggest decline, with public market financing raising just $1.7 billion across eight deals in the first half of 2024.

The renewable energy sector tends to be highly sensitive to interest rates because clean energy developers usually borrow lots of capital upfront to build projects.



Solar companies recorded the highest amount in debt financing in a decade during the first half of 2024, Mercom Capital Group has reported.

Solar companies raised $12.2 billion across 50 debt financing deals in the period, marking a 53% increase from the $8 billion raised in 33 deals during the first six months of 2023.

According to Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom, solar companies are increasingly being forced to borrow to finance growth while investors sit out due to several industry headwinds including high interest rates, a renewed push for tariffs on Chinese imports, and the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

“Financing activity in the solar sector remains restrained despite tailwinds from the Inflation Reduction Act and favorable global policies,” Raj Prabhu said.

The Mercom report shows that total corporate funding in the solar sector clocked in at $16.6 billion in the first half of 2024 (excluding China), good for a 10% Y/Y decline in the first half of 2023. Total funding includes debt financing, venture capital/private equity funding and public market (IPOs). U.S. companies accounted for $8.6 billion, or nearly half, of total funding, including $6 billion in new debt financing. The number of deals increased 9% year on year to 87; however, the size of the deals was considerably smaller than the industry has seen in the recent past, while the pace of mergers and project acquisitions has slowed.

VC funding activity decreased 29% y/y with $2.7 billion raised in 29 deals. There were 40 solar M&A transactions in the first half of the current year, down from 48 in the same period of 2023 while project acquisitions dropped to 18.5 GW from 25.5 GW. The largest M&A deal in the space involved Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management acquiring a majority stake in French renewable company Neoen for over $6.5 billion

Related: U.S. Oil, Gas Drilling Activity Sees Rebound

However, solar IPOs have recorded the biggest decline, with public market financing raising just $1.7 billion across eight deals in the first half of 2024, down 75% from $6.7 billion across 14 deals in the first half of 2023. A big reason why few private solar companies are seeking to go public at this time is due to the poor performance of solar stocks. The sector’s favorite benchmark, Invesco Solar ETF (NYSEARCA:TAN), is down -22.1% in the year-to-date and -42.8% over the past 12 months.



Source: Mercom Capital Group

Interest Rate Cuts



Source: Y-Charts

The renewable energy sector tends to be highly sensitive to interest rates because clean energy developers usually borrow lots of capital upfront to build projects. Further, the cost of electricity generated from renewable energy tends to be impacted more negatively by rising interest rates compared to electricity generated from oil and gas. Indeed, a 5% rise in interest rates increases the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from wind and solar by a third but only marginally for natural gas plants.

Thankfully, U.S. inflation has been cooling, with June inflation clocking in at 2.97%, a 12-month low. And now Federal Reserve officials have signaled they are"closer" to cutting interest rates given inflation's improved trajectory and a labor market in better balance. Fed Governor Christopher Waller has listed September through December as the potential time frame when conditions for a rate cut could be right. Traders are now betting that the Fed will cut borrowing costs in November and December, bringing the benchmark policy rate to the 4.50%-4.75% range by the end of 2024.

Other than falling interest rates, the solar sector is riding another powerful secular trend: falling costs. Last year, a report by Ernst & Young (EY) showed that solar remains the cheapest source of new-build electricity despite high inflationary pressures. According to the EY report, the global weighted average levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for solar PV is now 29% lower than the cheapest fossil fuel alternative. Solar LCOE has declined rapidly from more than $400/MWh in the early 2010s to about $49/MWh in 2022, a huge 88% decline. Wind power LCOE has fallen roughly 60% over the same period.

Last year, the International Energy Association predicted that the solar sector would attract more capital than oil and gas:

‘‘There’s a growing gap between the investment in fossil energy and investment [in] clean energy. Clean energy is moving fast--faster than many people realize. This is clear in the investment trends, where clean technologies are pulling away from fossil fuels. For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy,” the IEA’s executive director Faith Birol said.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com