8 April 2021
On Wednesday this week, the New South Wales Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW, Industry and Trade John Barilaro stood next to a train packed with coal, hurtling past metres away as he espoused the benefits of coal mining (sadly, he failed to literally salute it, as he had promised in the tweet).
“This train is what’s powering the economy”, he yells over the sound of several tonnes of coal thundering towards its destination. The visual is striking and memorable: the deputy leader of one of the most climate-ambitious states in Australia sincerely paying his respects to the single largest cause of the biggest threat ever faced by our species.
Russia’s New ‘Arctic Offensive’: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Costs? (Part Two)
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 18 Issue: 35
Prirazlomnaya oil platform, Russian High North (Source: Gazprom)
Government.ru, February 1; see
Part One in EDM, February 17). While this plan might result in some longer-term solutions to anemic socio-economic development in the region, Moscow needs to be able to generate revenues from its vast Arctic resources right away to cover growing budgetary expenses. Yet until recently, Russia’s ability to tap the economic potential of the High North has been hindered by two interdependent factors. First, as noted by the head of the financial-analytical Alperi Center, Alexander Razyvaev, “[T]he Arctic region is Russia’s last unexplored oil and [natural] gas province […] the problem is that without tax subsidies, development of the majority of local deposits is only economically profitable at an oil price of $100 per barrel…” He added,
Energy and electricity policy, planning and regulation in South Africa has been slow and bureaucratic, lacking visionary leadership, and marred by uncertainty.
South Africa’s energy sector has no choice but to change. Decarbonisation is key to the country’s emissions goals. Energy expert Chris Yelland has been watching the industry’s chaotic decline for decades. Load-shedding, as employed by the state power utility Eskom, wastes millions of rands a day in undelivered power and hampers the already-struggling economy. Eskom has swallowed billions in taxpayers’ money. Meanwhile the government throws good money after bad, flouting its own rules. Yelland unpacks the bureaucratic dead ends in regulation and the lack of political will that has brought the sector to its current state of apathy and disrepair. – Melani Nathan
Are changes finally coming to SA’s energy policy? Chris Yelland
Medupi power station. Picture: Gallo Images / Mail & Guardian / Madelene Cronjé Energy and electricity policy, planning and regulation in South Africa has been slow and bureaucratic, lacking visionary leadership, and marred by uncertainty.
Policy positions and actions taken have tended to be reactive, and driven more by crisis management than by forward-looking leadership.
In 1998, the Government White Paper on Energy Policy detailed a policy of restructuring and liberalisation of the electricity supply industry (ESI).
However, it became clear that the political and executive leadership in national, provincial and local government, and the various affected ministries, were not of a common mind on the