Daily Archives: August 14, 2017

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, says he will clarify the Turnbull governments offshore detention centre secrecy provisions. Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

The Turnbull government has moved to water down secrecy provisions that threaten workers in Australias offshore detention centres with two years prison if they speak out about abuse or neglect.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has put forward amendments to the 2015 Australian Border Force Act that will make it easier for social workers, lawyers, nurses and security guards working in Australias offshore detention centres to talk publicly about the shocking treatment of refugees without being jailed.

Refugee advocates say it represents a stunning backdown on the governments controversial legislation, arguing the government is only doing so because it is in the middle of a high court challenge against the legislation that it knows it will lose.

But Dutton says his amendments simply aim to clarify the intent of the governments original legislation to stop the unauthorised disclosure of information that could harm the national or public interest.

It effectively waters down the bill, Dr Barri Phatarfod from Doctors 4 Refugees told Guardian Australia. Dutton and his office argue that it clarifies the intention of the bill, which may well be the case ... but its taken over two years for him to clarify something that he wasnt unaware of.

Heads of various peak medical and other professional bodies have been appealing to him since [the legislation was introduced in 2015].

Lawyers from the Fitzroy Legal Service, working on behalf of Doctors 4 Refugees, filed a case in the high court last year, challenging section 42 the secrecy provision of the Border Force Act.

Section 42 carries a two-year jail term for any entrusted person anybody who works within the immigration detention system who makes an unauthorised disclosure about conditions in the camps.

They argued the controversial legislation had compromised, and potentially criminalised, the actions of doctors who were only seeking to advance their patients interests by speaking out publicly on behalf of the refugees and asylum seekers they treated.

The Turnbull government subsequently removed health professionals from the definition of immigration and border protection workers but the groups have not dropped the high court challenge.

Phatarfod said doctors cannot treat refugees properly if non-health professionals such as teachers, cleaners, and security guards are unable to report or share information about refugees because they fear that they, too, could be jailed.

Duttons amendments mean the secrecy provision will now be refined to only apply to information that may compromise Australias security, defence or international relations, interfere with the investigation of offences, or affect sensitive personal and commercial matters.

The amendments will apply retrospectively, dating back to 1 July 2015 when the Border Force Act was enacted.

The retrospective application of the bill will provide the necessary certainty that only information which could harm the national or public interest, if disclosed, is to be protected, and will be regarded as ever having been protected, under the ABF act, Dutton said.

This will reassure individuals who may otherwise believe they have committed an offence, in circumstances which would not have amounted to an offence under these amendments.

This bill will clarify the intent and refine the operation of the secrecy and disclosure provisions that govern the management of information in my portfolio.

It illustrates the fine balance that must be struck in protecting sensitive information while upholding a commitment to open and accountable government.

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Dutton retreats on offshore detention secrecy rules that threaten workers with jail - The Guardian

AMMAN, Jordan When Uber and its Emirati competitor Careem entered Jordan in 2016, they provided welcome relief from the countrys taxi services, which have a reputation for poor service and dangerous driving. Yet the startups quickly wore on the politically-connected taxi lobby. Within months both services were banned, and police were ordering rides only to detain the drivers, fine them, and impound their cars.

While Careem scrambled to stay afloat, the firms major investors reacted to this bump in the road with a collective shrug. Thats because Careem is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Careem has problems in every jurisdiction, said Lana Alamat, a lawyer with Wamda Capital, a major Mideast venture fund that invests in the startup. The holding entitythe legal place you own sharesis insulated from these liabilities.

Careem is no outlier. As startups make headway across the Middle East, they are increasingly doing business via offshore havens like the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the Cayman Islands, and even the US state of Delaware. This approach is the only way to calm investors who are deeply wary of the regions sclerotic courts and opaque regulations that are often enforced on the whims of powerful bureaucrats.

Investors require it, explained Eman Hylooz, the founder of Abjjad, an Arabic e-book platform that operates through the BVI. Being more stablemakes the investors relieved.

The startup scene in the Middle East has earned well-deserved attention in recent years, as a host of accelerators and venture funds pumped out millions in investments and spun off hundreds of new companies. In 2016 alone, Wamdaa major source of data on Mideast entrepreneurshiptallied at least $815 million in new investments across the region.

The Middle East shares the same demographic trends that are catalyzing startups across much of the developing world, explains Christopher Schroeder, a venture capitalist and author of Startup Rising, the Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East. You have disproportionately young populations with ever-increasing access to technologyand rising consumer classes more interested in transacting digitally. These startups provide a source of jobs and, for some, a way to diversify oil-dependent economies.

