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Philippine strategic environment for corporate planning

CHRISTOPHER BURNS-UNSPLASH

(Part 2)

The Philippine Development Plan (2023 to 2028) does not stay exclusively in the realm of macroeconomics. It also has a microeconomic focus that descends to the level of individuals and families. There are statements about developing and protecting the capabilities of individuals and families. Chapter 2 of the plan lists concrete measures to promote human and social development such as improving education and lifelong learning, boosting health and establishing livable communities.

Chapter 3 talks about reducing vulnerabilities and protecting the purchasing power of people and households by ensuring food security and proper nutrition, as well as strengthening social protection.  As the Philippines transitions from a low-middle income to a high-middle income economy in the next two to three years, Chapter 4 lays down concrete plans to increase employability, expand job opportunities and achieve shared labor market governance.

At the agriculture-industry-service level, the goal is to transform the production sectors to generate more quality jobs and competitive products. Chapter 5 is devoted to measures that will modernize agriculture and agribusiness. Chapter 6 is about revitalizing industries. Philippine manufacturing has been expanding noticeably as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P Global Philippines Manufacturing PMI has been showing significant gains mostly on the back of a strong domestic market. Chapter 7 touches on the largest sector of the economy, suggesting ways of reinvigorating services. Chapter 8 dwells on advancing Research and Development (R&D), technology and innovation.

It must be emphasized that the Philippines need not reinvent the wheel. For example, in improving the productivity of the entire agribusiness sector, much can be gained by partnering with investors from countries that have been most successful in this vital sector, such as Israel, Taiwan and Thailand. Much can be learned from Malaysia in large-scale corporate farming based on the nucleus estate model, which is very applicable to the coconut industry of the Philippines. We can swallow our pride and ask Vietnam how it became the second-largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil in less than a generation.

Chapter 10 addresses the key question about the role of the government in promoting competition and improving regulatory efficiency, especially in regard to the Philippine Competition Commission. The next chapter talks about how to ensure macroeconomic stability and expand inclusive and innovative finance. In this field, the private sector can have the greatest confidence in our economic managers who have been chosen from among the best and brightest, following a tradition in the past 30 years during which very competent people in various agencies had met the challenge of building stronger macroeconomic institutions and espoused more enlightened policies that are now the foundation of our resilience during periods of global crises. These macroeconomic institutions and policies will guarantee minimum economic growth of 6% for the duration of the Marcos administration. 

Chapter 12 has to do with expanding and upgrading infrastructure. Let me point out here that infrastructure building should go beyond farm-to-market roads, bridges, toll roads, dams and similar elementary facilities. They should increasingly encompass world-class international airports, seaports, telecommunication facilities, data centers, railways including bullet trains especially on the island of Mindanao, subways, and similar infrastructure characteristic of a First World country like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

There is no way we can advance to these levels of infrastructure building without the entry of billions of dollars of foreign direct investments.  Every effort must be exerted, including the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund, to attract these FDIs to supplement our very scarce supply of domestic long-term capital. I estimate that with close collaboration between the government and private sector, we can attract $15 billion to $20 billion annually in the next five years.  These are the amounts that Vietnam has been getting in the past 10 years.

Chapters 13 and 14 have to do with so-called soft infrastructure, such as ensuring peace and security and enhancing administrative justice, good governance and improving bureaucratic efficiency. Higher agricultural productivity and FDI flows can spur growth of 8-10% from 6-7%, allowing us to bringing down the poverty incidence to 9% by 2028. Finally, Chapter 15 cites the importance if sustainability by accelerating climate action and strengthening disaster resilience.

In the promotion of trade and investments in goods and services, the Philippine Development Plan outlines very concrete strategic guidelines to restore, sustain and strengthen the export sector:

• Resolve key constraints to export growth and competitiveness

• Monitor and implement preventive measures and interventions for distressed companies

• Implement targeted, more granular strategies to increase exports on three fronts — the global value chain export clusters (industrial, manufacturing and transportation; technology, media and telecommunications; and health and life sciences; food and agri-marine; and labor-intensive manufacturing.   

There is need to reexamine the serious restriction on foreign direct investment in media in the 1987 Constitution. It would have been a game changer if the amendment of the Public Service Act included allowing foreign investors to own 100% of media enterprises. In this era of Industrial Revolution 4.0, there is a convergence of the telecommunication, IT and media sectors. The inability of foreign investors to invest in media seriously constrains the growth of the sector, which has the greatest potential for growth among services and in which Filipino talents have a competitive advantage in the Indo-Pacific region, together with India.

Significantly diversify exports by fortifying backward and forward linkages.

