In a democracy people convene and exercise the government. In a republic, people get to administer the government through representatives.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne speaking on democracy and what becoming a republics means. [PHOTO CREDITS: lauren/Reuters]
Antigua and Barduda has moved swiftly to remove Britain’s incoming King as their head of state. The move will see the country hold a referendum within three years making it a Republic. This comes following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. According to experts, the move might fuel republicanism in nations within the commonwealth favoring split with the Monarchy.
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Antigua and Barbuda has been under the British since 1620s. The nation acted as a sugar colony until 1834 when it gained its freedom. The history of colonialization has driven calls for compensation based on horrific past under the British.
The country has been linked with major cases of corruption. It has also been accused of violating human-rights by upholding illegal laws. Although corruption has become an official crime, there are other legislations that need to be put in place. The laws should include the protection of all citizens including those engaged in same-sex affairs. The idea of the country becoming a republic has triggered countries such as Jamaica. The citizens have been pushing for a vote which Browne has promised to deliver with time.
Just a few months ago Antigua and Barbuda was willing to assist Britain in seizing yachts owned by Roman Abramovich. This was done in an effort to undermine President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine invasion. The attack on Ukraine forced a number of nations to impose sanctions on Russia and its known supporters.
The people of Antigua are excited but residents have a different view on what should be sorted out first. There are residents who feel that jumpstarting the economy following the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic is more meaningful than removing the queen. To them democracy and growth is better for the country than anything else.
There is a group that feel that tourism has slumped significantly and dismissing Britain might lead to a further downturn because the country depends on Britain tourists. The rest if the population is worried on the changes and the negative effects that might arise as a result of the elections.
There is fear that there will disruptions and new laws in place that might drive unemployment, increase taxation and government expenditure. There are many unanswered questions that can only be answered in the future on the need for democracy and growth of republicanism.
By Corey S. Powell| Photographs by Francesca Forquet for The Wall Street Journal
In this age of wireless everything, engineers are trying to perform the ultimate act of cord-cutting: generating abundant solar electricity in space and beaming it to the ground, no power cables required.
KHERSON, Ukraine—Floodwaters continued to rise on Wednesday after a major dam and power station in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine were destroyed, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and throwing a curveball on the battlefield.
With Brazil struggling in its efforts to create a regulated carbon market, the country’s new president is moving to scrap his predecessor’s approach and start anew. But success is still far from guaranteed.
The administration of President
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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
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is putting the finishing touches on a proposal laying the groundwork for a new, regulated cap-and-trade system, which he is expected to send to Congress later this month. The approach is starkly different from that of his right-wing predecessor
Jair Bolsonaro,
who last year issued a decree relying on the private sector to establish the basis for a carbon market, which never happened.
In either case, the system would set emission caps for certain industries and allow some companies to temporarily offset their excess pollution by buying allowances from those that cut more emissions than required. One credit would amount to one metric ton of carbon dioxide either removed from or prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere. Over time, the cap would be lowered to reduce emissions.
Financing carbon-capture projects such as reforestation could also generate carbon credits. Proponents say it is a way to protect the Amazon rainforest and other biomes, an approach that could also become an income stream to millions of impoverished residents currently making money off deforestation.
Yet despite broad support from exporters, who deem a regulated carbon market necessary to maintain key consumer markets overseas and attract investment, the initiative faces significant political hurdles at home and may not be enough to tackle the deforestation that is responsible for nearly half of the nation’s carbon footprint.
Brazil prides itself on getting nearly half of its energy and almost all of its electricity from renewable sources. It also already has an active market in voluntary carbon credits, where corporations buy credits from certified environmental projects to offset their emissions to meet self-imposed targets. But all that may still not be enough in a world increasingly worried about climate change.
“There is a global green arms race. Do we want to just sit on our achievements and watch while the tortoise outruns us?” said
Gustavo Pinheiro,
coordinator of the low-carbon economy portfolio at the nonprofit Institute for Climate and Society. “We need to price rising emissions,” he said, “and a regulated market is the least traumatic way to do it.”
As home to nearly 60% of the Amazon rainforest, Brazil is crucial to slowing global warming. Brazil was responsible for about 1.3% of global carbon-dioxide emissions in 2021, according to European Union data, and its population, economy and footprint are expected to grow, pushing the country further away from its commitments in the 2015 Paris global climate agreement and underscoring the need for a regulated carbon market. A cap-and-trade system could also beef up the country’s troubled economy, as global trade increasingly requires cleaner supply chains, some experts say.
