As we never tire of repeating; ‘fractional reserve banking’ anchored on fiat currency is the worst non-violent crime of the millennium. Understandably, this conclusion of ours might not be acceptable within the circle of modern bankers. After all, bankers make their living by killing others, literally! Remember the old adage: ‘all wars are bankers’ wars’! In fact, it is the unbridled greed of the global banking/financial cabal that is giving impetus to the emerging system of crypto-currencies. Admittedly, the current state of crypto-currencies leaves a lot to be desired. Even though cryptos themselves are not based on something tangible, what absolves their ‘fiat-ness’ is the fact that their volume is fixed and determined a priori, i.e., they cannot be inflated at whim, by anyone! For example there are only 21 million ‘Bitcoins’ available in the world and that is for eternity, so to speak!
Cryptos appeal to the youth and the vanguards. As it stands, the block-chain technology that underlies cryptos is unwieldy and energy intensive, hence need to be significantly transformed before crypto-currencies and ‘smart contracts’ can be used broadly. At the same time, the blatant abuse of ‘fractional reserve banking’ by all and sundry, is bound to implode, thereby taking down the whole global financial system with it! Creating phony money to sustain the unsustainable is not only crazy, but is also a criminal act of massive proportion. When the working stiff has to sell his/her labor for a continuously devaluing currency, while the parasitic cronies of the system do nothing to acquire immense wealth, societal harmony becomes only a figment of our imagination. The continuous devaluation of a currency is the direct result of printing money out of thin air. This phony money is given freely to cronies, while it indebts the sheeple (human mass) to serfdom till thy kingdom comes! It is this phony money that is currently sustaining the crony capitalism. Something has to yield!
Increased economic polarization is, first and foremost, the outcome of fiat based fractional reserve banking; a criminal activity pure and simple! All other excuses/reasons of polarization pale in comparison. The damages phony money is causing, both to human societies and the planet’s ecosystem, is incalculable. Banksters all over the world make sure the sheeple remains ignorant about transnational finance capital’s various criminal engagements. From the universities to state bureaucracies, from market operators to non-profit sectors, all worship the teaching and deranged ideology of modern finance, which is based on phony money. Fortunately, things have started to stir. States that are more concerned about their sheeple are quietly preparing for the inevitable implosion. Hoarding gold and other precious metals is one way of preparing for the impending calamity. To this end, the central banks of China, Russia and many others are accumulating the ‘old relic’, which still remains one of the safest commodities for storing value.
Many a sheeple cannot un-fathom the ongoing panic that is taking place in the opaque world of global financial management. The US central bank (The FED) has started to flood the global banking system, once again, with liquidity (fancy name for more paper printing). It is trying to thwart off the emerging systemic chaos in the global banking world. For a start, the ‘repo’ market is showing signs of chronic sickness. ‘Repo stands for “repurchase agreement.” It’s when a borrower sells short-term government securities overnight in exchange for cash, agreeing to repurchase the securities the next day – and return the cash.’ In other words, banks seem unwilling to lend to each other. When the going gets tough, trust between banksters becomes the first casualty. The solution proposed by the central bankers; another round of QE or Quantitative Easing! This time behind closed doors. See Bonner’s article next column. The project of awarding free and easy money to the system’s cronies will not cease until hyperinflation makes a stop to the whole nonsense. Our market fundamentalists please note; it is this phony money that is taking custody of global productive assets from the gullible, via schemes like privatization, before time runs out on it!
One thing is clear; there is no way of sustaining a fraudulent financial system without causing humongous havoc on planetary sheeple. Here is what the old advocate of honest money had to say, decades ago. ‘There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.’ Ludwig von Mises of the Austrian school of thought.
MODERN FINANCE ON THE ROPE
VOICE OF CLIMATE
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide a clear scientific assessment of the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and to identify possible responses.
At its 59th Session, scheduled to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, during the week of 24 to 28 July 2023, the IPCC is set to elect a new IPCC Bureau and a new Bureau of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. In its letter on 28 March 2023, the Secretary of the IPCC invited Members of the IPCC to submit written nominations for the IPCC Chair and all other IPCC Bureau and Task Force Bureau positions.
One of the hopefuls for the IPCC Chair seat is Belgium’s candidate, Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, who has served as the IPCC Vice-Chair between 2008 and 2015, with similar years of expertise stemming various roles in the UNFCCC since 1995. Prof. Jean-Pascal is a full professor of climate and sustainable development at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium (UCLouvain) and Co-author of the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.