And while other countries have fallen behind in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab revolts, Jordan has harnessed its relative stability to build a startup scene whose vitality pulls a scrappy third behind the glistening tech hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Yet the countrys regulations have been slow to catch up.

Jordans tech entrepreneurs have long struggled with rules that are more fit for brick-and-mortar companies than startups, such as laws that can force small companies to rent zoned office space rather than working out of a basement. But the idea of registering abroad to avoid these regulations caught on after 2009, when the popular Arabic web portal Maktoob sold to Yahoo! for $164 million, freeing up millions in profits that the founders scrambled to reinvest across the region. They quickly found that executing investments locally involved reams of paperwork, and more than a few liabilities.

We started with the Jordanian legal structurebut we needed speed and scalability, explained Alamat, who managed these early investments for Fadi Ghandour, a now-famous Maktoob founder and Mideast logistics giant whose early team evolved into Wamda Capital. There were a couple of red flags that really scared us.

Ghandours team settled on a rule that still applies at Wamda Capital, now a dominant force in Mideast venture capital: they would invest across the region, but only if a company agreed to register outside of it. Today, it is hard to find a successful startup in the Middle East that hasnt followed suit.

For Alamat, the biggest doubt surrounding the Jordanian legal system involved agreements that dictate when the entrepreneur must issue shares, or when an investor can be compelled to sell them, such as if most other investors agree to sell the company. Anyone is free to sign such agreements; however, the Jordanian government has never fully adjudicated whether it can enforce them, raising the possibility that a profitable exit could be blocked by a single intransigent investor, or that an entrepreneur could simply refuse to issue promised stock. Even today, nobody wants to be the first to try.

Other Middle Eastern countries have their own issues from an investors perspective. Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates both forbid issuing multiple types of shares, a common practice in the US that allows founders and investors to consolidate their control over a company, often at the expense of employees, who may be issued stock that lacks voting power.

Investors are also nervous about how hard it can be to close a company. Jordan has no specialized bankruptcy law, meaning that loan defaults are a winding and litigious process. Last year, the World Bank estimated that a Jordanian lender whose client went into default would recover 46% less of their loans value than an equivalent lender in a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a developed-countries group. The difference was largely eaten up by fees and levies.

With bankruptcy Ive heard some horror stories, said Walid Faza, a partner at Wamda Capital. He explained that in the UAE, individuals can be held liable if their companies go bankrupt, and are often held in the country until the cases are settled. That just doesnt happen in other jurisdictions.

While a variety of developed countries offer reliable courts and business-friendly regulation, Delaware stands out for an unusually easy business-registration process, and the BVI for its 0% tax rate. In spite of its reputation as a money laundering destination, the BVI actually requires more exhaustive transparency proceduresknown as know-your-client rulesthan Delaware. Nonetheless, many entrepreneurs that would be drawn by Delawares simple registration opt for the BVI instead out of a deep-seated phobia of the United States complex tax system.

Some countries in the Middle East are launching initiatives aimed at pulling companies back home, yet not all go as planned. Jordan recently took aim at the tax-free BVI, introducing a 0% tax rate for some online-only companies that are registered in Jordan. That keeps companies around, but not forever. Now [startups] do like, three days of paperwork to qualify for the Jordanian tax break in their early stages before moving abroad later anyway, explained Rana Atwan, a lawyer who often works with Oasis500, Jordans largest startup incubator.

Lebanon also took a stab at keeping entrepreneurs local when its central bank announced $400 million in funding for Lebanese-registered entrepreneurs in 2013. But that complicated investing in Lebanon by tenfold, sighed Alamat. Valuations have become stupid high, because now there is easy money, she explained, pointing out that higher valuations mean investors get less company for their money. We have basically pulled out of Lebanon.

While these initiatives often share the pretense of encouraging entrepreneurship, they also have something else in common: they offer startups fixed rewards for enduring the system, rather than reforming the system itself. In an effort at the latter, Jordan has been working to reform its bankruptcy system since 2015, yet the effort has bred few results.

But for those who are making their way in the startup economy, the opportunities are too great to let rules get in the way. Legal problems only matter because there is a dollar value assigned to them, explains Alamat. The first thing a startup thinks is not, Oh, Im going to set up a company in Egypt to work in Egypt. Its, How can I get to work?