Consolidating small farm units to achieve economies of scale in agriculture and diversifying into higher value products can help the Philippines replicate its success story in being a major exporter of bananas and pineapples by significantly increasing the production and export of mangoes, cacao, coffee, avocado, durian, a host of high-value coconut products such as coco sugar, water, milk, etc. and a variety of other high-value vegetables and fruits being exported in large volumes by neighboring ASEAN countries like Thailand and Vietnam.

• Advance purposive, assertive and forward-looking regional trade agreements strategies. It is imperative that the Philippine government ratify our membership in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to boost our trade and investment relationships with 14 other economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We would literally be like an economic leper in this region if we remain outside the RCEP.

• Position the Philippines as the foremost supplier of tradable intermediate services. Our young, growing and English-speaking population will give us a competitive advantage for a long time to come in what we have called the servicification of the global economy in which services are increasingly overshadowing manufacturing.

• Ensure integrated, whole-of-government commitment to deliver broad access to national quality infrastructure.

(To be continued.)

 

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

EV incentives should cover motorcycles

ATHER ENERGY-UNSPLASH

We are certain that Malacañang had good intentions when it issued Executive Order (EO) 12 last month. The order details the tax breaks that will be enjoyed by imported electric vehicles (EV) for five full years beginning this year. It is congruent to the administration’s role in leading the people to adopt environment-friendly lifestyles.

Most of the electric vehicles covered by the order, with seeks to drive consumers away from transportation powered by fossil fuels toward cleaner alternatives, are four-wheel ones.

Thus, the order gives rise to questions about equity and inclusion. Who are the people who will benefit from the tax incentives? Aren’t they the more affluent Filipinos who can afford to buy new electric cars?

To be sure, early adopters of these four-wheel electric vehicles deserve the tax breaks. It is a commendable decision to let go of our old air polluting ways and opt to use cleaner alternatives with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

But they are not the only ones making the shift, or who want to make the shift.

Two-stroke motorcycles, for instance, are swarming the country’s urban and rural roadways. In the National Capital Region alone, where about 2.9 million vehicles are registered, almost half of this number — 1.4 million — are motorcycles. But motorcycles, just like all petroleum-burning vehicles, contribute significantly to air pollution because these are the preferred rides of the masses. Imagine the drastic drop in air pollution if millions of these two-wheel owners were to shift to electric motorcycles.

We can also look at the issue from a socioeconomic point of view. Two- and three-wheel vehicles are the modes of transportation used by Filipinos from the lower-income brackets. They can’t afford to buy four-wheel cars, and the cost and inconvenience posed by our problematic public transport system have driven them to choose what their limited buying power can afford. These modes of transportation are the most viable for them, and they use them to go to work and school, do personal errands and for livelihood such as the more than 20,000 transport network vehicle service riders serving the growing commuter and delivery demand. These motorcycles are work enablers for riding bread winners and their millions of dependents.

The zero import taxes of EO 12, though limited to five years, is a significant cost saving of 30%. This and the prospect of not having to pay for another liter of expensive imported fuel at the gas station are strong reasons to shift to electric vehicles, which are more cost-effective, efficient and converts the owner into an active planet saver. This is the kind of positive action we need from the government to push everybody to do their part in reducing carbon emissions.

EO 12 in its current form creates an impression that it is discriminatory, and that it favors the richer segments of society who can afford four-wheel cars, while disregarding the mobility needs of the working class.

We are certain this was simply a palace oversight and shouldn’t be hard, or even take long to rectify. A few clarificatory amendments are all that’s needed.

Foremost, all Filipinos — regardless of income bracket — are called to become responsible stewards of the environment. While we pursue growth and development, we must contemplate sustainability and how the world will be like for future generations. All of our actions, big and small alike, do matter.

We are all working hard to recover from the doldrums of the pandemic crisis — to again feel the excitement of a vibrant economy where wealth creation is an opportunity, not just for the privileged, but for anyone willing to work for their dreams of a prosperous life set in a clean and healthy environment.

When it comes to policy making, the Devil is always in the details. There is really no logic to exclude the most ubiquitous mode of transportation of the people that is a major source of air pollution.

The objectives of EO 12 are clear — “to reduce reliance on imported fuel,” “provide an enabling environment that permits the development of electric vehicles, including options for micro-mobility as an attractive and feasible mode of transportation” and “help boost the electric vehicle market in the country, support the transition to emerging technologies and encourage consumers to consider electric vehicles as a cleaner and greener transportation option.”

All these are laudable but with a careful reading, the succeeding provisions on four-wheel vehicles clearly indicate zero import tariff for five years, but when it comes to electric powered motorcycles it is blank and followed by “XXX” which according to Section 1 means that current tax rates “shall remain in full force and effect.”