Prof. Jean-Pascal in his pursuit of the IPCC chair post envisions for the IPCC to become the most dynamic and inclusive ‘Voice of Climate’ in order to provide all policymakers with the best and most useful scientific information.
Capital’s Metasebia Teshome caught up with the professor in his recent visit to Ethiopia from 8-11th of April 2023, in which he sought to understand the climate situation in the country as well as in running his campaign. The following are excerpts from the candid interview;
Capital: What is the aim of your visit to Ethiopia?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: I am here for two reasons. The first is to announce my candidacy for the IPCC chair position because it’s an election where each IPCC member country has one vote. Therefore, it’s very important for me to have as many votes as possible including that of Ethiopia since Addis is set at the heart of the African Union. Furthermore, it is very convenient in terms of meeting ambassadors of African countries. Secondly, in relation to my bid, it is vital as the IPCC Chair to reflect all the concerns of the members of the IPCC on climate change as well as on the projects and plans that the IPCC have. So I am here to listen and absorb as much of the information as possible.
Capital: Did you get the chance to visit some practical efforts that Ethiopia is doing to cope up with the impacts of climate change? What is your observation on the same?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: I have had two field trips with UNICEF and UNDP. I went on the ground and I saw some projects related to water provision, irrigations, solar energy, feed pumps with deep wells extracting water from the groundwater reserves and so on which was actually very interesting and brilliant to see.
During my field trips with UNICEF and UNDP, I also had the opportunity to interact with local communities and understand their needs and challenges. It was a humbling experience to witness the impact of these projects on people’s lives and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of it.
The projects that I have visited clearly need help in the area of adaptation to climate change and increasing resilience; because unfortunately climate change is there with us to stay. It is not something that’s projected for the future but rather is now already happening. At least the first effect of climate change are their already and for those it’s very important to adapt to them. Adaptation is of paramount importance to increase resiliency, and flexibility so that when there is a shock coming from extreme climate such as drought or very intense precipitation leading to floods, cyclones, the infrastructure, the health systems, the buildings, the homes of people will be less affected by those shocks.
The second level of urgency is participation in the international efforts to prevent the temperature from going above 1.5 degrees Celsius because as we know the IPCC has been quite clear about that. This is because if the warming passes significantly above 1.5 degrees Celsius, it will be much more difficult to adapt, because you can indeed reduce the severity of many impacts by adaptation measures, measures of promoting resilience, etc. but if climate change is too much, the warming is too strong. As a result, adaptation becomes very difficult and very expensive. And it will further become impractical to adapt to a situation that is so different from what you had before.
Both adaptation and mitigation are complementary, and they both need to be part of climate policies. Of course, in developing countries, adaptation is much more important than mitigation because the contribution of developing countries particularly the historical contribution of developing countries, is much more less than the historical contribution of developed countries.
But still it’s important that developing countries don’t simply reproduce the development patterns in terms of fossil fuel usage in particular, that developed countries have had as they had an opportunity now.
When the industrial revolution took place in developed countries 150 or 200 years ago, fossil fuels and later oil and then gas where the only energy sources. But now the opportunity for the developing countries is to leapfrog to jump above that way of reducing or transforming energy by jumping to what’s available now, which was not available 200 years ago and that is to use solar energy and wind energy. That’s an opportunity that developing countries have which of course demands funding and on such issues progress needs to be made at the international level.
As you know the promises in terms of funding made in 2009 i.e. the famous 100 billion dollars per year have not been fulfilled yet, and even if they were fulfilled, it would totally insufficient, as the IPCC has written very clearly in its latest report.
Capital: As someone who has been working for a long time on climate issues, why do you think that developing countries including Ethiopia which are lesser contributors to climate change are affected more? Why are the funds to minimize climate change being underfunded in the grand scheme of things, against initiated plans?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: Well, it’s related to the short term thinking and the self-centered approach that many developed countries have. They should be a realization that we’re all on the same road, the same planet, which is the only inhabitable planet in the solar system. And that we best take care of it together. And those who have more means should share their resources more with those who have less means, so that everyone can participate to the maintenance in good shape. It is important that climate change is considered in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, which the UN adopted two months before the Paris Agreement.
I don’t know why? Don’t all developed countries understand that we are in middle to long term phases and that it is in their own interests to share more? It’s probably related to short term thinking, I presume and also a lack of understanding of what the effects of climate change means more so, on the ground in many developing countries.
