Ive been learning lately that among those who analyze and think about the environment and sustainability, I am considered an optimist. While I believe it is a useful analytic exercise to spin out worst case scenarios, I dont typically find them persuasive. Perhaps its because of the progress Ive seen in so many areas over the past several decades. The environment, civil rights, feminism, gay rights, the internet, the smartphone, the revival of my home city of New York, the career of Derek Jeter and the promise of Aaron Judgethose are all sources of hope. I do see the setbacks: money in politics, income inequality, terrorism, authoritarianism, the destruction of species and ecosystems and, of course, our current obsession, Trumpism. But I simply refuse to be defined by what is wrong and find myself far more interested in building on what is right.

The recent birth of my first grandchild reinforces my desire to believe that the world that she will inherit will be at least as good as my world, if not better. At the start of my graduate studies, I remember reading Robert Heilbroners, An Inquiry into the Human Prospect and its remarkable postscript, What Has Posterity Ever Done for Me? Heilbroner admitted there was no economically rational way to justify a concern for the distant future, but nevertheless believed that we would still somehow manage to care about it. In one version of this essay, published in the New York Times in 1975, he observed that:

I am mindful of the short-sighted, self-centered approach to climate change and environmental protection pushed by Pruitt, Trump, the Koch brothers and all the boys in their school yard, but I think it is a dying view that is enjoying its final days in the sun. I could be wrong, but like Heilbroner, I believe that the images of a world in danger, now magnified by the world wide web and brought to every corner of the planet instantly, will provide the experience that Heibroner spoke of some four decades ago. I see many signs that this change is already well underway.

Heilbroner, along with many others reflecting the concepts of The Limits to Growth, spoke of the need to forgo the benefits of modern technology if we were to save the world. He thought we needed to return to a simpler, less consumptive, less technological time. The view in the last century was that through guilt, and possibly public policies such as taxes or regulations like Chinas one child policy, we could forcefully reduce human impact on the environment.

In the half century since the start of the environmental era I have seen no sign that reduced consumption was politically, economically or socially feasible. The progress we have seen has been through the application of technology to reduce pollution, plan family size, increase the efficiency of production and consumption, change consumption, and develop renewable resources. Why has reduced consumption been rejected? First, in the developed world, any absence of economic prosperity is rapidly translated into political pressure against the regime in power. Or, as Bill Clintons political strategists famously observed, its the economy, stupid. In the developing world, particularly in the internet era, people see the lifestyles in the developed world and want that lifestyle, if not for themselves, for their children.

In other words, people like this stuff. The food, the cars, the jet planes, the air conditioning, the entertainment, and all the accoutrements of modern life. We want it enough that once we achieve developed status, we are finding birth rates going down because children have proven to be expensive and we want to make sure we have sufficient money to buy the stuff we want. The absence of economic well-being in a developed nation or inadequate progress toward economic development in a developing nation is politically destabilizing. In a world where the technology of destruction is advancing rapidly, political stability is more prized than ever.

While the policy of consumption denial seems infeasible to me, there is another policy direction that seems feasible and enjoys growing support: encouraging the rapid development and diffusion of the technology needed for a renewable resource-based economy. The computer and communication revolution that has brought us inexpensive cell phone calls, Skype, Facetime, search engines, GPS, Bluetooth, streaming video, computer games and the sharing economy. These technologies and practices have demonstrated that economic consumption can increase while material consumption decreases. Data indicates that in the U.S., greenhouse gas production has been decoupled from GDP growth. Young people in America have a lower rate of auto ownership than those that came before them. Support for the development of renewable energy is growing.

It is true I am advocating what my environmental policy mentor and doctoral dissertation supervisor, the late Professor Lester Milbrath, would have derisively regarded as a technological fix. He thought we needed changes in environmental values coupled with reduced consumption. What weve seen instead is changed environmental values coupled with new forms of consumption. This is a source of hope. In particular, the idea that consumption can include experiencing culture, entertainment, social interaction and learning, and that the goal is experiencing the world, not owning it. Both technology and values are changing. But it is far too late for us to get back to the land and live as one with nature. There are far too many people on the planet and too little nature to live that way again. Sustainability in the 21st century will need to be achieved in cities. Fortunately, many cities have begun the long, slow process of reducing their environmental impact, and increasing their use of renewable resources.

I am also hopeful because for every Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, or Rick Perry I see fighting sustainability in Washington, there are dozens of Jerry Browns, Mike Bloombergs, Angela Merkels, and Emmanuel Macrons driving sustainability globally. Even in Washington, the Presidents proposed draconian cuts to EPA and to federally funded science have already been rejected by Congressional budget committees. Although the budgets are still being cut, the reductions are incremental, not radical.

When I first started to study environmental policy in 1975, it was a small field of little importance in the political life of that time. Today it is at the center of our political, economic, social and cultural concerns. It has evolved in ways that no one would have predicted nearly a half century ago, when a handful of us sat around a seminar table in Buffalo, New York, pondering this field. When I first joined the faculty at Columbia University in 1981, I was persuaded not to teach a course on environmental policy because, no one comes to New York City to study the environment.

Today, I direct two masters programs with about 300 students studying environment and sustainability. My course on sustainability management enrolled 150 students last year. In the last 15 years, Columbia has developed an undergraduate major and PhD in sustainable development, along with masters programs in environmental science and policy, sustainability management, climate and society, and development practice. We even have a certification in sustainability finance and another in water management. Next year we hope to launch a new masters program in sustainability science. The presence of these dedicated, mission-driven, bright and talented students and the professional accomplishments of thousands of alums already graduated are my greatest source of hope in these troubled times. My granddaughter was born on Wednesday, July 12, and I am trusting her future to the sustainability leaders and professionals that have emerged during the first part of the 21st century. I believe it is a safe bet.

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Staying Hopeful In A Troubling Time - HuffPost

Baker McKenzies latest quarterly Cross-border M&A Index shows that there were 17 inbound M&A deals in Africa in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017. The 17 inbound deals reflect a 48% drop from 33 deals in Q2 2016. On a quarter-by-quarter basis, inbound deal volume also dropped by 45% from 31 deals in Q1 2017.

The total deal value for inbound deals amounted to US$780 million, decreasing by 83% year-on-year and 88% on a quarter-by-quarter basis. The second quarter of 2016 saw US$4.54 billion worth of deals. In the first quarter of 2017 US$6.38 billion worth of inbound deals were concluded in Africa.

Morne van der Merwe, Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg explained, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in South Africa has decreased and this will continue until the local investment climate stabilises. Due to the credit ratings downgrades, the cost of raising capital for acquisitions has become more expensive, making deals more difficult. In addition, the Rand has been one of the most volatile currencies in 2017 and this volatility has suppressed deal appetite.

These factors, combined with recent political instability and uncertainty, have resulted in a perception in the market of increased risks of doing business in South Africa. Global players are finding more attractive investment destinations elsewhere.

Further, almost half the continents M&A activity flows through South Africa, so recent South African developments have had a negative knock-on effect in Africa. Political uncertainty in other jurisdictions on the continent, such as the current election in Kenya, has also made investors wary of African deal making in the short term, although we expect this to change once stability returns to the region.

The top target industry by volume and value in Africa was mining, which accounted for 23% of total deal count and US$312 million or 40% of total value.

In terms of outlook for the mining sector in South Africa, van der Merwe said there is widespread agreement that the Mining Charter in its present form will severely impact the mining sector in South Africa. In addition, the recent proposal, published in the South African Government Gazette for comment, regarding a possible moratorium on mining and prospecting rights and the granting of applications in terms of section 11 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act is cause for concern. If these measure come into effect, they will have a detrimental impact on transactions in the South African mining space.

Looking at the technology sector, the M&A Index showed no inbound technology deals in Africa in second quarter of 2017. This is in comparison to the global results, which noted a high volume of technology deals in the first half of 2017. Globally, besides H1 2016, the number of cross-border technology deals was higher in H1 2017 than in any post-crisis half-year period.

Van der Merwe explained, Africa has several technology hubs, including one in Cape Town, South Africa and the development of technology in the banking and finance sector, for mass usage on the continent, is well advanced. A positive explanation for there being no inbound deals in this sector in Q2 2017, is that this is not due to lack of IT development in Africa, to the contrary, but because IT companies are structuring their operations in a way that allows them to enter into partnerships offshore and bring their operations into Africa through licencing arrangements.

The Index shows that South Africa was the top target country for inbound deals by volume and value, accounting for 29% of total deal count and US$ 422 million or 54% of total value in Africa. The top investing country by volume was Australia with three deals or 18% of total count. China deals had the highest overall value at US$324 million or 42% of total.

It is surprising that Australia was the highest inbound investor country by deal volume as one would expect it to be China or India. Australia is a resource-based economy, with the knowledge, know-how and asset base to attach to opportunities in Africa, so it does make sense that they would be investing heavily in African businesses, noted van der Merwe.

Asia Pacific and the European Union were tied as top investing regions by volume, each accounting for 35% of total deal count. By value, Asia Pacific outpaced the rest with US$487 million or 62% of total.

Cross border outbound deals painted a more positive picture. There were 15 cross border outbound deals in Africa for the second quarter of 2017, a decrease of 12% on a year-on-year basis, but an increase of 67% from the previous quarter. The second quarter of 2016 saw 17 outbound deals, while the first quarter of 2017 saw nine outbound deals. The total deal value, US$1.52 billion, fell by 28% from US$2.1 billion in Q2 2016, but more than doubled on a quarter by quarter basis from US$665 million in Q1 2017.

Technology tied with Business Services was a top target industry for Africas outbound deals by volume with a total of three deals for the quarter (20% of total). In terms of deal value, the Financial Services sector led slightly with US$535 million or 35% of total deals. Technology deals came in close second, accounting for USD 510 million or 33% of total outbound deals from Africa.

An increase in development in African telecoms industries, as well as the opportunities presented by a rapidly developing financial services sector, remain key drivers of outbound investment activity in Africa. The growing financial services sector has also seen domestic banks make significant investments in technology, including in offshore companies. As discussed, the increase in outbound deals in the technology sector also points to African technology companies looking to base their local operations offshore, he noted.

The Index also shows that South Africa outperformed other African bidders by volume and value for outbound deals, with eight deals (53% of total) amounting to US$821 million (54% of total). Top target regions for outbound deals were EU and Asia Pacific by volume, each with 40% share of total. The top target country from Africa by volume was India, with three deals accounting for 20% of total deal count.