Several groups are already calling for the president to amend his executive order that will only take a few tweaks to perfect. Sure, the Bureau of Customs can come up with a memorandum circular or Congress can legislate an amendment, but we all know how much time, energy and taxpayers’ money will have to be consumed for that route.

On this issue, expeditious action by the president would be best.

 

Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the president of the Stratbase ADR Institute.

Splitting up social media may be its only hope

SARA KURFESS-UNSPLASH

BY NOW it should be evident that Twitter, Inc. is a shadow of its former self. What’s not clear is which alternatives might replace it, or how the market will look a few years from now. This chaos offers an opportunity to rethink the entire structure of the social media landscape.

There’s a lot of problems to solve. Disinformation, offensive content, harassment, and doxxing are among issues that platform operators, regulators, and users have struggled with. Each existed before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were born, but digitally connecting friends and strangers has exacerbated them to the point that even the largest companies and most-powerful governments can’t rein it in.

The answer is simple: Break them up.

Not the social-media companies themselves, as has been suggested for the likes of Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Inc., but the networks they run. As any parent knows, the easiest way to stop two children fighting is to separate them. This is what needs to happen to limit the virality of disinformation and ensure that, say, neo-Nazis don’t clash with Socialists.

Since this would eat into their revenue, companies won’t make it happen. And even if governments could split Meta into its component parts — Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp — that’s unlikely to limit the flow of problematic content. Recent attempts to stamp out misinformation internally or in conjunction with external organizations has had only limited effect.

“One of the things that’s not been particularly effective is fact-checking our way out of these messes,” Robert W. Gehl, Ontario Research Chair in Digital Governance for Social Justice at York University in Toronto, told me recently. “Because you throw facts out there all day long, but the conspiracies spread really fast. Misinformation spreads fast.”

Elon Musk’s tumultuous time at Twitter (earlier this month the company moved to tweak Twitter’s algorithm to ensure his posts got more views) highlights the precarious future of the social network, with every new revelation driving fresh interest in substitutes. Mastodon, Post, Koo and Reddit have all gained ground as a result. This is ironic because, except for Post, these other platforms have been around for years and Twitter — with 200 million users — is a minnow compared to giants like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, with more than 1 billion subscribers each.

That the slow disintegration of a relatively small platform has spurred millions to look elsewhere indicates a nascent need for something different, and presents an opportunity for these lesser-known social networks to gain momentum. Their biggest challenge, though, is facing off against a well-established incumbent and breaking into the network effect that favors large players over the smaller ones.

Post and Koo seem to be replicating the Twitter model — a centralized system viewable and accessible to all. At present, the only thing stopping them from facing the same problems of misinformation and the dissemination of toxic content is their size. Reddit follows an old-school topic-based content distribution model — you’re unlikely to stumble across neo-Nazi posts if you’re only looking for cat videos.

Mastodon is entirely different, and may end up being the model that survives long into the future. Users join a group specific to their interests — called a server — which is moderated by the server owner. Anyone can create one, and set their own rules. If infractions happen, that administrator can boot the offender. Each server can then connect to others through a Fediverse, so users and their content aren’t entirely siloed. But if that server becomes the source of toxic posts, it can be cut off from the rest.

That’s exactly what happened a few years ago, notes Gehl, who was one of the first academics to research Mastodon and later co-authored the book Social Engineering, which charts the history of manipulative communication.

Far-right microblogging site Gab set up a server in 2019, which caused uproar among the rest of the community. Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko argued at the time that the network’s decentralized nature meant he couldn’t acquiesce to demands to shut down Gab. But individual servers could disconnect from the hate group, and that’s what they did. Gab still existed, but in its own little universe separated from the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t solve one of the biggest problems: Malicious, false or toxic content. Neo-Nazis can still publish racist posts and make threats against groups or individuals. What the disaggregated structure means, though, is that disinformation cannot go far. That alone, argues Gehl, is enough to mitigate social media’s most toxic feature: virality. He sees parallels with attempts by terrorist groups to move to the dark web — a subset of the world wide web that’s harder to access — but then failing to gain traction.

“There was a lot of panic about five or six years ago about ISIS being on the dark web, and that’s how they’re going to recruit people and spread their message,” Gehl said. “ISIS didn’t do that because nobody was on the dark web. The dark web is really small, and a bad organization like ISIS is going to go where people are.”