I think that many policymakers from developed countries have not experienced themselves by going on the ground like I did during the weekends. What it means to live in a drought affected areas! What it means to have to walk three hours to fetch water or to collect wood to cook! There isn’t enough firsthand experience of those situations. I think it is of primary interest for maybe some leaders in the developing countries to visit the climate change affected areas in developing countries as this would open their heart a little bit more.
Capital: With the current understanding and efforts to minimize effects of climate change do you think that global targets can be achieved including the below 1.5 degree Celsius target?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: The present level of action is low, and is totally insufficient to stay below 1.5 degree warming and to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But it doesn’t mean that it cannot be done. But to achieve those targets it requires much more political will at the international level and national level than what is there currently. So, it is possible but it is not happening because the level of action is totally insufficient.
I have a strong vision that if the IPCC were to be a global voice of climate highlighting the countries and the people negatively affected by climate change whilst pushing heavily on the agenda, that things would to some degree move a little more faster.
Capital: What are your plans when selected as the IPCC Chair, specially, in terms of supporting developing countries?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: The first thing I would like to do when appointed chair of the IPCC is to be the voice of someone who cannot speak, and that someone who cannot speak is the climate itself. In the climate negotiations, everybody is speaking, countries are speaking, NGOs are speaking, big institutions are speaking but the climate doesn’t. And still, that’s what we’re talking about, but the climate itself doesn’t talk. So the first thing I’d like to do is be the voice of the IPCC, and the IPCC needs to be the voice of climate. And by that, I mean the voice of what’s in the IPCC assessments about the effects of climate change: the observed effects already causing loss and damage now. The projected effects if we continue to do way too little to prevent the warming, and the level of international cooperation and funding that is needed to address those issues.
So I would be the voice of the whole of that pleading every way I can so that climate action goes in the eye of adaptation, mitigation and funding which are basically the three elements in Article Two of the Paris Agreement whose objective is to mitigate to avoid going above 1.5 and to build an increased resilience and promote adaptation etc.
My other priority is facilitating funding and funding transfers which facilities number one and number two, that is, mitigation and adaptation. And I would be an advocate for what’s in the IPCC reports about that and it’s so clear that too little is happening. The IPCC needs to break the silence on climate change and focus on climate justice, biodiversity, poverty, and fair transition. Climate justice is related to the fact that Africa is a large contributor to emissions and still experiences the blow of climate impact, while fair transition is related to climate justice and the SDGs. We need to make sure that nobody is left behind in the transition.
The other thing I would do is to make sure that the IPCC itself as an institution works in the most inclusive way as possible. That inclusivity means four things. The first thing is that we need to improve and increase the participation of developing countries scientists, of course, African scientists in particular because they know best what’s happening in their country. Second, we need to improve the gender equality on the gender equality front since there are not enough women scientists participating in the IPCC process. I’d like to improve that aspect greatly.
Thirdly, I’d like to improve the balance between young authors, young scientists, and more senior scientists because dynamism is key in this generation.
Last but not least, it is very important for Francophone Africa to be more inclusive as well in terms of language. For example much literature in French for Francophone’s and in Spanish for Latin America which is not taken into accounts enough. So I’d like to grow the base to ensure that literature in other languages other than English is also reflected properly in the IPCC process.
Addition to that, I’d like to continue to expand the IPCC scholarship programme that was created in 2007, when it received a Nobel Peace Prize which came with a million dollars at the time; by using the interests the IPCC started to grant PHD scholarships for developing country students.
At the time when I was vice chair of the IPCC, I participated heavily to the expansion of that programme by developing partnerships because $1 million is nothing, especially if you don’t use the capital but only the interest and it being one scholarship every two years, doesn’t benefit a lot of people either. Through combined efforts, we develop partnerships with other foundations especially with Prince Albert of Monaco Foundation and we were able to multiply those scholarships significantly and now, the IPCC grants, at the time that I was last vice, somewhere around 15 scholarships, which is much better. And I definitely plan to seek further with other partners to increase that number to as high as possible.
Capital: It has been about 35 years since the IPCC was established and has now more than 195 member states. In the years of its existence, do you think that the IPCC has been successful in achieving its goal and mission?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: IPCC has certainly done a lot and achieved a lot but it could do much more as it needs to improve its communication so that the key messages are better understood by everyone. It needs to be more relevant to policymakers as they have certain needs, questions and often need some specific information, to allow them to take decisions and that information is sometimes hidden. Somewhere in those 10,000 pages reports that is not visible enough, needs to be made vivid through proper communication outlets.