More here:

Political uncertainty leads to drop in M&A deals in Africa this quarter - Namibia Economist

Sunday, 23 July 2017 | Rinku Ghosh | St Petersburg

The Runwals are not like the dysfunctional Mehras on a fancy cruise in the Mediterranean as embodied in Dil Dhadakne Do. If anything, they are conventional. But they are quite a merry bunch, choosing to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary in the family along the Gulf of Finland, blazing through the white nights of the North Pole, cruising along the rivers and canals of St Petersburg. They booked a premier floor of the Four Seasons, had the ballroom for the celebrations done up with classic floral arrangements and harps and had flown in their chefs for the event. Not only that. As part of a weekend of extended family revelry and bonding, they even watched The Swan Lake at the Ballet Palace Theatre, teary-eyed and fulfilled.

We caught up with Indian students, who had invited their peers for a group summer outing, techies and 30-plus professionals with associative memories of the Soviet times from Bengal, some of whom were doing a recce for a luxurious trans-Siberian Railway tour spanning the Orient and the Occident. That is precisely where St Petersburgs appeal lies as a city of 342 bridges. Besides the mechanical ones, the city bridges eras, the imperial grandeur of Tsarist Russia with its modernist reinvention, the Oriental sweep with Occidental interpretations, refined European heritage with contemporary sub-cultures, opulence with functionality.

Russia, particularly St Petersburg, is increasingly figuring as a must-do hotspot in the Indian travellers itinerary as that country has been aggressively courting the top travel markets of the world since last year. That has largely been prompted by Russias re-prioritisation post the Western worlds sanctions over Ukraine, falling oil prices and over-dependence on a resource-based economy. Asian countries, like China, are moving in with new investment in infrastructure thats having an inevitable spinoff in emergent sectors like tourism. No country can beat China when it comes to boosting Russias tourism industry, and the country has topped the list since 2014. Yes, the airports have Chinese signages and announcements, there are brochures in Chinese at tourist kiosks and dedicated hotels for Chinese tourists.

Indians still have to notch up the numbers to get specialised attention at this point but tourist officials are now targetting them, what with Indian companies investing in businesses and tourism officials keen to tap into Indian visitors with their highest spending traits.

We are increasing accommodation options, expanding schedules at heritage sites, easing visa and transit norms, allowing pitstop experiences by extending visas up to 72 hours and setting up friendly trouble-shooting kiosks. We know Indians like their micro-staples, like tea in the morning, and are making sure our hotel rooms stock beverage packs and kettles. We are profiling their interest areas and working out tour specials. We hope that Indians can rank second among Asian arrivals, says Evgeny Pankevich, Director-General, City Tourist Information Bureau.

Customisation has begun with tourism officials surveying Indian tourist behaviour, hotels allowing chefs for group tours and city officials considering destination reunions and wedding shoots though not the wedding fire rituals as yet. Indian restaurants like Oh Mumbai, whose Bengali chef is becoming a hot favourite among expats and locals, are quickly climbing up the fine-dining charts and endorsed by the city tourist board. On their part Indians have begun classifying St Petersburg with the A-category European experience, that is the London-Paris-Milan club class, according to Prashant Chaudhary of Salvia Promoters, the official partner of the Visit St Petersburg campaign and office in India. Ever since the Russian Tourism Board began aggressively wooing the Indian traveller over the last year, Indian interest and arrivals on the Moscow-St Petersburg circuit have gone up by 100 per cent, he says.

Chaudhary, who has been developing this market over the last 14 years, considers St Petersburg an experiential destination. It is clearly the worlds culture capital with its history, palaces, museums, cathedrals, gilded baroque art, its pavilions, parks and literary retreats. But theres much more. This is one city that is fiercely protective of its facades and architecture discipline as it looks out to the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea the same way it has done through centuries. Climb the Issac Cathedral and there are no jarring outcrops. Commercial or residential district, the facades have a contiguity of design depending on the imperial or Soviet blocks. The city has a vibrant night life, day and night river cruises, jazz bars, sailing and yachting prospects for the adventurous and fascinating activities for children. It is called Venice of the North and is much cleaner than the original. And the polar white nights are spectacular, the summer twilight extending into dawn and the waters of the Neva river a bright cerulean even at midnight.

As a river civilisation and with a maritime history of our own, St Petersburg is an example of how water tourism can be developed. With its founder Peter The Great developing grid-like embankments along the citys rivers and canals leading up to the gulf of Finland, portside pleasures abound. There are day/night cruises that let you float past the panoramic skyline of the city, while sipping wine or having dinner, halt-and-go boats at key banks besides conversations and music gigs at riverside cafes. Of course, there are the commercial cruiseliners on the Baltic, which can dock well into the bay and the deep Neva delta and offer such on-board entertainment like water surfing and bars tended by robots and Disney characters. Eighteen new ships are to be built and commissioned over the next few years.

The waterworld museum at the port is an interactive 4D experience of the creative and destructive forces of the earths primal element on giant LED screens and simulated chambers. Touch a pre-historic fish swimming by and watch it become the first amphibian! Or perform an experiment to understand the properties of water.

The city administration has even turned the rather mundane function of raising drawbridges across the city for letting cargo ships through into a midnight tourism event, taking advantage of the extended diurnal phase of the sun. Around seven drawbridges are lit up in national colours and raised up to the notes of Tchaikovsky in a rhythmic manner as cruise boats and jet skis pass under history and the earliest engineering feats of the modern world. With all heritage buildings lit up, the bay is garlanded by a string of jewels as it were and makes for a profoundly cinematic experience. Then there are sea festivals and fireworks. But given the activist citizens, there is strict compliance of environmental and sanitary norms and restricted licences for yachting clubs.

St Petersburg is the home ground of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is actively encouraging soft and cultural diplomacy to make it the most coveted postcard brand. So there is peaceful co-existence of the Lenin-Stalin legacy, be it in terms of Soviet tours of architectural blocks or outposts, a sign that the city has matured into taking the middle path. Youngsters at speakeasies even talk of the good and bad of both open and socialist economies.

Interestingly, the tourism offices are manned and headed by young, dynamic, English-speaking Russians, who are recasting the image of St Petes as a happening destination. Midnight walking tours, fusion food (Russian fine-diners are a treasure trove of soups and salads), vodka tasting tours, Russian alternative rock and adventure sports are all on offer.

The city administration is offering cost-effective packages for the value-conscious Indian traveller. St Petersburg will provide bang for the buck to the Indian traveller. The rouble and rupee are almost equivalent i.e. 1 rouble = 1.09 rupee. Compared to the other tourist destinations, the Russian experience is going to be light on the pockets, says Chaudhary. Which is why Russian tourism officials are looking to penetrate not just metro cities but Tier II and Tier III cities as well.

Then theres the FIFA world cup next year that is expected to change the scenario for Indians visiting Russia. Many have booked their tickets already to the host country.

There are nationalist T-shirts and souvenirs of a bare-chested or covered Putin astride a bear in the wilds. As the tenth most visited nation worldwide, Russia is heaving out of its bearish days and charging ahead like a bull.

Originally posted here:

Russian cities court Indian tourists - The Pioneer - Daily Pioneer

More initiatives to build upon the tourist draw fostered by the Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trails in the southern part of West Virginia are taking shape.

One involves the West Virginia Community Development Hub, a nonprofit group based in Clarksburg, working with several communities in the southern coalfields to develop strategies for gaining economically from the trail system. Also stepping up is Southern West Virginia Community & Technical College, which has launched two new programs aimed at boosting the economy in that region and providing training that could yield related job opportunities.

The Hatfield-McCoy Trails system is made up of over 700 miles of trails in southern West Virginia. As one of the largest off-highway vehicle trail systems in the world, Hatfield-McCoy Trails is open 365 days a year and offers something for every skill level. It already has a sizable economic impact on that region and the state as a whole, and the recent and new efforts are aimed at expanding that.

Over the past year, the West Virginia Community Development Hub has been working to foster entrepreneurship in communities throughout West Virginia, and one place where it's throwing its efforts is the southern part of the state.

Among the targeted areas are the communities of Alderson and Madison and the counties of McDowell, Lincoln and Wyoming.

"Here at The Hub, we've seen energy around new business in the recreation and tourism sectors skyrocket," said Dan Taylor, entrepreneurial communities program coordinator for the group, which has been around more than 10 years.

"We have been working all over the state to help communities that may not have the capacity or resources to do community type projects," he said.

Taylor works in the coalfield communities in southern West Virginia to help diversify their economies by working with community folks.

One of The Hub's projects involves the Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trails.

"As people come to ride the trail, they are also looking for other recreational activities," Taylor said. "So we are working with communities in southern West Virginia with natural assets like trails and waterways to create these recreational opportunities for visitors."

Taylor says The Hub's Innovation Acceleration Strategy (IAS) program is a year-long, community-based economic diversification planning process.

"The West Virginia Community Development Hub will be working with five communities in Southern West Virginia who are ready, willing and able to start identifying what they want to see in their community and planning on how to grow and build these sectors," he explained.

The Hatfield-McCoy Trails range from the scenic mountain views of Pinnacle Creek, to the tight and twisting trails of Bearwallow. Many trails connect to West Virginia's "ATV friendly towns" where visitors can grab a bite to eat and add to the local economy, Taylor said.

Taylor says his group also has seen land-based trail projects around hiking and biking from The Hub's previous innovation acceleration program in communities from Boone County to Wyoming County.

"With an uptick in resources available to communities as well as through things like the Appalachian Regional Commission's POWER program, which has put $92 million within the past year into the region for economic development, it is important for residents here to know about what is available and be able to connect with these opportunities to grow not only their local economy but their own prosperity," Taylor added.

Just last month at a convening of POWER grantees in Huntington, Jeff Lusk, director of the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, which operates the Hatfield-McCoy Trails system, said the ARC's $1.3 million POWER grant to that organization will be used to help expand tourism-related business opportunities along the Hatfield-McCoy Trail.

"We look forward to seeing what additional helpful resources are on the horizon for our region when it comes to growing our recreation and tourism economy," Taylor said.

In the summer of 2014, Marshall University's Center for Business and Economic Research completed an updated economic impact study for the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority.

Hatfield-McCoy Trails for day-to-day operations generated an additional $1.6 million in economic activity within the state, for a total operational impact of $3.3 million, according to the report.

