Luce 💓 The Anime Mascot Of The Catholic Church 2025

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Luce was designed as a kid-friendly mascot for the Catholic Church’s upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year, which is all about hope, forgiveness, and holy pilgrimages.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the organizer for the jubilee, says the mascot was inspired by the Catholic Church's desire "to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth."

Luce means “light” in Italian. The anime girl is designed to appeal to today's youth, who have grown up watching One Piece and D. Slayer. The character is rendered in the “chibi” art style, which means short, cutesy characters with big heads and stubby limbs.

Luce also appears to be a pilgrim, which is why she wears a raincoat, muddy boots, and a walking staff. These symbols symbolize her perseverance through a storm-ridden landscape.

Luce’s whole outfit is loaded with Catholic iconography and symbolism. She wears rosary beads around her neck, and her bright blue hair might refer to the Virgin Mary’s blue hair covering.

Luce also has scallop shells in her eyes, which are an iconic symbol of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, with the shell representing the way to the Cathedral.

Luce proved a pleasant surprise for anime-loving Catholics, instantly inspiring a deluge of fan art and positive commentary.

Luce was designed by Simone Legno, the Italian pop artist behind the Tokidoki brand, who takes inspiration from street graffiti and Japanese art.

Brightly colored cartoon characters are a fun, inoffensive way to appeal to the youth and the Catholic 

Luce will also appear as the Vatican’s mascot at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, where she will be used to promote the theme of “Beauty Brings Hope.”

I hope you read it.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested by local police at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s with a “hand-written” manifesto describing “ill-will toward corporate America,” false identification and a 9mm “ghost gun” potentially “made on a 3D printer,” New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

Assassinations are despicable. I don’t care if the targets are politicians or mafia bosses. It’s the method I despise. For those who are old enough to remember the killing of Patrice Lumumba, then JFK, then Malcolm X, then MLK, then RFK, every assassination is (I hate this word) a trigger. Assassinations are destabilizing. The shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off the First World War. Targeted violence has always been a sign – an augury – that the social order is breaking down. I would have preferred to see Osama bin Laden brought to justice so that we might have understood his methods and motives. I know that trials can be rigged, corrupted, and biased, but so far the courtroom is the best place we have in which to decide between guilt and innocence – and to assign an appropriate punishment. Assassination is a death sentence without the benefit of a judge or jury.

All of which is to say that I was deeply horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in cold blood, in broad daylight, in front of the Hilton hotel, in Manhattan.

As I write this, the gunman remains at large, but his motives were clearly written on the casings of the bullets he used: “deny” and “delay”. Many would argue that those are the two favorite activities, the go-to business practices, the bold-faced words in the scripts, that health insurance employees are instructed to follow. As a consequence, Thompson’s killing has set off a storm of conversations and internet postings about the deep wounds that the medical insurance industry has inflicted on Americans who made the mistake of trusting their carriers to provide adequate coverage.

It’s a pity that Thompson’s murder is being politicized – as the latest eruption of the left’s destructive rage or as the sign that a gun-lover is brandishing his muscle. Brian Thompson’s murder is a criminal response to a criminal situation. The only consolation – the only good that could come of it – would be if his death led to some serious soul-searching, to a concerted attempt to understand why an apparently affable CEO inspired such violence and hatred.

Deny. Delay. Everyone knows what those words signify in reference to medical insurance. Doctors and patients agree that our healthcare system is seriously broken. It hardly needs to be said that medicine, in the United States, reflects and further deepens our profound economic divide. Not long ago, my husband’s longtime doctor left his practice to join a medical concierge service that charges $60,000 per person per year. Soon after, I found myself in the waiting room of an upstate New York urgent care center, watching patients ask the receptionist if they could pay the $35 co-pay in $5 monthly installments.

The critique of the national health services in Canada and in Europe was always that one had to wait months for a medical appointment. But now, in this country, we have discovered that an appointment with a specialist might take months to arrange, and (depending on one’s insurance) will be anything but free, as it would be in countries with state-sponsored systems.

Long before Thompson’s killing, people had been talking about the loved ones who suffered and died because of an insurer’s refusal to pay the cost of a treatment or of long-term care. If the extremity and cruelty of these companies’ cost-cutting measures didn’t so often strip patients of their life savings and their homes, they might almost seem like a joke.

Recently, an insurance company in the north-east decided, and later (after a public outcry) rescinded its decision, to limit the hours of anesthesia for which a surgical patient could get reimbursed. Should the anesthesiologist, midway through a long surgery, turn off the hose and tell the patient to bite the bullet? Or should the patient be billed thousands of dollars for those last few hours? And before we blame the doctors for these high fees, let’s remember that the anesthesiologists are paying fortunes in malpractice insurance … to the companies that are being paid by both the doctor and the patient.

What’s puzzling is why people who have suffered so much because of the current system are so reluctant to try something else. What would be lost if we instituted healthcare for all? Our freedom? Our control? Our ability to choose? The bad news is all that is already gone. The only things that might be diminished would be the annual bonuses and stock options of the insurance company executives.

So let me be clear. I’m sad about Brian Thompson’s death. The mess we’re in wasn’t his fault. Our problems are so much larger than he was. He was an unlucky, visible symbol of everything that’s gone wrong with our healthcare system.

I’m sad about the rage and desperation that caused someone to write “deny” and “delay” on the bullets he aimed at Brian Thompson. But mostly what I’m sad about is the fact that we, as a society, are so willing to accept a status quo that dooms our neighbors to suffer and die without the medical care they need. The writer Lucy Sante has said that we are in the 33rd year of the Reagan administration – an observation that has never seemed more apt. More than three decades have passed since we were told that we were on our own, that the miseries of our neighbors were not our problem, and that we should continue to allow the industries that the unfortunate Brian Thompson represented to profit from our tragic, unrecoverable losses.