There should be a way to facilitate access to the policy relevant information that policymakers and decision makers need so that they can really use it because if the information is hidden in the big reports, it’s not sufficient. So I think the IPCC can improve its communication, its relevance, and its inclusivity to be even more useful and resourceful.
Capital: Being that the Cop meetings are the biggest gathering for climate issues, many have raised concerns about the latest Cop27, citing that is was not as effective as expected to be. What was your observation on the same?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: There have always been comments on every Cop except the very few exceptional ones such as Kyoto 1997 and Paris in 2015. On all the others, well various issues have been raised. But of course, throughout the years, there have been small steps in the right direction. But steps that were between 10 and 100 times too small compared to what is needed in terms of international action, international coordination of action etc will often get backlash. So, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt again there was small steps forward that were too small but it was a step in the right direction nonetheless. I mean, the loss and damage Fund was created. It’s nice but the fund is basically empty. So as long as it’s not filled, it’s not very useful. Similarly, on many other fronts, the action is not sufficient, because the emissions are still increasing. Temperature is still increasing which is a proof that not enough is happening.
Capital: How has your meeting with government officials faired on?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: Well, it went very well. I had the impression they were quite responsive to what I was saying and quite positive about my candidacy. But it’s also a bit early for them to decide what they will do at the end of July as they will also look at the other candidates, and it is totally understandable. Nevertheless, the contacts were very good. I met with the Director of Environment Protection Authority, and the IPCC focal point who is also a member of the Bureau. I met also with the commissioner to the African Union, and the UNECA Director of Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources. And that meeting was superb as well.
Capital: Is there anything you want to add?
Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele: I hope to come back in Ethiopia as Chair of the IPCC and to spend even more time to listen to the concerns and visit other projects on the ground because I think it’s very important that the IPCC has his feet on the ground.
Finance Ministry offers solution to construction woes
The Ministry of Finance gives a green light to some public institutes to apply price adjustments on building projects despite project contracts not having room for price escalation terms.
The high price volatility in the market has become a tough nut to crack for public projects to which expects explain that it is becoming something of a thorn since it not only delays projects but leads to a high degree of overhead costs.
Experts lament that a significant price in the construction industry has forced contractors to be in embattlements with some being forced to halt activities that they have already commenced.
The delicate issue has similarly grabbed the government’s attention, which is also weary of the delay and the cascading implications to the economy.
According to the information that Capital obtained, the Ministry of Urban and Infrastructure, Construction Authority and Construction Contractors Association of Ethiopia have both expressed their concern to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to come up with a viable solution, since lots of projects may face interruption because of the extraordinary price hike on building materials like cement, rebar and ceramics.
The concern is also that the country procurement proclamation does not allow price adjustment for projects that do not have a life span of less than one and half years and also for those that started at least about 12 months ago.
“However, at the ground price escalation is raining havoc with spikes occurring within months and sometimes in weeks on some major inputs,” experts explained, adding, “It has become very challenging for contractors to run projects as per their contract.”
To solve the problem, MoF has resorted to forming a technical committee that comprises of relevant government bodies including; Ethiopia Construction Authority and Public Procurement and Property Authority to assess the situation and come up with a viable solution.
According to experts, several projects have been halted because of the price escalation and cognizant of this, MoF has provided some rapid solutions to combat this.
As per the decision, those who do not have the term of price adjustments on their contract are now eligible to reconsider the price adjustment.
Projects that would have less than 18 months in accomplished period but face delays due to different reasons excluding the cause from the contract are now able to be included on the price revision.
“Meanwhile there are claims that projects that have less than 18 months life span should be revised,” Gebeyaw Yitayew, Procurement and Property Reform and Capacity Building Lead Executive at Public Procurement and Property Authority reveals, adding, “But it would not be manageable by MoF.”
According to Gebeyaw the circular that was signed by Eyob Tekalegn, does not by pass the proclamation or its directive but it has taken major changes from the experience in the past.
Gebeyaw told Capital that the government has taken a big decision for contracts which do not have a price escalation term to consider the adjustment.
There is a clam that the current procurement proclamation that was issued in 2009 and the directive are not aligned with the reality that affects public procurements.
The proclamation has been under a revision process for the past several years and early this week the Council of Ministers had approved the amendment of the proclamation which was sent to parliament for ratification. Experts said that the new proclamation would have several changes and a conducive environment to smoothen public procurement unlike the current experience.