Even more notably, the Hatfield-McCoy Trails bring non-local visitors to the area whose spending is estimated to generate an additional $19 million in economic activity in West Virginia.

Together, the total estimated economic impact of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails is more than $22 million.

The economic activity generated by the Hatfield-McCoy Trails' operations and visitors also yields tax revenues. The trails impact the state and local tax base by nearly $120,000 annually, the report stated.

When considering the estimated total employment sustained by the presence of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, an annual state and local tax benefit of more than $455,500 is estimated.

An additional fiscal benefit to the state of more than $1.5 million is estimated as a result of non-local visitor spending while visiting the Hatfield-McCoy Trails.

In addition to providing data for estimating the visitor spending impact of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, the rider survey included in the report indicated largely positive experiences among riders.

"The vast majority of respondents reported a good or excellent experience with the Hatfield-McCoy Trails overall, and more than 97 percent of riders surveyed would recommend the trails to others," the report stated.

Also with an eye toward partnering with the Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trails system is Kristina Oliver, who this month accepted the position of program administrator for Southern West Virginia Community & Technical College's new Entrepreneurship and Business Coaching Center.

"I am reaching out to businesses, West Virginia small-business champions, economic developers, resource partners and service providers regarding a new initiative that I am excited to lead," she said.

Oliver said the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority in partnership with Southern West Virginia Community & Technical College, the Natural Capital Investment Fund and West Virginia State University have created an entrepreneurial training and business coaching program in the coalfields of southern West Virginia.

"The project, which was funded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission through the Power Plus initiative, will increase tourism and entrepreneurship in southern West Virginia to create a sustainable tourism-based economy," Oliver explained.

She said this initiative focuses on a nine-county region of the state, including Boone, Logan, Mingo, Wyoming, Lincoln, Wayne, Kanawha, McDowell and Mercer counties.

"I have much respect and admiration for the great work being done by many organizations and entities throughout West Virginia to help increase small-business success," she said. "With this new center, we will offer business coaching, targeted consulting and impactful training to help existing businesses and to help encourage new business growth."

Last year, the college launched a Powersports Technology Program to teach students to service, repair and maintain a variety of power sports equipment such as motorcycles, ATVs UTVs and personal watercraft.

"The program graduates are prepared to be entry-level technicians and most often work as service technicians, but may also find employment as service writers, parts department personnel and sales staff," Oliver said.

The full Powersports Technology Program is available on the Boone/Lincoln Campus. The Logan, Williamson and Wyoming/McDowell campuses offer the general education/program support courses only.

Read more:

Groups see ATV trails as anchor to economy | News | herald ... - Huntington Herald Dispatch

Sunday, 23 July 2017 | Rinku Ghosh | St Petersburg

The Runwals are not like the dysfunctional Mehras on a fancy cruise in the Mediterranean as embodied in Dil Dhadakne Do. If anything, they are conventional. But they are quite a merry bunch, choosing to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary in the family along the Gulf of Finland, blazing through the white nights of the North Pole, cruising along the rivers and canals of St Petersburg. They booked a premier floor of the Four Seasons, had the ballroom for the celebrations done up with classic floral arrangements and harps and had flown in their chefs for the event. Not only that. As part of a weekend of extended family revelry and bonding, they even watched The Swan Lake at the Ballet Palace Theatre, teary-eyed and fulfilled.

We caught up with Indian students, who had invited their peers for a group summer outing, techies and 30-plus professionals with associative memories of the Soviet times from Bengal, some of whom were doing a recce for a luxurious trans-Siberian Railway tour spanning the Orient and the Occident. That is precisely where St Petersburgs appeal lies as a city of 342 bridges. Besides the mechanical ones, the city bridges eras, the imperial grandeur of Tsarist Russia with its modernist reinvention, the Oriental sweep with Occidental interpretations, refined European heritage with contemporary sub-cultures, opulence with functionality.

Russia, particularly St Petersburg, is increasingly figuring as a must-do hotspot in the Indian travellers itinerary as that country has been aggressively courting the top travel markets of the world since last year. That has largely been prompted by Russias re-prioritisation post the Western worlds sanctions over Ukraine, falling oil prices and over-dependence on a resource-based economy. Asian countries, like China, are moving in with new investment in infrastructure thats having an inevitable spinoff in emergent sectors like tourism. No country can beat China when it comes to boosting Russias tourism industry, and the country has topped the list since 2014. Yes, the airports have Chinese signages and announcements, there are brochures in Chinese at tourist kiosks and dedicated hotels for Chinese tourists.

Indians still have to notch up the numbers to get specialised attention at this point but tourist officials are now targetting them, what with Indian companies investing in businesses and tourism officials keen to tap into Indian visitors with their highest spending traits.

We are increasing accommodation options, expanding schedules at heritage sites, easing visa and transit norms, allowing pitstop experiences by extending visas up to 72 hours and setting up friendly trouble-shooting kiosks. We know Indians like their micro-staples, like tea in the morning, and are making sure our hotel rooms stock beverage packs and kettles. We are profiling their interest areas and working out tour specials. We hope that Indians can rank second among Asian arrivals, says Evgeny Pankevich, Director-General, City Tourist Information Bureau.

Customisation has begun with tourism officials surveying Indian tourist behaviour, hotels allowing chefs for group tours and city officials considering destination reunions and wedding shoots though not the wedding fire rituals as yet. Indian restaurants like Oh Mumbai, whose Bengali chef is becoming a hot favourite among expats and locals, are quickly climbing up the fine-dining charts and endorsed by the city tourist board. On their part Indians have begun classifying St Petersburg with the A-category European experience, that is the London-Paris-Milan club class, according to Prashant Chaudhary of Salvia Promoters, the official partner of the Visit St Petersburg campaign and office in India. Ever since the Russian Tourism Board began aggressively wooing the Indian traveller over the last year, Indian interest and arrivals on the Moscow-St Petersburg circuit have gone up by 100 per cent, he says.

Chaudhary, who has been developing this market over the last 14 years, considers St Petersburg an experiential destination. It is clearly the worlds culture capital with its history, palaces, museums, cathedrals, gilded baroque art, its pavilions, parks and literary retreats. But theres much more more. This is one city that is fiercely protective of its facades and architecture discipline as it looks out to the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea the same way it has done through centuries. Climb the Issac Cathedral and there are no jarring outcrops. Commercial or residential district, the facades have a contiguity of design depending on the imperial or Soviet blocks. The city has a vibrant night life, day and night river cruises, jazz bars, sailing and yachting prospects for the adventurous and fascinating activities for children. It is called Venice of the North and is much cleaner than the original. And the polar white nights are spectacular, the summer twilight extending into dawn and the waters of the Neva river a bright cerulean even at midnight.

As a river civilisation and with a maritime history of our own, St Petersburg is an example of how water tourism can be developed. With its founder Peter The Great developing grid-like embankments along the citys rivers and canals leading up to the gulf of Finland, portside pleasures abound. There are day/night cruises that let you float past the panoramic skyline of the city, while sipping wine or having dinner, halt-and-go boats at key banks besides conversations and music gigs at riverside cafes. Of course, there are the commercial cruiseliners on the Baltic, which can dock well into the bay and the deep Neva delta and offer such on-board entertainment like water surfing and bars tended by robots and Disney characters. Eighteen new ships are to be built and commissioned over the next few years.

The waterworld museum at the port is an interactive 4D experience of the creative and destructive forces of the earths primal element on giant LED screens and simulated chambers. Touch a pre-historic fish swimming by and watch it become the first amphibian! Or perform an experiment to understand the properties of water.

The city administration has even turned the rather mundane function of raising drawbridges across the city for letting cargo ships through into a midnight tourism event, taking advantage of the extended diurnal phase of the sun. Around seven drawbridges are lit up in national colours and raised up to the notes of Tchaikovsky in a rhythmic manner as cruise boats and jet skis pass under history and the earliest engineering feats of the modern world. With all heritage buildings lit up, the bay is garlanded by a string of jewels as it were and makes for a profoundly cinematic experience. Then there are sea festivals and fireworks. But given the activist citizens, there is strict compliance of environmental and sanitary norms and restricted licences for yachting clubs.

St Petersburg is the home ground of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is actively encouraging soft and cultural diplomacy to make it the most coveted postcard brand. So there is peaceful co-existence of the Lenin-Stalin legacy, be it in terms of Soviet tours of architectural blocks or outposts, a sign that the city has matured into taking the middle path. Youngsters at speakeasies even talk of the good and bad of both open and socialist economies.

Interestingly, the tourism offices are manned and headed by young, dynamic, English-speaking Russians, who are recasting the image of St Petes as a happening destination. Midnight walking tours, fusion food (Russian fine-diners are a treasure trove of soups and salads), vodka tasting tours, Russian alternative rock and adventure sports are all on offer.

The city administration is offering cost-effective packages for the value-conscious Indian traveller. St Petersburg will provide bang for the buck to the Indian traveller. The rouble and rupee are almost equivalent i.e. 1 rouble = 1.09 rupee. Compared to the other tourist destinations, the Russian experience is going to be light on the pockets, says Chaudhary. Which is why Russian tourism officials are looking to penetrate not just metro cities but Tier II and Tier III cities as well.

Then theres the FIFA world cup next year that is expected to change the scenario for Indians visiting Russia. Many have booked their tickets already to the host country.

There are nationalist T-shirts and souvenirs of a bare-chested or covered Putin astride a bear in the wilds. As the tenth most visited nation worldwide, Russia is heaving out of its bearish days and charging ahead like a bull.

More here:

Russian cities court Indian tourists - Daily Pioneer

eGov Magazine | Elets

Democratisation of Knowledge-Based Economy eGov Magazine | Elets There is an abundance of capital all over the world, but the skilled human resource is scarce. Here, India's demographic dividend is going to play a crucial role. Therefore, Digital Skilling is going to become a great potential for growth in the ...

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Democratisation of Knowledge-Based Economy - eGov Magazine | Elets

At the north end of beach in Manzanita, Peregrine Points lush green forest rises from the sand. Lower Nehalem Community Trust manages this parcel which extends the protected lands of Oswald West State Park, the gateway to the newly established Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, creating a conservation corridor across land and sea.