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For many Middle Eastern entrepreneurs, the first order of business starts offshore - Quartz

A wide range of environmentalists, union leaders and alternative energy advocates were set to rally today in Rockaway Beach in favor of offshore wind energy projects in the region.

A coalition of wind power supporters planned to speaktonight before the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority holds its first New York City public information meeting regarding wind, scheduled for today at 6 p.m.at the Queens Public Library.

They are slated to rally just after 5 p.m. outside that library, at 92-25 Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Rockaway Beach, before the meeting.

Offshore wind will have to be a major component if that objective is to be met, according to organizers of the rally. New York has a chance if addressed in a comprehensive and timely way to be a national leader on offshore wind, and attract the new industries and jobs that will be created.

This push for wind power comes after NYSERDA held public information meetings regarding wind power last week in Long Island.

The authority plans to hold three public information meetings this week in New York City.

Representatives are scheduled from the Utility Workers Union of America AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club, New York Offshore Wind Alliance, National Wildlife Federation, Workforce Development Institute and Local 361 Ironworkers union.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for the state to obtain half of all its power from renewable energy sources by 2030.

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Offshore wind power rally today - Long Island Business News (subscription)

Published on August 14th, 2017 | by Joshua S Hill

August 14th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill

If Europe is to fall in line with the Paris Climate Agreement intention of limiting global warming to1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the region must significantly increase its rate of growth for offshore wind development, tripling it at the very least.

These are the primary conclusions published byMichiel Mller from leading international energy and climate consultancy, Ecofys, who penned an article for Energy Post last week explaining that Europe will needa fully decarbonized electricity supply by 2045 and that Renewables are essential to making this happen, specifically,Mller argued that offshore wind from the North Seas region will be pivotal for realising a 100% decarbonised electricity supply in less than 30 years.

Mllers argument is based on research done between Ecofys and its parent company, Navigant, which looked at offshore wind generation in the North Sea for the ten countries surrounding the North Sea France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Specifically, a white paper published in March by Ecofys and Navigant concluded that 15% of the North Sea regions total electricity demand could be supplied by offshore wind energy by 2030. This integrated North Sea Grid is believed to be the only way to achieve the growth necessary to help meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets.

The research from Ecofys and Navigant determined that the total available onshore generation from various renewable energy sources wind, solar, bio, hydro, and a little bit of nuclear would only be able to provide up to 55% of the required capacity to meet the Paris Agreement targets. This leaves 45% needed to be covered by offshore wind, which translates into approximately 230 GW (gigawatts) 180 GW generated in the North Sea, and the remaining 50 GW in other seas such as the Baltic and Irish Seas, as well as the Atlantic Ocean.

There is currently only 13 GW worth of offshore installed in the region, requiring a massive turning of the screws to increase the rate of delivery. Ecofys and Navigant explains that the installation rate would have to triple from the current 3 GW a year to approximately 10 GW a year.

But, as has been pointed out repeatedly this year, this sort of growth cannot be achieved by one nation alone, and requires national collaboration, coordination, and interconnectivity between North Sea nations. Interestingly, a report published in July bythe World Energy Council (WEC) Netherlands posited a similar solution, explaining that the North Sea must play a crucial role in the energy transition ahead for northwestern Europe a transition which could result inbetween100 billion and 200 billion in economic value for neighboring regions in the transition away from fossil fuels.

The opportunities and diversity thereof in the North Sea are huge,said Jeroen van Hoof, the chair of WEC Netherlands. The Energy Transformation in the North Sea creates new industries. We can benefit from huge economic advantages by installing large wind farms. Also, a co-ordinated removal and smart re-use of former oil and gas assets can generate new economic activities. The potential is significant.

The main point from all that has been published this year regarding the North Seas potential, however, is the desperate need for cooperation and interconnectivity between the North Seas bordering coutnries. AsMller concludes in hisEnergy Post article, before the demand for interconnection can be addressedon the technical level, it will be the collaborative connection between the involved countries and public and private stakeholders that counts.

Developing a long-term spatial planning strategy and a robust 2045 roadmap for flexibility options will be two of the key steps to meeting the Paris goals. Joint strategic planning will secure operational security during and beyond the energy transition.

The full article fromEnergy Post can be read here and I recommend you do.

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Tags: Belgium, Denmark, Ecofys, France, Germany, ireland, Luxemburg, navigant, north sea, North Sea Grid, norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, UK, united kingdom

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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Europe Must Triple Offshore Wind Growth Rate To Bring Paris Goals Within Reach - CleanTechnica