Energy

April 15, 2019

A changing climate boosts the political divide

The young have taken to the streets in peaceful protest showing governments that they too have a voice. The upcoming Australian election may prove them…

January 14, 2019

Maxwell’s Brexit: A case of intangible destruction

Strip away from Brexit the bitterness, debate and division and what is left – an abrupt change of circumstance with a future that is unknowable,…

December 6, 2018

Maxwell’s Consumer: seeking a sustainable world

The recent uprising of the Gilets Jaunes in France is one idiosyncratic national reaction to a global problem. But global problems demand global answers and…

November 26, 2018

Maxwell’s Entrepreneur: finding the edge

If there is a powerful take-home message from last week – for chief-execs and business students alike – the succinct observations of Ray Dalio, founder…

September 5, 2018

Climate of division, even in the Lucky Country

Australia was once dubbed ‘the lucky country’. The difficult and divisive issue of climate change may just have put paid to that, writes Geoff Kitney….

December 18, 2017

Plasma drive puts Mars within reach for humans

EXCLUSIVE Interplanetary travel: science has finally caught up with fiction, James Fitzgerald discovers. Gene “Star Trek” Roddenberry’s vision of a pioneering intergalactic society has been…

April 28, 2017

Tracing the path of an energy dissipative UK economy

Today saw the publication of the latest GDP figures for the UK economy. It grew 0.3 per cent over the first quarter of 2017, according…

April 14, 2017

On sustainability and profit

What determines the sustainability of your commercial enterprise? What makes it profitable? An answer is in the balance of investment into innovation and production, writes…

April 4, 2017

The energy dissipative enterprise

Here we look into the commercial activities of an enterprise through a prism of energy dissipation to understand the conversion of investment into income. The…

March 20, 2017

Energy policy: a case study in political failure

Australia illustrates all that can go wrong with bad planning, poor decision making and putting politics ahead of the national interest, writes Geoff Kitney. It…

1 2 »

Boris Johnson to pull UK out of EU ‘do or die’
Boris Johnson has pledged to “do or die” and take Britain out of Europe in four months’ time as polling shows that a no-deal Brexit is the first choice of one in four voters. The frontrunner in the Tory leadership race issued an ultimatum to Brussels yesterday to drop its insistence on an Irish backstop, which Brexiteers fear could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely. He also said he would not sign off the full £39 billion divorce settlement until a trade deal had been struck. Mr Johnson added that if Brussels did not agree to his demands he would take Britain out of the EU without a deal on October 31, hinting that he was prepared to defy parliament to do so. He told talkRADIO that it would be up to “the prime minister of the day” to apply to delay Brexit beyond this date. “International treaty law says the UK is leaving the EU on October 31,” he added. He said that this would happen “do or die. Come what may.” The Times, June 26

Hunt says Johnson can’t be trusted on Brexit
Jeremy Hunt has suggested there is “no trust” in Boris Johnson to fulfil his promises on Brexit, telling the BBC he believes he has the better personality to be prime minister. Speaking after a war of words with his Conservative leadership rival, whom Hunt branded a coward for turning down a debate with him on Sky News on Tuesday night, Hunt said 31 October was a “fake deadline” and could lead to a snap general election. He made the comments after Johnson wrote to him asking him to commit to taking the UK out of the EU on 31 October come what may. Hunt said he believed that would be “more likely to trip us into a general election before we’ve delivered Brexit, and that would hand the keys to Jeremy Corbyn and then we’d have no Brexit at all”. Hunt said he believed a new prime minister would know soon whether a new deal was possible. “If there isn’t and if no deal is still on the table I’ve been very clear. I will leave the European Union without a deal,” he said. “But I’m not going to do that if there’s a prospect of a better deal and if I did it, it would be with a heavy heart, because businesses up and down the country would face a lot of destruction.” The Guardian, June 26

Brexit bill for UK financial services reaches £4bn
UK financial services companies have racked up a Brexit bill of close to £4bn as they prepare to shift people and capital to the EU, according to EY, the consultancy. Some of Britain’s biggest financial services groups have disclosed £1.3bn in relocation costs, legal advice and contingency provisions since Britain voted to leave the EU three years ago, plus an extra £2.6bn in capital injections as they set up non-UK headquarters, EY’s quarterly Brexit tracker said. Banks such as HSBC, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have all put aside extra cash to cope with a possible rise in defaults after Brexit amid concerns about the UK’s economic outlook in the wake of a disorderly exit. Banks also face extra costs to shift offices, people and technology. Bank of America has said it will spend about $400m as it tries to prevent disruption to trading after Brexit, while Barclays put the cost of the move at about £200m earlier this year. Financial Times, June 26

Hard Brexit could cost Ireland 85,000 jobs
A hard Brexit could cost Ireland up to 85,000 jobs over the next few years, the finance minister said. Paschal Donohoe said yesterday that Ireland’s economic growth could stagnate if Britain crashes out of the EU in October without a deal. It came as Boris Johnson, the front-runner to become British prime minister, said yesterday that under his leadership the UK would leave the EU in four months, with or without a deal. The government yesterday published its summer economic statement which laid out a budget programme to deal with two different scenarios – a disorderly Brexit or Britain leaving the EU with a deal. Mr Donohoe said that under a hard Brexit between as many as 85,000 jobs would be lost. “We believe in the early years of Brexit, we will face a challenge of approximately 50,000 jobs in our economy, that are in place now, being lost due to the effects of Brexit,” he said. The Times, June 26