Join the Lower Nehalem Community Trust (LNCT) and Friends of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve for an easy 1 mile beach walk and explore the intersection of these protected areas. A nice morning low tide will allow the group to explore tidepools at the north end of the beach. Bright purple seastars, yellow sea slugs, crabs, and an array of algae thrive at the intersection of the new ocean reserve site and Peregrine Point.

Come discover how Oregons coastline weaves with the land around it. Our coastal zone welcomes the return of ocean dwelling salmon to local rivers, seasonal migrating whales, and countless birds living within our watershed. Join us as we explore this piece of the coastline and share about our efforts to conserve the coastal margin!

Hosted by Friends of Cape Falcon MR and Lower Nehalem Community Trust, this event is part of the Explore Nature series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Explore Nature events are hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and non-profit organizations, and are meaningful nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy. Learn more at http://www.explorenaturetillamookCoast.com

When: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 9 a.m. 12 p.m.

Where: Neahkahnie-Manzanita State Park/ Neahkahnie Beach. Register for additional details.

Details: Wear boots or comfortable walking shoes. Flip flops are never ideal for exploring tide pools. Be prepared for wet feet and dynamic Oregon coast weather.

Registration: Information available at http://www.ExploreNatureTillamookCoast.com. Registration required. Additional information available at http://www.nehalemtrust.org.

Questions? Contact Smith_Chrissy22@yahoo.com or call541-231-8041.

Cost: FREE! Tax-deductible donations to Lower Nehalem Community Trust and the Friends of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve are encouraged but not required.

See more here:

Conserving our land, beach and sea - The North Coast Citizen - North Coast Citizen

CILISOS.MY

Did the Kelantan gomen unknowingly become part of an environmental bitcoin scam? Perhaps. CILISOS.MY On one hand, it's sort of a shift from a resource-based economy (read: cutting down trees for money) towards a more sustainable form of income. Kelantan gets to keep their forests, and at the same time they get to charge money for all the greenhouse ...

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Did the Kelantan gomen unknowingly become part of an environmental bitcoin scam? Perhaps. - CILISOS.MY

C. Smith/Submitted Photo Landscape view featuring Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, Peregrine Point and Oswald West State Park.

MANZANITA The Lower Nehalem Community Trust and Friends of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve are hosting Conserving our Land, Beach and Sea, an easy 1-mile beach walk from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday to explore the new Cape Falcon Marine Reserve and Peregrine Point at Neahkahnie Beach.

This event is part of the Explore Nature series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures, hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and nonprofit organizations. These nature-based experiences highlight the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy.

Reservations are required; register at http://www.explorenaturetillamookcoast.com. There is no cost for this event, but donations the trust and the Friends of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve are encouraged. Participants are advised to wear boots or comfortable walking shoes.

For information, email Smith_Chrissy22@yahoo.com or call 541-231-8041.

Beach walk to highlight Cape Falcon Marine Reserve

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Beach walk to highlight Cape Falcon Marine Reserve - Daily Astorian

The Conversation

Since the Finkel review was announced it has been open season fornotion buildingin the energy space.

While Malcolm has been pumping Snowy 2.zero, Craig has been promising death by renewables, quite literally.

Josh seems to be for just about everything, besides Labor state governments of course, and reckons we are on track to meet Paris commitments.

Barnaby, true to form, is backing coal, reckoning Paris can take care of itself, while Electricity Bill iskeeping mum, knowing it wont but banking it will.

The one I like the best, but really hasnt been nailed quite the way I thought it should, is Tonys call for nuclear subs.

Imagine, our first truly dispatchable power system, capable of delivering a few hundred megawatts just about anywhere you need it.

Defending the grid withRANpower float and plug technology, just what we need to shore up our fragile energy system.

A tour of dispatch last year including Tasmania from January through June, South Australia June through November, and then on to Queensland for the summer would have been a nice little money spinner for the Navy, worth around quarter of a billion dollars on the energy markets. And that doesnt include offsets, such as the purported$44 million Tasmanian government spent on diesel gensets. Could it be our best notion yet for meeting Paris?

It goes without saying that our political masters dont need much provocation to indulge in a bit of notion building. After all, it is what they do best.

But, in case you are wondering why this sudden release of energy, it might be useful to reflect on some recent analyses that paint a truly disturbing picture for our energy sector.

The first comes from theEuropean Commissions latest electricity market updateproviding the comparison of wholesale electricity prices shown below.

International wholesale prices as adapted from Figure 33 in the European Commissions Quarterly report on European electricity markets Q1 2017. Average prices for the 4th quarter of 2014, 3rd quarter 2015, and the first quarter of 2017, are referenced as a percentage of Australian prices. Source: The Conversation.

As recently as three years ago our electricity wholesale prices were low by any measure. In fact according to the ECs analysis our market prices then briefly dipped below those in the US. Then, ours were just 20% of the Japanese price.

How times have changed.

According to the ECs latest analysis our prices tracked pretty closely with the US until the second half of 2015. It seems things to start going awry just about when Josh received the poison chalice as Minister for Energy and Resources.

Six quarters later and the EC now estimates that for Quarter 1 this year our prices were a staggering 400% higher than in the US.

This last quarter we even managed to top Japan, which is some achievement considering that across the quarter we exported some20 million tonnes of our thermal coaland over half a million tonnes of LNG to help them sure up a power system still reverberating from the shock waves of Fukushima.

Thats about half as much thermal coal as used to power our system.

The second comes fromBPs latest Statistical Review of World Energyreleased in June, which provides national figures for all things related to energy production and consumption, including sector wide emissions.

According to BPs latest figures our energy sector produced about 409 million tonnes of CO2 in 2016. That amounts to 16.7 tonnes for every Australian.

On aper capitabasis, that puts our energy sector a touch above the next most emissions intensive economy in the developed world the US at 16.5 tonnes.

Even Canada, which has a resource based economy more comparable to our own, gets away with only 14.6 tonnes per person.

Trends in per capita emissions for select countries (in tonnes per person), plotted as a function of GDP (in $US purchasing power parity terms). Emission data from BPs Statistical review of World Energy. GDP and population data from IMF. Time series start in 1981 (on left) and continue to 2016 (on right). Dots show 2009, in the wake of the GFC. Source: The Conversation.

Worryingly, relative to 2005 levels our energy sector emissions are up about 10%, which stands in stark contrast to most other advanced economies, and especially the US, down 12% over the same interval.

National energy sector emissions for select advanced economies, relative to 2005 levels, using data from BPs latest Statistical Review of World Energy released in June. Australias Paris commitment is to reduce national emissions to 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. Note that for Australia energy sector emissions (including transport and power) account for about 2/3 the total emissions.

So the notion that we are on track to meet Paris is, at best, notional.

To achieve such extraordinary wholesale price outcomes, one might imagine something remarkable had happened to our energy system since 2014. OurCoal-conssuch as Craig Kelly would believe it is because our power system is groaning under the weight of renewable production.

But maybe its the absence of renewables. Or maybe it is both, peskily masked in a cloak of invisibility.

Check out the figure below, which shows our electricity production by key fuel group (coal, gas and renewables) over the period since our power prices have risen from the lowest to highest on the international pecking order.

Weekly average production of electricity by three main fuel group types (in gigawatts), dispatched on the National Electricity Market over the last five years. Data sourced from AEMO, using Dylan McConnells openNEM. RE (renewables) includes hydro, wind and large scale solar and biomass, but not rooftop PV which is not dispatched onto the market. Source: The Conversation.

Can you determine a trend that could account for anything? Im damned if I can.

And that in itself is sure to be worry enough to keep it open season onnotion buildingfor a long time to come.

Source:The Conversation. Reproduced with permission.

Read the original post:

Notion-building pollies declare open season for energy theories ... - RenewEconomy

Haley Gustafson | Daily Press Delta Solid Waste Management Authority (DSWMA) Manager Don Pyle, second from right, explains the various recycling processes at the Delta County Recycling Center as State Senator Tom Casperson, far left, State Rep. Beau LaFave, and State Rep. Scott Dianda, far right, listen during their visit to the center Wednesday morning.

ESCANABA Government officials took a tour of the Delta County Recycling Center in Escanaba Wednesday morning to learn about the recycling processes, methods, and overall goals of the center.

Manager of the Delta Solid Waste Management Authority (DSWMA) Don Pyle took State Senator Tom Casperson, Rep. Beau LaFave, and Rep. Scott Dianda around the facility, showcasing each aspect of the center and how the operation runs in Delta County.

My goal is to show you a little bit of what we do here at this facility, said Pyle.

Throughout the guided tour, Pyle gave a brief description of each resource managed at the facility, including the use of Lakestate Industries workers to sort through the recyclable materials before they are bundled and shipped away. Lakestate provides people within Delta County who have disabilities the opportunity to work within the community, and Pyle said having them work at the recycling center provides valuable jobs to those people. Over 50 people from Lakestate work at the center.

Pyle explained that the recycling center accepts a variety of paper, plastic, aluminum cans, and cardboard items that are sorted through a single stream method. The items are then placed into bins where they go into a baler to be cubed and shipped away. In addition to paper products, the center also accepts old electronics such as TVs and computers, household hazardous waste, drain oil, paint, and much more.

Pyle also spoke with the elected officials about the cost of keeping a recycling center fully functional, noting that the newly enacted recycling millage in Delta County has generated about $327,000 since the millage took full effect in January. It was approved by voters in Delta County last August.

The millage, which increased taxes for Delta County residents by 0.3 mills (30 cents per $1,000 of taxable value) for 10 years, will help fund the DSWMAs recycling, composting, and household hazardous waster disposal services.

One of the biggest issues Pyle sees within the recycling industry is the lack of education and information provided to the general public and legislatures.

There needs to be a lot more education and a lot more political will, said Pyle, adding that with recycling comes the need to research and develop other methods of disposing garbage and other materials.

Casperson agreed with Pyle, noting there tends to be a tunnel visioned way of thinking about recycling and there should be a more expansive thought process of what to do with materials that could be made into something else of valuable worth.

We need to start asking Whats the best thing to use that for?said Casperson, adding it is cheaper to log a load of wood and haul it to a paper mill than it is to process paper for recycling.

Also in attendance for the tour was the executive director for the Michigan Recycling Coalition, Kerrin OBrien.

According to the coalition website, The Michigan Recycling Coalition (MRC) represents recycling and composting interests statewide. The Coalition is a recognized authority on waste reduction, beneficial utilization, recycling, and composting through the experience of its Staff and Committees.