There’s an unfortunate flipside, though. Keeping internet users within their own siloes of interest means the creation of echo chambers, where conspiracy theories fester and alternative views are never entertained. That means fewer moments of serendipitous discovery. But maybe that’s the price we need to pay to keep social media alive and functional. After all, if the kids can’t play nice together then it may be best they don’t play together all.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Going after trademark infringement online

BIRGITH ROOSIPUU-UNSPLASH

On Dec. 22, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in the case of Christian Louboutin vs. Amazon. Mr. Louboutin is a designer of luxury goods known for his trademark over the color red (Pantone 18-1663TP) applied to the sole of high-heeled shoes, which has been registered since 2005 under the Benelux Convention and in the European Union since May 10, 2016. 

Mr. Louboutin sued for infringement against popular e-commerce platform Amazon before the District Court of Luxembourg, which later referred the case to the Court of Justice for preliminary ruling. The complaint is based on the premise that Amazon sold goods on its website, both directly and through third-party sellers, and had also been advertising such goods. The goods involved in the case were shoes that infringed on Mr. Louboutin’s trademark, with a claim that Amazon had played an active role in the infringement by allowing its online sellers to use another’s trademarks through advertisements on its website.  

The EU court ruled that since Amazon allows the use of another’s trademark in advertisements on its website, it established a link between its services and Mr. Louboutin’s trademark in the eyes of a well-informed and reasonably observant user of the website. It said Article 9(2) of Regulation 2017/1001 should be interpreted to mean that an online marketplace such as Amazon, which allows third-party sellers to use signs and goods identical to the trademark of another without their consent, may be regarded as doing the same act, and possibly liable. 

Although the Philippines does not have any jurisprudence on the issue raised in Louboutin vs. Amazon, it gives us a peek into the potential liability of online marketplaces and the remedies of trademark owners against infringement. 

It is noteworthy that a number of e-commerce platforms in the Philippines have signed a memorandum of understanding with a number of trademark and copyright owners (right owners), establishing a code of practice, such as notice and takedown procedures for accessibility and ease on the right owners to report the sale of counterfeit and pirated goods to e-commerce platforms. More importantly, e-commerce platforms have committed to employ measures to prevent counterfeit and pirated goods from being sold through their website, and ensure the identity of the seller and their contact information, in addition to enforcing the rights of its owners in the contract between the e-commerce platform and seller. 

Right owners under the memo take an active role in the prevention of infringement by monitoring advertisements or posts on the e-commerce platforms, and helping these platforms by giving information on goods that are susceptible to infringement and a list of words commonly used to sell counterfeit goods. In addition, and in cooperation with the e-commerce platform, the right owners also commit to assess and give feedback on the platform’s policies on repeated violators. 

Consumers also play a pivotal role under the memo in the fight against intellectual property violation online as e-commerce platforms now commit allow consumers to report counterfeit or pirated goods. 

Although the memo is not binding, it is a positive step in the right direction for both e-commerce platforms and right owners in preventing infringement and enforcing intellectual property rights online. It is hoped that in future, even right owners who are not signatories to the memo can enforce their rights on these platforms. 

This article is for general information and educational purposes only and not offered as a legal advice or opinion.

 

Phoebe Mae U. Reyes is an associate of the Intellectual Property Department of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices. She may be reached through pureyes@accralaw.com.

China cautions West over fueling war

REUTERS

BEIJING — China is “deeply worried” that the Ukraine conflict could spiral out of control, foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday, and called on certain countries to stop “fueling the fire” in an apparent dig at the United States.

Beijing, which last year struck a “no limits” partnership with Moscow, has refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The United States has warned of consequences if China provides military support to Russia, which Beijing says it is not doing.

“China is deeply worried that the Ukraine conflict will continue to escalate or even spiral out of control” Mr. Qin said in a speech at a forum held at the foreign ministry.

“We urge certain countries to immediately stop fueling the fire,” he said in comments that appeared to be directed at the United States, adding that they must “stop hyping up ‘today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan’”.

“We stand firmly against any form of hegemony, against any foreign interference in China’s affairs.”

Mr. Qin’s comments came as Russia’s news agency TASS said China’s top diplomat Wang Yi was due to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday and ahead of a “peace speech” President Xi Jinping is expected to deliver on Friday, the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion.

Also on Tuesday, China released a paper on the Global Security Initiative (GSI), Xi’s flagship security proposal which aims to uphold the principle of “indivisible security,” a concept endorsed by Moscow.

Russia has insisted that Western governments respect a 1999 agreement based on the principle of “indivisible security” that no country can strengthen its own security at the expense of others.

On Monday, Mr. Wang called for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war during a stopover in Hungary.

The same day, US President Joseph R. Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity, promising $500 million worth of military aid to Ukraine and additional sanctions against Russian elites to be unveiled in full this week.