HK protesters want leaders to raise crisis at G20
Hundreds have gathered at a rally in Hong Kong and marched to foreign consulates to lobby international governments about the city’s political crisis during the G20 summit this week. President Xi Jinping of China and the US president, Donald Trump, are expected to meet at the summit in Japan amid heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Many in the crowd who gathered at Chater Garden in the heart of Hong Kong’s business district Central wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the message: “Liberate Hong Kong!”, held up placards and chanted slogans: “Free Hong Kong!” The Guardian, June 26

Robert Mueller to testify before Congress
Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who investigated Russia’s role in the 2016 US presidential election, has agreed to testify before Congress on July 17 in response to a subpoena, House Democrats said on Tuesday evening. The appearance by Mr Mueller before two congressional committees will mark only the second time that he has spoken publicly about his investigation into possible links between Donald Trump’s election campaign and Russia, as well as potential obstruction by the US president. Last month, Mr Mueller discussed his findings at a brief press conference and said he hoped it would be the last time he would speak publicly about the investigation. The former FBI director warned that he would not go beyond his written report in any congressional testimony. However, Democrats have been keen to secure his appearance in the belief that any televised comments will have greater political impact than the 448-page tome Mr Mueller submitted in March at the end of his almost two-year investigation. Financial Times, June 26

USA: Democrats agree $4.5bn aid for migrants
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have approved $4.5bn (£3.5bn) in humanitarian aid for the southern border. Several migrant deaths, coupled with reports of “severely neglected” children at a Texan border patrol station, have helped shape the debate. But the bill faces a tough path through the Republican-controlled Senate. It is considering a rival bill with fewer restrictions on how border agencies can spend the money. The Democrats’ version, in contrast, contains several strict rules setting out that the funds can be used for humanitarian aid only, and “not for immigration raids, not detention beds, not a border wall”, a statement from House appropriations committee chair Nita Lowey said. BBC news, June 26

Hunt pulls support for Sturgeon’s pro-indy trips
Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to continue making the case for independence overseas after Jeremy Hunt banned UK government support for foreign trips that promote the end of the Union. Officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have previously helped set up and co-ordinate meetings with diplomats and foreign politicians but aid was withdrawn during the first minister’s trip to Brussels this month. Mr Hunt, the foreign secretary who is in the running to become the next prime minister, said that he would no longer facilitate trips in which Ms Sturgeon “goes abroad to drum up support for independence”. A Scottish government official said last night that the Foreign Office had not made any move to change the 20-year-old protocols. “We continue to operate as normal,” she said. However, Mr Hunt vowed to bring in the change after he raised concerns about Ms Sturgeon promoting independence during visits to the US and Canada that the British government facilitated. The Times, June 26

UK govt to review image-based sexual abuse law
Victims of so-called revenge porn could be given better protection as part of a review of image-based sexual abuse laws, the government has announced. Campaigners have been calling for victims to have the same protection of anonymity as other sexual offences. The Law Commission will examine the legislation around the sharing of explicit images without consent. Sophie Mortimer, from the Revenge Porn helpline, said she would encourage a move to make it a sexual offence. Sharing explicit images without consent became an offence in England and Wales in April 2015, with similar laws introduced later in Northern Ireland and Scotland. BBC news, June 26

Ikea gets OK to build affordable homes in UK
Homebuyers in a town where properties typically cost almost 12 times local salaries may soon have a low-cost option from Ikea after a UK council agreed to work with an affordable housing developer co-owned by the retailer. Worthing council has signed up with BoKlok, a company jointly owned by the Swedish retailer and construction firm Skanska which specialises in factory-built housing that can be constructed at a low cost. The firm sets property prices so that buyers have money left to live on after they have paid their housing costs, and its website says “a single parent can afford to buy and live in a newly built two-bedroom BoKlok apartment”. It has built 11,000 homes across Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway, and is keen to break into the UK after a false start more than a decade ago. The Guardian, June 26

Jared Kushner: Two state solution for Israel and Palestinians is lost
The United States has killed hopes of a Palestinian state even as it opened a conference aimed at Middle East peace. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, publicly scrapped American support for the “two-state solution” that has been the basis for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians for decades. Mr Kushner used an interview marking the opening of a “Peace to Prosperity Workshop” for the Palestinian economy in Bahrain to say that the US was withdrawing support for the longstanding Arab Peace Initiative. The initiative was sponsored by Saudi Arabia as a potential basis for recognition of Israel by the Arab world and envisaged two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, following the borders established before the Six Day War in 1967. It foresaw Jerusalem as the twin capital of both states, with the Israelis in the west and Palestinians in the east, and a deal to allow a “right of return” for Palestinian refugees. The Times, June 26

‘World’s best restaurant’? France’s Mirazur
Mirazur in France has been crowned the world’s best restaurant at an awards ceremony in Singapore. The eatery on the French Riviera came top in the annual competition organised by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Mirazur, run by an Argentine chef, was praised for a number of its dishes, including salt-crusted beetroot from its own garden with caviar cream. The awards, held since 2002, now rival the famous Michelin stars, although some experts question the methodology. BBC news, June 26