OBrien explained that currently Michigan has a 15 percent recycling rate and the coalition is looking to increase that rate by another at least another 15 percent. In order to reach that goal, OBrien said the state needs to look at its recycling policies, as some are 40 years old.

We need to shift our focus from a waste economy to a resource used based economy, said OBrien.

In 2014, 8.4 million tons of waste was disposed and 1.4 million tons of material was recycled in Michigan.

LOVELOCK, Nev. (AP) O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after more than eight years in prison for a Las ...

ESCANABA The Bay College Board of Trustees approved changes to a retirement plan for college employees during a ...

ESCANABA People in the Escanaba area will be able to have a good time while supporting a good cause today. The ...

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump says it's probably time to "just let Obamacare fail" after the latest ...

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Elected officials visit recycling center - Escanaba Daily Press

HomeOpinionBeing proactive re: childcare worker shortage

July 20, 2017 The Goat Opinion

by EVAN MATTHEWS, editor

Valemount has a growing problem with the lack of available licensed childcare.

This week, Manager of the Valemount Childrens Activity Society Krista Voth told the Goat the daycare is desperate for Early Childhood Educators (ECE) and ECE assistants, which is causing a growing waitlist for the centre.

Voth says the society will even consider hiring people to work while they take their courses.

Meanwhile, parents in the community are struggling to hold down jobs, especially during summer months when school is out. Some parents are even contemplating moving.

There have been more than 20 babies born in Valemount in the last year, according to the Childrens Activity Society.

While some are looking at solutions to address the childcare issue, the only thing for certain is that a gap exists in the community between the number of children and the available care.

Now the citizens of Valemount need to address it.

When the mill closed, people were fleeing in droves. The community has since recovered, in a transition from a resource extraction-based economy to a tourism-based economy.

As this community has longed for, people are coming and staying with their families. The community needs reliable childcare.

I dont know what the solution is, but an issue exists.

Our community needs to work on viable solutions before families start to move away, or avoid moving here in the first place.

There are not many people I know of who can afford to take time away from work. The time to address the issue is now.

Escaping 100 Mile House

Valemount daycare desperate for workers

Here is the original post:

Being proactive re: childcare worker shortage - The Rocky Mountain Goat

Since the Finkel review was announced it has been open season for notion building in the energy space. While Malcolm has been spruiking Snowy 2.zero pumped hydro, Craig has been promising death by renewables, quite literally. Josh seems to be for just about everything, besides Labor state governments of course, and reckons we are on track to meet Paris commitments. Barnaby, true to form, is backing coal, and presumably thinks Paris will take care of itself.

The one I like the best, but really hasnt been nailed quite the way I thought it should, is Tonys call for nuclear subs. Imagine, our first truly dispatchable power system, capable of delivering a few hundred megawatts just about anywhere you need it. Sail and plug, just what we need to shore up our fragile energy system. The tour of dispatch last year including Tasmania from January through June, South Australia June through November, and then on to Queensland for the summer would have been a nice little money spinner for the Navy, worth around quarter of a billion dollars on the energy markets. And that doesnt include offsets, such as the purported $44 million Tasmanian government spent on diesel gensets. Could it be our best notion yet for meeting Paris?

It goes without saying that our political masters dont need much provocation to indulge in a bit of notion building. After all, it is what they do best.

But, in case you are wondering why this sudden release of energy, it might be useful to reflect on some recent analyses that paint a truly disturbing picture for our energy sector.

The first comes from the European Commissions latest electricity market update, providing the comparison of wholesale electricity prices shown below.

As recently as three years ago our electricity wholesale prices were low by any measure. In fact according to the ECs analysis, our market prices then briefly dipped below those in the US. Then, ours were just 20% of the Japanese price.

How times have changed.

According to the ECs latest analysis our prices tracked pretty closely with the US until the second half of 2015. It seems things to start going awry just about when Josh was received the poison chalice as Minister for Energy and Resources.

Six quarters later and the EC now estimates that for Quarter 1 this year our prices were a staggering 400% higher than in the US.

This last quarter we even managed to top Japan, which is some achievement considering that across the quarter we exported some20 million tonnes of our thermal coal and over half a million tonnes of LNG to help them sure up a power system still reverberating from the shock waves of Fukushima. Thats about half as much thermal coal as used to power our system.

The second comes from BPs latest Statistical Review of World Energy released in June, which provides national figures for all things related to energy production and consumption, including sector wide emissions.

According to BPs latest figures, our energy sector produced about 409 million tonnes of CO2 in 2016. That amounts to 16.7 tonnes for every Australian. On a per capita basis, that puts our energy sector a touch above the next most emissions intensive economy in the developed world - the US at 16.5 tonnes. Even Canada, which has a resource based economy more comparable to our own, gets away with only 14.6 tonnes per person.

Worryingly, relative to 2005 levels our energy sector emissions are up about 10%, which stands in stark contrast to most other advanced economies, and especially the US, down 12% over the same interval.

So the notion that we are on track to meet Paris is, at best, notional.

To achieve such extraordinary wholesale price outcomes, one might imagine something remarkable had happened to our energy system since 2014. Our Coal-cons such as Craig Kelly would believe it is because our power system is groaning under the weight of renewable production.

But perhaps it the absence of renewables. Or maybe it is both, peskily masked in a cloak of invisibility. Check out the figure below, which shows our electricity production by key fuel group (coal, gas and renewables) over the period since our power prices have risen from the lowest to highest on the international pecking order.

Can you determine a trend that could account for anything? Im damned if I can.

And that in itself is sure to be worry enough to keep it open season on notion building for a long time to come.

For those interested, some more detailed discussion of the crisis besetting the National Electricity Market (NEM) in eastern Australia can be found in my Anatomy of an Energy Crisis series, Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.

Visit link:

Open season for our notion building polies - The Conversation AU

FILE PHOTO Houses in the Green Bay area of West Kelowna are surrounded by water on Tuesday May 23, 2017. GARY NYLANDER / The Daily Courier

As the heat of summer swings into full effect, most British Columbians are thinking only of vacations and long lazy days at their local swimming holes or favourite beaches. But for the leaders of our new government, holidays are likely one of the furthest things from their minds as they begin the daunting task of setting priorities and the work agenda ahead.

No shortage of pressing issues and challenges will demand this new governments attention as it looks to fulfil its platform commitments to change and renewal. But water is one issue that matters most to many communities across B.C.

The province is endowed with a rich freshwater heritage that is vitally important to all British Columbians. For Indigenous peoples, water is not only the foundation of their constitutionally-protected rights, but also integral to connections to the land, spiritual and physical well-being, and community and economic development. Communities across the province rely on abundant and clean fresh water for quality of life, healthy ecosystems and vibrant economies.

Waters uneven distribution over the landscape and its seasonal and annual variability pose real challenges for water management in the province. Until recently, sustainable water management in British Columbia was only ever a secondary consideration to the priority of building the provincial resource-based economy. Past (and even current) dominant management practices struck an unsustainable balance, based primarily on draining, channelling, damming, and diverting water out of streams, lakes and aquifers, and dumping waste back into those systems. In the process, watersheds have become fragmented and natural capital has been degraded.

As devastating fires blaze through the Interior only weeks after stories of severe flooding dominated headlines, we are reminded yet again what the new normal of more frequent and extreme events might look like in the province: The implications of climate change on our freshwater systems and community well-being are severe.

Even before these extreme events, water security and concern that not enough is being done to protect water resources have ranked high as priorities for the public. In a comprehensive 2013 poll, 93 per cent of British Columbians stated that water is our most precious natural resource, and indicated a low degree of confidence that current management approaches are adequate to ensure freshwater security.

Water underpins the myriad issues of the day from energy production, to agriculture, to drinking water security. It is the foundation of any sustainable integrated resource development and management regime.

Building a bold new water agenda must be a top priority for our new government. To address British Columbias pressing water challenges and position itself as a freshwater leader resilient to a changing climate and responsive to local needs B.C. must change both water management (on-the-ground activities) and governance (processes of decision-making and holding decision makers to account).

Fortunately, B.C.s new leaders will not be starting from scratch: the previous government introduced the Water Sustainability Act in 2016 to improve water management and decision-making in B.C., including regulating groundwater use and enabling protection of water flows for fish and ecosystems. This initiative, however, is only partly complete. Many of its most important components, like watershed planning and a robust regime to protect ecological flows, still require implementation with adequate resourcing and independent oversight.

Now is a critical moment of opportunity for our leaders to build on the foundation of the Water Sustainability Act and set B.C. on a course toward a sustainable freshwater future.

To offer support to government, our team at the POLIS Water Sustainability Project at the University of Victoria has set out a ten-step plan that provides the specific elements and actions required for meaningful progress on a new water agenda for B.C. In addition to full implementation of the new provincial water legislation, this agenda provides direction to ensure sufficient funds to deliver on a comprehensive program, engage Indigenous governments as partners in governing and managing fresh water, build resilience through protecting vital natural systems, provide the necessary science and information to make informed evidence-based decisions and ensure competent and independent oversight and accountability.

With a revitalized water agenda, B.C. can expect growing water security, increased public confidence through evidence-based decisions, decreased conflicts as natural capital is protected, and greater ability to adapt to the oncoming changes in climate.

As B.C.s new government settles into the hard work of building the path forward for the province, our message is simple: Get the water right and the rest will follow. Our communities, economies, ecosystems and future generations depend on it.

Oliver M. Brandes is co-Director of University of Victorias POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the Centre for Global Studies. Jon ORiordan is the former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management and POLIS Strategic Water Policy Advisor. Rosie Simms is the Water Law and Policy Researcher with POLIS. They recently authored and released A Revitalized Water Agenda for British Columbias Circular Economy to catalyze action on water in B.C.

Excerpt from:

Opinion: Splash of innovation a new water agenda for BC - Vancouver Sun

THE Federal Government has announced its readiness to create additional Leather Research and Development Centres in other geo-political zones of Nigeria so as to complement the existing ones.

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, announced this in Abuja during the matriculation and inauguration of the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) North Central Regional Leather R&D Cluster Extension Centre and official training infrastructure.

He said the processes that would enhance the establishment of these centres had reached advanced stages, and it was expected to help strengthen greater grassroots participation in leather technology, thereby helping to stimulate more indigenous capacity for the ultimate benefit of the people.

He said the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to the birth of a new national development order for the nation that would be science, technology and innovation driven.