Beijing has refrained from condemning Moscow’s operation against Ukraine or calling it an “invasion” in line with the Kremlin, which describes the war as a “special military operation” designed to protect Russia’s own security.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

‘LETHAL WEAPONS’
The United States casts China and Russia as the two biggest nation-state threats to its security. Mr. Xi has stood by Russian President Vladimir Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Saturday that the United States was very concerned China is considering providing “lethal assistance” to Russia, which he told Mr. Wang “would have serious consequences in our relationship.”

“There are various kinds of lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, to include weapons,” Mr. Blinken said in an interview with NBC News, adding that Washington would soon release more details.

The European Union’s top foreign affairs official Josep Borrell on Monday warned against China sending arms to Russia, saying it would be a “red line,” echoing statements from other European foreign ministers attending a meeting in Brussels.

Any Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.

Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of escalating the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine. On Sunday during a meeting with Mr. Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Mr. Wang said the US “should promote a political solution to the crisis, instead of adding fuel to the fire”. — Reuters

How Biden’s trip to Kyiv was kept secret — but not from Russia

US President Joseph R. Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky visit Saint Michael’s cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine Feb. 20, 2023. — REUTERS

WASHINGTON — President Joseph R. Biden by all accounts was having a quiet weekend at the White House, joining his wife Jill Biden for dinner at a restaurant on a rare outing in Washington on Saturday.

But behind the scenes, officials at the White House and other agencies were planning intensively for Mr. Biden to make an unannounced trip to Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

After months of planning, Mr. Biden on Friday decided to go ahead with the trip, according to the White House.

White House officials said Mr. Biden was taken to Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington and departed at 4:15 a.m. (0915 GMT) on Sunday aboard an Air Force jet, accompanied by a handful of aides. A scaled-back news media presence went along with him: just one reporter and a photographer instead of his usual media pool.

The president flew overnight to the United States’ Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The plane was refueled and he flew on to Rzeszow in southeastern Poland. After a one-hour drive, he arrived in Przemysl, a city along the Poland-Ukraine border.

Mr. Biden then boarded a train and traveled 10 hours to Kyiv. By then it was Sunday night, and Mr. Biden’s train traveled in the dark with a heavy security presence on board.

The train came to a stop at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky station in the Ukrainian capital at roughly 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Monday. The area around the platform had been cleared and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, awaited Mr. Biden and his staff.

“It’s good to be back in Kyiv,” Mr. Biden said after stepping off the train.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who accompanied the president, said US officials did notify Russian officials that Mr. Biden would be traveling to Kyiv. “We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes,” he told reporters on a conference call, declining to provide more details.

Mr. Sullivan said the trip had “required a security, operational, and logistical effort from professionals across the US government to take what was an inherently risky undertaking and make it a manageable level of risk.”

Residents of Kyiv live under the constant threat of Russian missile and drone attacks. 

After his visit, Mr. Biden got back on the train for the trip to Przemysl. After arriving there, he made his way to Warsaw. — Reuters

Italy faces drought alert as Venice canals run dry

Tourists walk on a bridge as a gondolier rows his gondola near St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, April 2, 2019. — REUTERS

MILAN — Weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns that Italy could face another drought after last summer’s emergency, with the Alps having received less than half of their normal snowfall, according to scientists and environmental groups.

The warning comes as Venice, where flooding is normally the primary concern, faces unusually low tides that are making it impossible for gondolas, water taxis and ambulances to navigate some of its famous canals.

The problems in Venice are being blamed on a combination of factors — the lack of rain, a high-pressure system, a full moon and sea currents.

Italian rivers and lakes are suffering from severe lack of water, the Legambiente environmental group said on Monday, with attention focused on the north of the country.

The Po, Italy’s longest river which runs from the Alps in the northwest to the Adriatic has 61% less water than normal at this time of year, it added in a statement.

Last July Italy declared a state of emergency for areas surrounding the Po, which accounts for roughly a third of the country’s agricultural production and suffered its worst drought for 70 years. “We are in a water deficit situation that has been building up since the winter of 2020-2021,” climate expert Massimiliano Pasqui from Italian scientific research institute CNR was quoted as saying by daily Corriere della Sera. 

“We need to recover 500 millimeters in the north-western regions: we need 50 days of rain,” he added.

Water levels on Lake Garda in northern Italy have fallen to record lows, making it possible to reach the small island of San Biagio on the lake via an exposed pathway.

An anticyclone has been dominating the weather in western Europe for 15 days, bringing mild temperatures more normally seen in late spring.

Latest weather forecasts do however signal the arrival of much-needed precipitation and snow in the Alps in coming days. — Reuters

$3.7-B UK mass action vs Facebook over market dominance rejected — for now

Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. — REUTERS

LONDON — Facebook on Monday temporarily fought off a collective lawsuit valued at up to 3 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) over allegations the social media giant abused its dominant position to monetize users’ personal data.