Despite MoF allowing for the price adjustment for all public building projects, the decision is so far applied to public higher education institutions, which have several building projects currently on going.
Article 16.14.2 of public procurement directive that was issued in 2010 read that the public body may, under the following circumstances, indicate in the bidding document that price adjustments are allowed in respect of works contracts, after 12 months from the effective date of such contracts. Sub article A of this article further stated that where it is verified, in respect of works contracts, the performance of the contract requires more than 18 months.
The directive article 29.4 has also given room for the amendment of the contract. It reads, “Where it is called for, the contract may be amended in the course of its performance; it being understood that such amendment shall not be detrimental to the interest of the public body and not favor one supplier or certain suppliers to the prejudice of the other suppliers.”
National Cement factory embraces green energy from invasive weed
Pan Afric Energy, a company formed by a conglomerate of East Africa Holding (EAH), sets its eyes to embark on a multimillion dollar project on the way to process and provide prosopis juliflora, a thorny shrub, as a carbon-neutral alternative fuel source for cement industries that operate with the EAH and beyond.
The company which was established a few months back has already started the use of the dangerous tree that entered Ethiopia about a half a century ago for its pilot cement production at its National Cement plant in Dire Dawa, 510km east of Addis Ababa.
According to Batuel Bizuayehu, Senior Executive Director of EAH, the initiative comes with multiple benefits including; the replacement of coal use which is sourced both from local and imports, ensuring the use of green energy and ensuring corporate social responsibility at the lowland areas of Afar and Somali regions.
The thorny shrub bears aggressive invasive characters such as invading pastureland, irrigated cultivated land and irrigation canals causing an irreversible displacement of natural pasture grasses as well as native tree species.
Batuel told Capital that the project is expected to consume about USD 50 million that shall be backed by different financers.
“The main target of the company is using alternative energy for the cement industry, which typically consumes huge amount of energy, by using the tree. It shall replace up to 60 percent of the coal energy,” he said, adding, “It is a clear energy initiative and at the same time we shall clear the land for pastoralists and farmers in the two regions to use the land that is cleaned from the prosopis juliflora, which highly affects the livelihood of the communities.”
When the Ethiopian conglomerate designed the initiative, the European Union through the Ministry of Industry provided a three million euro funding to kick start the pilot project which already has commenced.
The EU fund has already contributed to buying spading machines and currently the machines have started spading the tree that is being transported to the processing facility at the cement factory in Dire Dawa.
“We have invested on the processing facility inside the cement factory and now we are using the tree as an alternative source of energy under the pilot level and so far we are covering five percent of the energy source from the green energy,” Batuel explained.
He said that the trees cover about two million hectares of land in the two regions which will go a long way as an energy alternative for the cement industry for a projected estimate of 50 years.
Officials at the company said that the proof of concept of the project is looking steady and that the transfer to full implementation will not only take place for the cement factory at Dire Dawa but also in the upcoming facility that is being constructed at Lemi town, North Shoa zone of Amhara region, 130km north of Addis Ababa.
According to the plan, besides the resource from Pan Afric for the full implementation, the company has started to mobilize funds including from the International Finance Corporation, the private sector financer wing of the World Bank, and finance from China.
The company has already accomplished its feasibility plan to enter to full scale operation in the near future.
The project to utilize prosopis juliflora charcoal as a carbon-neutral alternative fuel for cement factories will be also be included for other cement producers in the country.
National Cement, part of EAH, is one of the big players in the sector. With the partnership of West China International Holding it is undertaking aggressive expansion on cement production at Lemi, and Melka Jebdu, western outskirt of Dire Dawa.
Using prosopis juliflora as an alternative energy source has already been rolled out in some African countries.
According to a report by Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), prosopis is one of the top 100 invasive plant species and it also characterized by vigorous growth which helps them to outcompete indigenous plant species to cover huge areas of land in a relatively short period of time.The tree is however not an indigenous plant for Ethiopia.
Different studies indicated that in Ethiopia, documentation is lacking regarding when, where, how, and by whom the alien invasive prosopis, which is popularly known as Woyane Zaf, was first introduced, but speculation do exists. The earliest time of notice is believed to be in the late 1970s in the eastern part of the country where India is cited as a probable source.
Before the start of using locally sourced coal, Ethiopia used to allocate up to USD 750 million to import the energy source. The figures have now fizzled to USD 300 million since some local coal suppliers joined the business.