Onu said this would help move the Nigeria economy from being resource based to become knowledge based and innovation driven, needed to lay a solid foundation for the transformation of the nation so as to attain the greatness she desired and deserved.

The minister emphasised that this was why the government had decided that it would create additional centres in other zones of the country, where none currently existed.

Earlier, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, whose message was delivered by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abuja Enterprises Agency, Malam Tukur Arabi, said leather was Nigeria`s second highest revenue source after oil, thus the need to diversify into Leather Value Chain (LVC).

I believe it is the reason why the LVC cluster has been established to improve the value and promote awareness of leather as a prime resource in Nigeria, he said.

He then encouraged all stakeholders to pursue vigorously the establishment of the centre, which would enable quality control over the hides and skin from the farm.

Acting Director General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NILEST, Dr Eucharia Ngozi Oparah, called on Federal Government to give the agency the needed support to carry out her mandate of training and research in the field of leather and leather products.

For a sustainable growth in the leather and leather products national economy, the institution should also empowered and converted to a degree awarding institution because the highest qualification currently awarded by the institution is Higher National Diploma (HND), the DG stressed.

FCT minister issues 2-month deadline to Bwari fish farm estate

FCTA pays contractors over N57 bn outstanding obligations

Link:

FG to create additional leather research centres across geo-political zones - NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI),has expressed concern that Nigeria posts the least record in oil revenue savings, among resource based countries, as it is currently advocating a robust policy to save portion of oil and gas revenue for the rainy day and for inter generational equity.

NEITI therefore suggested urgent measures to be taken by all tiers of government to include the immediate transfer of all revenue savings in the stabilisation fund and the Excess Crude Account into the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund.

But Oil and Gas industry experts said the country could not havebeen expected to have good savings whenthe governors are always interested in sharing whatever the countries earns as revenue to the detriment of futuregenerations.

NEITI insists that recommendations for a Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund Model is stemmed from the fact that of its more transparent model,it is well structured and having a better clarity for some re-investments to grow the wealth. He notes that NSWF scores 90% in terms of transparency in mangement structure in continental ratings.

Waziri Adio,the Executive Secretary of NEITI said if Nigeria has imbibed the culture of savings overtime, it would had some buffer to shielf it from the perennial economic recession that it is presently suffering from.

The Executive Secretary during a presentation to Newsmen titled:The case for a robust oil savings fund for Nigeria,lamented that inspite of the benefits and the huge revenues that have accrued from oil and gas over the years,Nigeria has one of the lowest resource savings in the world.

Take the volatility of the oil price and know you dont have control over it.Take the exhaustion of the oil resources which is already known fact that in the next 38 years we could cease to exist.But what we do with the money we are getting now from the oil is what we have control over,and we must do it wellAdio said.

He suggested Norway,as a key country experience where Nigeria could learn from,whom he said commenced the culture of savings well before it discovered oil.

Norway, a country of 5.2 million people has a sovereign wealth fund worth $922 billion,Chile $24 billion,Angola $4.6 billion and Botswana $5.7 billion.Others are Russia $89.9 billion and Kuwait $592 billion.

Dirran Fawibe, the chairman andchief executive officer of International Energy Servicetold BusinessDay the situation isnotunexpected because thecountryeats all that she earns as revenues.

He said the governors are always agitating that the revenue that comes to the federation account must be shared without thinking of the raining day.

Allthe effortsof Okonjo Iweala , theformer ministerfor Financeto make thegovernorsseereasons for thecountryto have structuredSovereign Wealth Fundwas rebuffedasthe memberoftheNational assemblydont feelconcerned aboutsavingfor the future.

Another chief executive of an oil company but does not want his name mentioned said what did you expect from corrupt governments that have governed this country over the years.Most of the past governments that have ruled this country are aware of how some of the resourced based countries such as Norway, Saudi Arabia have made good savings for their futuregenerations from oil revenues. But they turned deaf ears to suggestions from experts and shared everything each time, he said

Rotimi Amaechi, the current Minister of Transport said that when he was the chairman of the Nigerian GovernorsForum, the governors demanded the sharing of money from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) under the last federal government because it was not properly managed

He explained further: In 2009, we had an economic crisis so President Yaradua put $1billion in the economy so no one felt the crisis. I cant remember what was left in that account, the excess crude account. During Goodluck Jonathan, every month when the governors went for the economic council meeting, the amount in the account kept dropping. If we asked about what happened to the money, the response we got was that the president approved for it to be spent. So we said can we please share this money because the rate at which it was going, the president would have continually approved $1billion to spend and we wont know what we are spending for and they wont give us an account.

Nigeria it would be noted currently has three oil savings fund.They are Sovereign Wealth Fund with $1.5bn,the Excess Crude Account with $2.3 bn and the stabilisation fund with N29.02bn($95M).

Suggesting way forward in his presentation,the Executive Secretary recommended that government should,Initiate amendment to sector 162 of the constitution to accomodate the welfare of future generations.The constitutional option is necessary to ensure that the rules are not subjected to political fluidity.The negotiations need to be complemented with appropriate guarantees for transparent and accountable governance of the funds to reasures stakeholders especially at the sub-national level

He also recommend in his presentations the need to delink government expenditure from oil revenues to support policy initiatives that pursues prudent macro-economic policies,better economic and social environment for the next generation.This is in addition to ensuring that there is constant savings whether oil prices are high or low and provide regular payouts from the returns on investments of the funds to compensate beneficiaries (the three tiers of government)for their sacrifice.

Olusola Belloand HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA

Read more from the original source:

Nigeria ranks least in oil revenue savings, among resource-based countries NEITI - BusinessDay (satire) (press release) (registration) (blog)

tienne Schneider, deputy prime minister of Luxembourg, said passage of the law "reinforces its position as a European hub" for the emerging space resources industry. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

WASHINGTON The government of Luxembourg has passed a bill giving companies the rights to space resources they extract from asteroids or other celestial bodies.

The parliament of Luxembourg, a unicameral body known as the Chamber of Deputies, voted 55 to 2 in favor of the space resources law July 13. Passage of the bill means the act will become law on Aug. 1.

Luxembourg is the first adopter in Europe of a legal and regulatory framework recognizing that space resources are capable of being owned by private companies, tienne Schneider, deputy prime minister and minister of the economy, said in a statement. The Grand Duchy thus reinforces its position as a European hub for the exploration and use of space resources.

The law, which the government has been working on since last year, grants companies operating out of the country ownership of space resources they extract, similar to provisions in the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which became law in the U.S. in November 2015.

Space resources are capable of being appropriated, the first article of the Luxembourg act states, according to an English translation provided by the government.

The rest of the act sets up a system for the government to authorize and supervise resource extraction and other space activities, with the exception of communications satellites, which are regulated by other laws in the country.

Passage of the law was expected. Schneider, speaking at an event organized by the Luxembourg government in New York in June, predicted that the parliament would pass the law by July. He said then that the law was similar in scope to the U.S. law, with the exception that companies need not be based in Luxembourg to take advantage of its provisions.

Both the U.S. and Luxembourg laws grant ownership to resources only after they have been extracted, avoiding potential conflicts with the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits companies from claiming territory on celestial bodies. Nonetheless, the U.S. law has been criticized by some nations in forums like the U.N.s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

In its statement about the new space resources act, the Luxembourg government states that, in addition to the law, it seeks to promote international cooperation in order to progress on a future governance scheme and a global regulatory framework of space resources utilization. An example of that work cited in the release is an agreement with the European Space Agency on studies of space resource exploration and utilization.

The passage of the law is the latest milestone for Luxembourgs SpaceResources.lu initiative, which seeks to make the country a key player in the emerging space resources industry. The country has committed to spent at least 200 million euros ($230 million) on the effort, including making investments in asteroid mining companies in exchange for them setting up offices in Luxembourg.

One of those companies is Planetary Resources, based near Seattle but with a European office in Luxembourg. Luxembourgs new space resources law provides Planetary Resources with a strong basis for stability and predictability for our current and future asteroid mining operations, said Peter Marquez, acting general manager of the company, in a July 13 statement.

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An artistss rendering of a mining operation on the Moon. Image courtesy of OilPrice.com

In the first of our week-long #SWMEThemes on the Middle East and Space Resources, Dr. Tom James of Navitas Resources LLP argues that with its heritage in extracting oil and gas from harshenvironments and recent investments in space programmes, many Middle Eastern countries are well-placed to take advantage of the nascent space resources economy.

The new space resources economy will provide huge benefits for mankind, from pushing technologies forward as we find ways to live sustainably beyond our planet, to improved earth observations to help protect and preserve and improve life back on Earth, to creating new jobs, companies, and opportunities. The Middle East is pouring petrodollars in to the new space economy as it drives its economies to a service and knowledge-based economy and builds its stake in the future of the human race.

As we have witnessed over the past ten years especially, the space industry has becoming more commercialised, with greater investment by the private sector, such as Elon Musks SpaceX and Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic. Both firms have investors from the Middle East, and Virgin Galactic hopes to utilise a spaceport in Abu Dhabi. These new space entrepreneurs are focussed on costs, and this has helped bring downward pressure on launch prices and cost-saving advances in satellite technology have combined to open the door for small and midsize space companies to enter the market, providing new niche services and solutions. These companies, many of whom are basing themselves in the Gulf thanks to pro-active local government support, are well-positioned to serve the increasing demand for bandwidth and services across regions that expect to see large population growth, such as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Since Astronaut Gene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon 45 years ago, we have made little to no progress on new rocket technology or costs or performance of space vehicles, with governments sticking to what worked in the 1960s and 1970s. Now with private firms driving the space race with much larger resources than most governments, we stand on the brink of returning to space this time, to stay. With the annual space economy already sized at U.S.$330 billion a year, its an interesting business to get in to and its attracting increased interest from investors and entrepreneurs.

To really drive the new space economy forward however, we must first reduce the cost of getting stuff in to space from the Earths surface. In space there are many asteroids and mining opportunities for resources to build new larger space ships and space stations and lower costs, but the initial machinery and people to make that happen will have to come from the Earths surface.

Therefore, the most immediate valuable resource that people will pay a premium for in space will initially be water. Made up of hydrogen and oxygen, there is a lot of things you can do with it!

Therefore water has been dubbed the new oil in space and Middle East investors understand the opportunities, as their investment in new emerging commercial space companies and technologies is growing as the region works to shift from an oil-based to a knowledge-based economy and secure a part in the future of supplying energy in space.