However, a London tribunal gave the proposed claimants’ lawyers up to six months to “have another go” at establishing any alleged losses by users.

Meta Platforms, Inc, the parent company of the Facebook group, faces a mass action brought on behalf of around 45 million Facebook users in Britain.

Legal academic Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who is bringing the case, says Facebook users were not properly compensated for the value of personal data they had to provide to use the platform.

Her lawyers last month asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify the case under the UK’s collective proceedings regime – which is roughly equivalent to the class action regime in the United States.

But the Tribunal ruled on Monday that Lovdahl Gormsen’s methodology of establishing any losses suffered by Facebook users needed “root-and-branch re-evaluation” for the case to continue.

Judge Marcus Smith did, however, give Lovdahl Gormsen’s lawyers six months to “file additional evidence setting out a new and better blueprint leading to an effective trial”.

A spokesperson for Meta said the company welcomed the decision and referred to its previous statement that the lawsuit is “entirely without merit”.

A spokesperson for Lovdahl Gormsen declined to comment. — Reuters

Russian gas out, renewables in? Europe clings to green goals

NORD STREAM AG

LONDON — After Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, European nations faced an onslaught of crippling new challenges – including working out how to swiftly replace the Russian gas that supplied 40% of their energy needs and kept families warm in the winter.

A year later, use of dirtier fossil fuels such as coal has expanded to help fill the gap, governments have spent billions subsidizing heating bills as gas companies reap record profits, and countries are competing to build terminals to import gas from new suppliers, from the United States to Qatar and Nigeria.

But Europe also quietly produced more electricity from renewable sources than from gas last year, for the first time, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Union (EU) Green New Deal – aimed at making the bloc carbon-neutral by 2050 – has held together through the Ukraine shock, while fresh plans to slash dependency on Russian fossil fuels by 2027, using renewables and energy efficiency, are advancing.

“The good news from this crisis, if there is any, is that it has brought European leaders closer together. Europe’s energy policy is more coherent than ever and more ambitious,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the US-based World Resources Institute.

The Ukraine conflict, meanwhile, has sent shockwaves through global energy markets, with higher prices raising questions in regions planning to use more gas, including Asia, about whether that is the right answer for the future, energy experts say.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, believes the Ukraine war may mark a fundamental shift in how countries in Europe and beyond judge their energy security – and could spur a new acceleration on renewables in response.

“Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being but for decades to come,” Birol argued in his agency’s annual energy outlook, published in October.

“Government responses around the world promise to make this a historic and definitive turning point towards a cleaner, more affordable and more secure energy system.”

POLITICAL PRIORITY
One key change as a result of the Russian invasion is that energy concerns have moved dramatically up the European political agenda, said Jonathan Stern, a long-time energy researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

“Energy has become an immediate voter issue – unlike climate change,” he said in an interview. “Voters are having to pay more money, voters are concerned if they’ll get their energy – and politicians know elections are never more than a couple of years away.”

Soaring gas prices helped push the average inflation rate across the EU to a record high of 11.5% in October 2022, as expensive food and fossil fuel-based fertilizers stoked the cost of living and hiked concerns over food security.

But European gas prices have dropped as much as 85% since peaking last summer, easing some of the pressure.

Still, Raphael Hanoteaux, a policy advisor on gas politics for climate and energy at think-tank E3G, said the energy crisis had placed issues such as how to ramp up renewables and increase energy efficiency, while reducing fossil-fuel use, “front and center of not only the climate debate but the security debate”.

Continuing price volatility in gas markets – as the conflict in Ukraine drags on and Russia reorients its exports towards Asia – is a huge worry for European governments that have spent nearly 800 billion euros ($853 billion) subsidizing home and business energy bills, and are wondering how long they can keep it up, he added.

Without Russian gas, “it’s way more profitable to build wind and solar capacity than to scramble to Qatar or Azerbaijan to secure fossil fuels”, Hanoteaux said in an interview.

Faced with tough choices, the Netherlands, Germany and France all are looking at shifts such as phasing down gas-powered heating in buildings and boosting installation of renewables – though solar and wind are still far more widely used for electricity production than heating.

EU commissioners also have debated mandatory cuts in gas and electricity use. “We’re now discussing things that were impossible months ago,” Hanoteaux noted.

Not all countries are on board, though. Hungary, for one, has said it expects Russian gas to remain important to its energy supply, noting it would be happy to sign new long-term deals with Moscow.

BARE COFFERS
One big question is how to pay for a much-needed surge in renewables at a time when government coffers and borrowing capacity are depleted after the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive spending on subsidies to keep homes warm this winter.