“Having a regulated carbon market would be good for the overall economy, [and] would put our corporations in a better position to compete,” said
Luiz Gustavo Bezerra,
a partner at law firm Tauil & Chequer, which is associated with Mayer Brown.
Local exporters say they could benefit from regulation compatible with rules already in place in key overseas markets, which increasingly demand low-carbon supply chains. For example, a local regulated carbon market could help exporters avoid the carbon border adjustment mechanism the EU plans to charge on some imported products from 2026.
Brazil is one of the largest exporters of iron used to make steel for a range of things, such as home appliances, vehicles and wind turbines. Iron-ore exporter
which aims to have net-zero emissions by 2050 and uses an internal price of $50 per metric ton for its greenhouse-gas emissions, said in emailed answers that initiatives to price carbon are “important for the competitiveness of Brazilian industry.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Photo:
evaristo sa/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The nation is also a major global supplier of soybeans, corn and beef, products often associated with deforestation. Farming group Roncador, a producer of grains and beef, said it is worried about increasing global restrictions to products lacking environmental certificates.
“Since Brazil still doesn’t have a regulated [carbon] market, we are developing our own research and have developed our own protocol to ensure our activities have a positive impact on the environment,” the group’s Chief Executive
Pelerson Penido Dalla Vecchia
said.
Exporters also hope a regulated market would help repair Brazil’s abysmal environmental reputation, a product of its history of deforestation. “We have great expectations that the government will better regulate carbon markets,” said
Antônio Queiroz,
vice president of innovation, technology and sustainable development at
one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies.
A regulated market could also help lure green-economy investments, according to lawyer Bezerra: “We are always approached by private-equity firms looking for areas in Brazil to invest in reforestation or forest preservation.”
The country could earn up to $120 billion through 2030 on carbon credits, assuming an “optimistic scenario” of $100 a metric ton of carbon, according to a study by the Brazilian division of the International Chamber of Commerce and local carbon consulting firm WayCarbon. While that price is multiples of current voluntary market credits—lately valued at about $1—the EU credits have recently been trading around €82 a metric ton, equivalent to $88, according to OPIS.
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Brazil has a goal of reforesting an area bigger than Pennsylvania, said
Ana Toni,
head of the National Secretariat for Climate Change: “How many countries have that?”
But carbon-capture projects based on forest preservation are typically traded in the so-called voluntary markets, often not covered by government regulation. Many have come under scrutiny recently after failing to fulfill their promises. For example, a Wall Street Journal investigation into a reforestation project in Peru found little of the money designated for rainforest preservation actually reached locals.
Despite these and other problems that bedevil this form of credit, Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services said its proposal will allow credits from the voluntary market to be used, to a certain extent, in the new regulated one.
The da Silva administration plans to have a carbon market operating in a couple of years, Toni said. But da Silva lacks a majority in Congress, and in any case is expected to give priority to major fiscal and tax legislation ahead of the carbon-market bill.
And in a sign of the difficulties ahead, lawmakers recently passed legislation to weaken the Environmental Ministry led by sustainability advocate
Marina Silva,
who is backing the effort to create a regulated carbon market.
Annie Groth,
head of advocacy and policy at Biofílica Ambipar Environment, a developer of carbon projects in the Amazon and other biomes, said there is hope that carbon legislation could be approved before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai beginning Nov. 30.
But she cautioned, “It’s the most optimistic scenario.”
Byju’s, an India-based education-software company backed by high-profile investors including BlackRock and Silver Lake, filed a lawsuit against a group of lenders following months of negotiations over an alleged default the company disputes.
On Monday, Byju’s filed a lawsuit in state court in New York against holders of roughly three-quarters of the company’s $1.2 billion in loans, alleging the lender group has made false allegations of default in order to gain control of the company.
SYDNEY—The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe, warned Wednesday that there are no guarantees around the central bank’s narrative of moving to lower inflation over a long time frame while simultaneously seeking to preserve recent strong gains in employment.
Mr. Lowe said recent data showed the inflation outlook deteriorated, and the central bank wouldn’t tolerate any further delay in cooling price pressures.
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Concern over the fate of the Nova Kakhovka dam had been building throughout the war before it was finally destroyed. The reservoir is an important irrigation source for farmers who depend on it to cultivate some of Ukraine’s most productive farmland. It supplies drinking water to Russian-occupied Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula where Moscow’s Black Sea fleet is based.
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