Water as Fuel

I expect companies to launch satellites searching for rare gases and metals in asteroids within five years, with actual mining happening within eight.A single asteroid might contain 175 times more platinum than the Earth mines in a year, but its not metal that is the most important commodity in the short term. Its water.

In the long term, most of the commodities mined in space will stay in space to power a low-orbit space economy built around satellites and space stations. In that scenario, water accumulated in space would become the most immediately valuable commodity as it could be used for rocket fuel for interstellar voyages, and to supply oxygen to keep astronauts and space colonies alive. To date all the water for space missions and all the rocket fuel has to be taken to space from the Earths surface and that costs a lot of money as it increases the payload of rockets that must escape the Earths gravity.

A major issue in making access to space cheaper is that every space mission must carry its own fuel for in-space operations, since in-space refuelling does not currently exist. Even if it did, that fuel would have to be lifted and stored on orbit in fuel depots at even higher prices. Currently it costs around U.S.$8,000/kg to $12,000/kg net cost to launch most payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO). New breakthroughs in technology must be realized to significantly reduce this high cost. We are starting to see some of those technologies now succeed, for example the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which is truly re-usable and lands itself after a successful deployment of cargo to space. This type of technology, combined with the large reduction in payload in fuel and supplies, is necessary to refuel in space with water and oxygen already extracted there will massively reduce payloads and cost still further. The corresponding cost and price benefit could give customers around a 30 percent discount over expendable rocket versions.

To avoid this high-cost barrier to real progress, a means to provide cheaper propellants in space has to be developed. One such firm, Shackleton Energy, is working on the answer by proposing to mine ice water on the Moon. Water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen, and in turn can create fuel, drinking water, and oxygen to sustain long term colonies in space.

Middle East in Space

The UAE and Saudi Arabia already have space programmes, with the Saudis signing a pact with Russia in 2015 for cooperation on space exploration and the development of a new space station. With the annual space economy having grown to already U.S.$330 billion dollars it is an interesting time for Middle East countries, that must plan many decades ahead in the development of their economies in to digital- and knowledge-based economies, to get in to the space business. Interestingly the majority of the recent growth in the space economy, in absolute terms and as a percentage, took place on the commercial side of the space economy. Commercial products, services, infrastructure, and support industries add up to slightly more than 75% of the space economy, with government spending (24% of total) constituting the remainder. Thats right government spending is now the minority!

Besides investing petrodollars in to a new economy of the future for their society here on Earth, building a space industry in many countries of the Middle East makes a lot of sense from a geographical standpoint. The closer a country is to the equator, the more surface velocity there is from spinning around the Earths axis, meaning space ships need to burn less fuel to exit the atmosphere. In addition from a communication standpoint it is better to have an orbit around the equator and if you launch away from the equator you must burn a lot of extra fuel to correct the trajectory of your rockets after launch. All of this benefits a number of Middle Eastern countries as potential launch sites.

Dr. Tom James has been involved in energy and commodity markets since 1989 and is an international business architect, risk manager, and trading director, having developed his skills and expertise over the years whilst at top tier financial and trading institutions

around the world. He has been consulting to industry since 2004 when he was head-hunted to be a lead designer and risk management advisor for BHP Billitons commodity trading unit. More recently, he has been a Senior Energy Advisor to the United States Department of Defense.During his career, Tom has written and published seven books on commodity markets and trading. Tomis a frequent speaker at energy and commodity conferences in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and runs training courses throughout the world. He is also a regular commentator on market trends for international news channels including Bloomberg Hong Kong, CNBC, CNBC Asia, and BBC World Service.

Original published at: https://spacewatchme.com/2017/07/swmethemes-middle-east-new-space-resource-economy/

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The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said in Abuja on Thursday that the Federal Government would take critical steps to advance leather production in the country.

Onu spoke at the matriculation of trainees and inauguration of Nigerian Institute of Leather Science and Technology (NILEST), North Central Leather cluster extension centre as well as leather training infrastructure.

The minister said such serious steps to promote leather production would quicken Nigerias industrialisation process.

By doing this, we will also strengthen our capacity to convert our rich agricultural products into viable economic goods and services that we need for both domestic consumption as well strengthen export earnings.

This will help in job and wealth creation, help restore national self-reliance and self-confidence, enhance prosperity and boost our economy, he said.

The minister said that the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology was determined to use Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to lay a solid foundation for Nigerias economic diversification.

According to him, the days event is an affirmation of the resolution.

The minister said the Federal Governments new national development order on STI would help move the country from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based and innovation driven economy.

He said the process of creating additional leather research and development centres in other geo-political zones had reached advance stage.

It is expected that this will help strengthen greater grassroots participation in leather technology, thereby helping to stimulate more indigenous capacity for the ultimate benefit of our people.

Finally, I urge the trainees of this institute to take the vocation seriously.

Nigeria will look up to you on the completion of your training to help in her efforts to use leather technology to create wealth and job, reduce poverty and enhance prosperity for our people.

Earlier, NILEST Acting Director-General, Dr Eucharia Oparah, said NILEST was the only tertiary institution in Nigeria engaged in the training of middle-level manpower for the leather technology sub-sector of the economy.

We have been training artisans, technicians and technologists at different levels since the inception of the institute.

Also, we have been collaborating with the tanneries, leather manufacturers, government and private organisations within and outside the country, she said.

According to her leather has become the major earner of foreign exchange after oil.

She added that for a sustainable growth NILEST should be given the needed support to carry out its mandate of training and research in the field of leather and leather products.

She said the institute ought be empowered and converted to a degree awarding institution as the highest qualification currently awarded by the institute was Higher National Diploma. (NAN)

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FG will intensify effort in promoting leather technology Onu - Daily ... - Daily Post Nigeria

A circular economy is a regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimised by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops. This can be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling.[1] This is contrast to a linear economy which is a 'take, make, dispose' model of production.[2]

The term encompasses more than the production and consumption of goods and services, including a shift from fossil fuels to the use of renewable energy, and the role of diversity as a characteristic of resilient and productive systems. It includes discussion of the role of money and finance as part of the wider debate, and some of its pioneers have called for a revamp of economic performance measurement tools.[3]

"The concept of a circular economy (CE) has been first raised by two British environmental economists David W. Pearce and R. Kerry Turner in 1989. In Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment,[4] they pointed out that a traditional open-ended economy was developed with no built-in tendency to recycle, which was reflected by treating the environment as a waste reservoir".[5] The circular economy is grounded in the study of feedback-rich (non-linear) systems, particularly living systems.[6] A major outcome of this is the notion of optimising systems rather than components, or the notion of design for fit. As a generic notion it draws from a number of more specific approaches including cradle to cradle, biomimicry, industrial ecology, and the 'blue economy.

Linear "take, make, dispose" industrial processes and the lifestyles that feed on them deplete finite reserves to create products that end up in landfills or in incinerators.

This realisation triggered the thought process of a few scientists and thinkers, including Walter R. Stahel, an architect, economist, and a founding father of industrial sustainability. Credited with having coined the expression "Cradle to Cradle" (in contrast with "Cradle to Grave", illustrating our "Resource to Waste" way of functioning), in the late 1970s, Stahel worked on developing a "closed loop" approach to production processes, co-founding the Product-Life Institute in Geneva more than 25 years ago. In the UK, Steve D. Parker researched waste as a resource in the UK agricultural sector in 1982, developing novel closed loop production systems mimicking, and integrated with, the symbiotic biological ecosystems they exploited.

In their 1976 Hannah Reekman research report to the European Commission, "The Potential for Substituting Manpower for Energy", Walter Stahel and Genevieve Reday sketched the vision of an economy in loops (or circular economy) and its impact on job creation, economic competitiveness, resource savings, and waste prevention. The report was published in 1982 as the book Jobs for Tomorrow: The Potential for Substituting Manpower for Energy.[7]

Considered as one of the first pragmatic and credible sustainability think tanks, the main goals of Stahel's institute are product-life extension, long-life goods, reconditioning activities, and waste prevention. It also insists on the importance of selling services rather than products, an idea referred to as the "functional service economy" and sometimes put under the wider notion of "performance economy" which also advocates "more localisation of economic activity".[8]

In broader terms, the circular approach is a framework that takes insights from living systems. It considers that our systems should work like organisms, processing nutrients that can be fed back into the cyclewhether biological or technicalhence the "closed loop" or "regenerative" terms usually associated with it.

The generic Circular Economy label can be applied to, and claimed by, several different schools of thought, that all gravitate around the same basic principles which they have refined in different ways. The idea itself, which is centred on taking insights from living systems, is hardly a new one and hence cannot be traced back to one precise date or author, yet its practical applications to modern economic systems and industrial processes have gained momentum since the late 1970s, giving birth to four prominent movements, detailed below. The idea of circular material flows as a model for the economy was presented in 1966 by Kenneth E. Boulding in his paper, The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth.[9] Promoting a circular economy was identified as national policy in Chinas 11th five-year plan starting in 2006.[10] The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an independent charity established in 2010, has more recently outlined the economic opportunity of a circular economy. As part of its educational mission, the Foundation has worked to bring together complementary schools of thought and create a coherent framework, thus giving the concept a wide exposure and appeal.[11]

Most frequently described as a framework for thinking, its supporters claim it is a coherent model that has value as part of a response to the end of the era of cheap oil and materials and can contribute to the transition to a low carbon economy. In line with this, a circular economy can contribute to meet the COP 21 Paris Agreement. The emissions reduction commitments made by 195 countries at the COP 21 Paris Agreement, are not sufficient to limit global warming to 1.5C. To reach the 1.5C ambition it is estimated that additional emissions reductions of 15 billion tonnes CO2 per year need to be achieved by 2030. Circle Economy and Ecofys estimated that circular economy strategies may deliver emissions reductions that could basically bridge the gap by half.[12]

The circular economy seems intuitively to be more sustainable than the current linear economic system. The reduction of resource inputs into and waste and emission leakage out of the system reduces resource depletion and environmental pollution. However, these simple assumptions are not sufficient to deal with the involved systemic complexity and disregards potential trade-offs. For example, the social dimension of sustainability seems to be only marginally addressed in many publications on the Circular Economy, and there are cases that require different or additional strategies, like purchasing new, more energy efficient equipment. By reviewing the literature, a team of researchers from Cambridge and TU Delft could show that there are at least eight different relationship types between sustainability and the circular economy:[1]

1.Conditional relation

2.Strong conditional relation

3.Necessary but not sufficient conditional relation

4.Beneficial relationship

5.Subset relation (structured and unstructured)

6.Degree relation

7.Cost-benefit/trade-off relation

8.Selective relation

With a surge in popularity, many circular principles are available, varying widely depending on the problems being addressed, the audience, or the lens through which the author views the world. There are at least the following key elements to be identified within a circular economy.