Many governments have long insisted they lack fiscal space to swiftly ramp up green energy to deal with climate change – nonetheless, in Europe, they have found huge amounts nearly overnight to subsidize energy bills and tackle the pandemic, Oxford’s Stern noted.

Now, however, after battling years of multiple crises, many are in a worse position to afford the renewables that – if invested in years ago – would have helped avert the current crisis, he said.

Once installed, renewable power is far cheaper in the long run. But the investment needed between 2021 and 2050 for a full transition to renewable power in Europe is estimated at $3.8 billion.

“This is the conundrum,” Stern said. “Although everyone keeps saying renewables are the cheapest form of energy now, which is correct, you still need to spend money now to get them – money you would have had if this (gas) crisis hadn’t happened.”

DASH FOR GAS
Despite a cash shortage, many European countries have been rushing to build gas import terminals to boost supplies – and a lack of coordination means huge over-capacity is now in the pipeline, said Greig Aitken of Global Energy Monitor.

“A lot has been done in panic,” he said, adding that “the general consensus is what is being planned is extremely excessive and inappropriate”.

At the same time, some European governments are considering shortening often lengthy siting processes to put new clean energy capacity in place, which could draw in more private investment, he noted.

And some states are talking about boosting nuclear power capacity, a move Oxford’s Stern finds “bizarre” given the projects require “massive” government subsidies and every one in Europe is “miles over budget and way over its supposed timeline”.

Meanwhile, efforts to add renewable energy capacity fast are being held back by market shortages of key minerals needed for things like battery storage systems, analysts warned.

Overall, virtually all European countries are behind schedule on their pledges to cut emissions to net zero – but the events of the past year have convinced most that “they need to try harder”, Stern said.

“The whole thing has become more difficult – but more urgent,” he said. “I believe the net effect is going to be positive.” — Reuters

Pacific islanders head to Australia for jobs as climate fears grow

REUTERS

SYDNEY — Over the years, Claire Anterea has waved goodbye to numerous friends and family members as they left the Pacific island nation of Kiribati for jobs in regional powerhouse Australia. She had never considered joining them – until now.

Australia will introduce a permanent residency option for Pacific islanders this year, and has also expanded its short-term labor program – part of the country’s wider efforts to counter China’s growing influence in the region.

Anterea, 43, a climate activist, said the residency offer had led her to consider a permanent move to Australia as she grows increasingly concerned about her country’s long-term future due to rising seas caused by climate change.

“If our people are affected by sea level rise, we don’t have a place to go,” Anterea told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from her home in Kiribati’s capital, Tarawa.

“This life for me is good, but what about my daughter? For the sake of my child, I want to migrate and to get a job and contribute to a new home,” she added.

Sea level rise could cover more than half of the low-lying Tarawa atoll’s land by 2100, threatening more than 60% of its population, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

While such forecasts raise the specter of a wave of climate migration in decades to come, for the meantime policymakers in island nations fear Australia’s efforts to court migrant workers could fuel a “brain drain” of skilled people.

Pacific workers can earn up to four times as much in Australia or New Zealand, said Richard Curtain, a leading Pacific labour mobility researcher.

That makes the offer of even temporary work an attractive prospect in countries like Fiji where youth unemployment surged to 37% in 2020, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

SKILLED PROFESSIONALS
The mass departure of skilled professionals, especially digital workers, is a worrying trend, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica said earlier this month.

“This is a matter of great concern to our nation, as the loss of highly skilled professionals in the IT sector can have serious implications for our economic growth and competitiveness,” he told a conference.

Samoa’s industry and labour minister, Leatinu’u Faumuina Wayne So’oialo, voiced similar concerns in November.

Almost a quarter of Fiji’s population lived abroad in 2019, while about 12% of Samoa’s workforce participated in labour schemes in Australia or New Zealand last year, according to an ADB report in December.

Many are highly qualified workers seeking better job opportunities overseas, posing a problem for small island countries that have been struggling for years to retain a skilled workforce, said Curtain, who has researched brain drain in the Pacific region at the Australian National University.

Remittance payments sent home from migrant workers on the short-term Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme are the upside, he added.

Some 35,000 Pacific migrant workers on the PALM program – many of them seasonal laborers such as fruit pickers – sent more than $64 million in remittances to the region last year, according to Australian government figures.

In both Tonga and Samoa, remittances were the equivalent of about 40% of each country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, ADB research showed.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), which runs the PALM scheme, said workers gain experience, skills and savings that can help boost the economy of their home countries.

“We do not want to deprive the Pacific of its workforce and will ensure the scheme delivers a skills dividend for our region,” a DFAT spokesperson said in emailed comments.