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way. Ultimately the system should aim to run on current sunshine and generate energy through renewable sources. An example of this principle is The Biosphere Rules framework for closed-loop production which identifies Power Autonomy as one of nature's principles for sustainable manufacturing. It requires that energy efficiency be first maximized so that renewable energy becomes economical. It also requires that materials need to be non-toxic to be able to recirculate without causing harm to the living environment.

The second element aims to utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling and is grounded on the idea that waste does not exist. It is necessary here to design out waste, meaning that both the biological and technical components (nutrients) of a product are designed intentionally in such a way that waste streams are minimalized.

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use. Meaning that a product is designed to fit within a materials cycle, can easily be dissembled and can easily be used with a different purpose. Hereby one could consider strategies like emotionally durable design. It should be stressed that there is not something like one ideal blueprint for future design. Modularity, versatility and adaptiveness are to be prioritised in an uncertain and fast evolving world, meaning that diverse products, materials, and systems, with many connections and scales are more resilient in the face of external shocks, than monotone systems built simply for efficiency.

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable. This could mean that a product is accompanied with a pre-thought maintenance programme to maximise its lifetime, including a buyback program and supporting logistics system. Second hand sales or refurbish programs also falls within this element.

Within a circular economy, one should work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector to increase transparency and create joint value. For the business sector this calls for collaboration within the supply chain and cross-sectoral, recognising the interdependence between the different market players. Governments can support this by creating the right incentives, for example via common standards within a regulatory framework and provide business support.

Track and optimise resource use and strengthen connections between supply chain actors through digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights. It also encompasses virtualized value creation and delivering, for example via 3D printers, and communicating with customers virtually.

In a circular economy, prices act as messages, and therefore need to reflect full costs in order to be effective.[13] The full costs of negative externalities are revealed and taken into account, and perverse subsidies are removed. A lack of transparency on externalities acts as a barrier to the transition to a circular economy.

The circular economy is a framework that draws upon and encompasses principles from:[14]

The ability to understand how things influence one another within a whole. Elements are considered as fitting in their infrastructure, environment and social context. Whilst a machine is also a system, systems thinking usually refers to nonlinear systems: systems where through feedback and imprecise starting conditions the outcome is not necessarily proportional to the input and where evolution of the system is possible: the system can display emergent properties. Examples of these systems are all living systems and any open system such as meteorological systems or ocean currents, even the orbits of the planets have nonlinear characteristics.

Understanding a system is crucial when trying to decide and plan (corrections) in a system. Missing or misinterpreting the trends, flows, functions of, and human influences on, our socio-ecological systems can result in disastrous results. In order to prevent errors in planning or design an understanding of the system should be applied to the whole and to the details of the plan or design. The Natural Step created a set of systems conditions (or sustainability principles) that can be applied when designing for (parts of) a circular economy to ensure alignment with functions of the socio-ecological system.

The concept of the circular economy has previously been expressed as the circulation of money versus goods, services, access rights, valuable documents, etc., in macroeconomics. This situation has been illustrated in many diagrams for money and goods circulation associated with social systems. As a system, various agencies or entities are connected by paths through which the various goods etc., pass in exchange for money. However, this situation is different from the circular economy described above, where the flow is unilinear - in only one direction, that is, until the recycled goods again are spread over the world.

Janine Benyus, author of "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature", defines her approach as "a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example. I think of it as "innovation inspired by nature.[15] Biomimicry relies on three key principles:

Industrial Ecology is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems. Focusing on connections between operators within the "industrial ecosystem", this approach aims at creating closed loop processes in which waste is seen as input, thus eliminating the notion of undesirable by-product. Industrial ecology adopts a systemic - or holistic - point of view, designing production processes according to local ecological constraints whilst looking at their global impact from the outset, and attempting to shape them so they perform as close to living systems as possible. This framework is sometimes referred to as the "science of sustainability", given its interdisciplinary nature, and its principles can also be applied in the services sector. With an emphasis on natural capital restoration, Industrial Ecology also focuses on social wellbeing.[16]

Created by Walter R. Stahel, a Swiss architect, who graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zrich in 1971. He has been influential in developing the field of sustainability, by advocating 'service-life extension of goods - reuse, repair, remanufacture, upgrade technologically' philosophies as they apply to industrialised economies. He co-founded the Product Life Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, a consultancy devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies, after receiving recognition for his prize winning paper 'The Product Life Factor' in 1982. His ideas and those of similar theorists led to what is now known as the circular economy in which industry adopts the reuse and service-life extension of goods as a strategy of waste prevention, regional job creation and resource efficiency in order to decouple wealth from resource consumption, that is to dematerialise the industrial economy.

Cooper (2005)[17] proposed a theoretical model to illustrate the significance of product life span in a progress towards sustainable consumption. The longer product life spans could contribute to eco-efficiency and sufficiency, thus, slowing the consumption in order to progress towards sustainable consumption.[17]

Initiated by former Ecover CEO and Belgian entrepreneur Gunter Pauli, derived from the study of natural biological production processes the official manifesto states, "using the resources available...the waste of one product becomes the input to create a new cash flow".[18] Based on 21 founding principles, the Blue Economy insists on solutions being determined by their local environment and physical / ecological characteristics, putting the emphasis on gravity as the primary source of energy - a point that differentiates this school of thought from the others within the Circular Economy.[19] The report - which doubles as the movements manifesto - describes "100 innovations which can create 100 million jobs within the next 10 years", and provides many example of winning South-South collaborative projects, another original feature of this approach intent on promoting its hands-on focus.

The Biosphere Rules is a framework for implementing closed loop production processes. They derived from nature systems and translated for industrial production systems. The five principles are Materials Parsimony, Value Cycling, Power Autonomy, Sustainable Product Platforms and Function Over Form.

In January 2012, a report was released entitled Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition. The report, commissioned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and developed by McKinsey & Company, was the first of its kind to consider the economic and business opportunity for the transition to a restorative, circular model. Using product case studies and economy-wide analysis, the report details the potential for significant benefits across the EU. It argues that a subset of the EU manufacturing sector could realise net materials cost savings worth up to $630 billion annually towards 2025stimulating economic activity in the areas of product development, remanufacturing and refurbishment. Towards the Circular Economy also identified the key building blocks in making the transition to a circular economy, namely in skills in circular design and production, new business models, skills in building cascades and reverse cycles, and cross-cycle/cross-sector collaboration.[20]

In January 2015 a Definitive Guide to The Circular Economy[21] was published by Coara with the specific aim to raise awareness amongst the general population of the environmental problems already being caused by our "throwaway culture". Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE,) in particular, is contributing to excessive use of landfill sites across the globe in which society is both discarding valuable metals but also dumping toxic compounds that are polluting the surrounding land and water supplies. Mobile devices and computer hard drives typically contain valuable metals such as silver and copper but also hazardous chemicals such as lead, mercury and cadmium. Consumers are unaware of the environmental significance of upgrading their mobile phones, for instance, on such a frequent basis but could do much to encourage manufacturers to start to move away from the wasteful, polluting linear economy towards are sustainable circular economy.

On 17 December 2012, the European Commission published a document entitled Manifesto for a Resource Efficient Europe. This manifesto clearly stated that "In a world with growing pressures on resources and the environment, the EU has no choice but to go for the transition to a resource-efficient and ultimately regenerative circular economy."[22] Furthermore, the document highlighted the importance of "a systemic change in the use and recovery of resources in the economy" in ensuring future jobs and competitiveness, and outlined potential pathways to a circular economy, in innovation and investment, regulation, tackling harmful subsidies, increasing opportunities for new business models, and setting clear targets.

The European environmental research and innovation policy aims at supporting the transition to a circular economy in Europe, defining and driving the implementation of a transformative agenda to green the economy and the society as a whole, to achieve a truly sustainable development. Research and innovation in Europe are financially supported by the programme Horizon 2020, which is also open to participation worldwide.[23]

The European Commission introduced a Circular Economy proposal in 2015. Historically, the policy debate in Brussels mainly focused on waste management which is the second half of the cycle, and very little is said about the first half: eco-design. To draw the attention of policymakers and other stakeholders to this loophole, the Ecothis. An EU campaign was launched raising awareness about the economic and environmental consequences of not including eco-design as part of the circular economy package.[24]

A circular economy calls upon opportunities to create greater value and align incentives through business models that build on the interaction between products and services. Linder and Williander describe a circular business model as a business model in which the conceptual logic for value creation is based on utilizing the economic value retained in products after use in the production of new offerings.[25]

Basically this means that a circular business model is not focused merely on selling a product, but encompasses a shift in thinking about value proposition, bringing forward a whole range of different business models to be used. To mention just a few examples: product-service systems, virtualized services, and collaborative consumption which encompasses the sharing economy. This comprises both the incentives and benefits offered to customers for bringing back used products and a change in revenue streams, comprising payments for a circular product or service, or payments for delivered availability, usage, or performance related to the product-based service offered.

These new ways of doing business require businesses to create an attractive business model for financiers, and financiers to change the way they perceive the risks and opportunities associated with these models. To help businesses position themselves in a circular context and develop future strategies for doing business in a circular economy, the Value Hill has been created. The Value Hill proposes a categorisation based on the lifecycle phases of a product: pre-, in- and post- use. This allows businesses to position themselves on the Value Hill and understand possible circular strategies they can implement as well as identify missing partners in their circular network. The Value Hill provides an overview of the circular partners and collaborations essential to the success of a circular value network.[26]

Mateusz Lewandowski provides a proposition to address this need to design circular business models and presents an extension of the framework from Osterwalder and Pigneur, namely the circular business model canvas (CBMC). The CBMC consists of eleven building blocks, encompassing not only traditional components with minor modifications, but also material loops and adaptation factors. Those building blocks allow the designing of a business model according to the principles of circular economy.[27]

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Circular economy - Wikipedia