CLIMATE MIGRATION PATHWAY?
Aiming to “strengthen Australia’s ties with the Pacific family”, the new Labor government pledged in 2022 to increase PALM workers to 35,000 by June, a target already hit, and launch a ballot for the new Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) in July to let 3,000 Pacific Islanders become permanent residents annually.

Like New Zealand’s visa ballot, which was introduced in 2002, Australia’s PEV will only be open to Pacific Islanders with a formal job offer in Australia.

Some experts say the PEV program should also be treated as a climate migration pathway, with priority given to people from the most vulnerable island nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu.

“This is quite urgent. We see Australia as the leader in our Pacific region so they should focus on improving the pathways for our people in climate-threatened communities,” said Akka Rimon, who was Kiribati’s foreign affairs secretary in 2013 and researches labour migration and climate displacement at the Australian National University.

The DFAT spokesperson said the government would prioritize “countries with limited permanent migration opportunities to Australia”, and the number of visas available for each Pacific island was still being determined.

Without serious and rapid action to tackle climate change, about 216 million people globally could be forced to move within their own countries by 2050, according to the World Bank.

But for people from small, low-lying island nations relocating overseas may be their only option.

For islanders like Anterea, such concerns mean moving abroad sooner – rather than later – appears increasingly tempting.

“People are really fighting to get their opportunity to go and work overseas because it’s a good income. They are thinking about the future of their children. They want their family to have a better life,” she said. — Reuters

G7 finance chiefs to meet on Feb 23 to discuss measures against Russia

G7 LEADERS (from left) Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joseph R. Biden, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attend a working session during G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, Britain, June 12. — LEON NEAL/POOL VIA REUTERS

TOKYO — Financial leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) will meet on Feb. 23 to discuss measures against Russia that will put pressure on it to end the Ukraine war, Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday.

Japan will chair the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G7 nations in the Indian city of Bengaluru. The meeting will come almost a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, calling it a “special military operation”.

The war has raged on despite a slew of punitive measures G7 and other countries have taken against Russia.

“Support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia will be the main topics of discussion,” Suzuki told a news conference. “We will continue to closely coordinate with G7 and the international community to enhance the effect of sanctions to achieve the ultimate goal of prompting Russia to withdraw.”

Japan chairs G7 ministerial meetings this year in the run-up to the May 19-21 summit meeting of G7 leaders in Hiroshima. The G7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.

The G7 meeting will be followed later in the week by a broader gathering of G20 financial leaders from the world’s major economies, which will be hosted in Bengaluru by India, which has the G20 presidency.

The Ukraine war and the global economy are expected to be the focus of the G20 talks.

It will discuss inflation that has been heightened by Russia’s war, energy and food prices, and support for emerging market economies facing debt problems. A failure to tackle emerging market debt could lead to a financial crisis, a senior Japanese official said earlier.

“By contributing to discussions on these problems, we are hoping to produce significant results that will lead to stable and sustainable global growth,” Suzuki said. — Reuters

Belarus to form 100,000-150,000 strong volunteer military force

JAY REMBERT-UNSPLASH

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday he had ordered the formation of a new volunteer territorial defense so everyone knows how to “handle weapons” and be ready to respond to an act of aggression and keep public order in peacetime.

“The situation is not easy. I have said more than once: every man – and not only a man – should be able to at least handle weapons,” Lukashenko said at the meeting of his Security Council.

“At least in order to protect his family, if needed, his home, his own piece of land and – if necessary – his country.”

Lukashenko, who allowed Russia to use Belarus to send troops into Ukraine a year ago, has often said his army would fight only if Belarus was attacked. He has also said the “experience” in Ukraine necessitates additional defense.

“In case of an act of aggression, the response will be fast, harsh and appropriate,” Lukashenko said on Monday.

Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said the territorial defense force will have 100,000-150,000 volunteers, or more if needed. The paramilitary formation will be ideally in every village and town.

The country’s professional army has about 48,000 troops and some 12,000 state border troops, according to the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.

A pariah in the West, Lukashenko, Europe’s longest-serving ruler who has led Belarus for 28 years, depends on Russia politically and economically, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support helped him survive mass pro-democracy protests in 2020.

The dependence has fanned fears in Kyiv that Putin would pressure Lukashenko to join a fresh ground offensive and open a new front in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The elements of the Cold War: arms race and nuclear blackmail by the leaders of individual Western states have returned to the contemporary international agenda,” Lukashenko said on Monday.

The European Union, the United States and others have imposed billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions on the ex-Soviet state over its support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv to send a message of “enduring support” for Ukraine and announce further military aid for the army of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. — Reuters

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