Francine Prose is a former president of the PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Heat batteries store

If you are in Zagreb, Croatia, and you drive along Ilica street from west to east, when you reach Črnomerec, on the left, on the facade of a building, you will notice a large sign that says “Ciglane Zagreb”. Production at the brickworks has long ceased, the company formally ceased to exist in 2011, and since then it has only been mentioned in stories about times gone by. Find out why I am writing this in the post below.

Thermal batteries could transform renewable energy storage and provide a cheaper, more scalable alternative to lithium-ion technology. We need heat to make everything from steel bars to ketchup packets. Today, a whopping 20% of global energy demand goes to producing heat used in industry, and most of that heat is generated by burning fossil fuels. To clean up the industry, many companies are working to supply that heat with thermal batteries.

Storing energy as heat isn’t a new idea—steelmakers have been capturing waste heat and using it to reduce fuel demand for nearly 200 years. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar have seen prices fall dramatically in the past decade. However, these power sources are inconsistent, and subject to daily and seasonal patterns. So with the rise in cheap renewable energy has come a parallel push to find ways to store it for applications that require a consistent power source. Heat batteries are a fundamentally new way of storing energy at a small fraction of the cost. 

Heat batteries store excess electricity as heat in materials like bricks or graphite, which can reach temperatures over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The stored heat can then be released when needed, making thermal batteries ideal for powering the manufacturing of steel, cement, and chemicals. What a thermal battery does is allow you to soak up clean, inexpensive electrons from wind and solar, store them as heat and deliver that energy later to an industrial customer.

Rondo Energy, (not Ciglane Zagreb) which turns bricks into batteries, wins fresh funding.

Rondo Energy is one of the leaders in this space. The company built its first commercial heat battery in California’s Central Valley at Calgren Renewable Fuels. The system stores solar energy during the day and delivers high-temperature heat 24/7. A pound of brick stores more energy than a pound of lithium-ion battery, at less than 10% of the cost. By 2027, Rondo Energy plans to expand production to 90 gigawatt-hours annually, a scale that could cut 12 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. That’s the equivalent of taking 4 million gas cars off the road, according to the company.

With industrial heat demand expected to continue growing this decade, there’s an urgent need to find cleaner options. Thermal batteries could be a key strategy for keeping factories running as efforts to cut their emissions warm up. Thermal energy storage could connect cheap but intermittent renewable electricity with heat-hungry industrial processes. These systems can transform electricity into heat and then, like typical batteries, store the energy and dispatch it as needed. Despite their promise, thermal batteries face hurdles, including high upfront investment and a lack of familiarity among industrial users. The biggest hurdle is educating the market that this technology is available.

PS. Možda na Grgasu ponovo započnemo kopati. 

A view from Croatia on the topic of DEI.

 

A growing list of major corporations to halt the so-called "woke" initiatives. Walmart joins Ford, John Deere, Toyota, and other major companies in ditching controversial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Walmart is now working to remove sexual and transgender products inappropriately marketed toward children and reviewing grants to Pride events to avoid funding sexualized content targeting kids. Walmart also joined an array of companies in recent months – including Ford, Molson Coors, Lowe's, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and Tractor Supply – to end participation in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which is an annual survey and report used to gauge "policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) employees."

Nice one, and for the future - don't insult your core customers again. People have seen with their own eyes that DEI was and is a SCAM...They have seen people put in positions of CRITICAL LEADERSHIP, not based on qualifications but rather skin color, which is against the VERY PRINCIPLE.

These DEI decisions have cost companies billions, and people MASSIVE division! It's a recipe for disaster, just look at the BIDEN Cabinet, NOT ONE was hired on qualifications, but they are "diverte", SO WHAT, look at where it has taken the country and economy, not to mention standing on the world stage...The damage done will take years to correct...

If this is true, it is FANTASTIC!

 

This is Awesome. I have so much respect for both Joel Salatin and Thomas Massie. The Lunatic Farmer is now working for the government and that's pretty awesome.

 The deplorables and garbage people won again.  Can you believe it? 

                  I've been contacted by the Trump transition team to hold some sort of position within the USDA and have accepted one of the six "Advisor to the Secretary" spots.  My favorite congressman, Thomas Massie from Kentucky, has agreed to go in as Secretary of Agriculture.

                  He's been the sponsor of the PRIME ACT, which, if pushed through, would be the biggest shot across the bow of the entrenched industrial meat processing system we've seen in a century.  Let liberty ring.  Wouldn't that be a change of fortune for Big Ag? 

                  If RFK Jr. goes in as Sec. of Health and Human Services, everything will be inverted.  Talk about the coolest turn about.  He'd be the boss of the Faucis and Francis Collins--the whole covid anti-science crowd.  Wouldn't that be a change of fortune for Big Pharma?

                  And if Elon Musk goes in as a Government Waste Czar, do you think he could possibly find something?   

                  Here's an interesting tidbit.  All the income taxes in the U.S. are $2 trillion a year.  Government spending and borrowing are so out of control that if we eliminated $2 trillion from the budget, it would only set us back to 2020.  Does anyone think returning to government spending in 2020 would destroy things?  Of course not.  So all we have to do is cut federal spending to 2020 levels and we can eliminate income tax.  Period.  Done.  How would that make you feel?

                  Most people don't know enough history to know that the federal government was to be financed entirely from tariffs and excise taxes.  In fact, as a nation we operated just fine for nearly 150 years without an income tax.  The only president who eliminated the national debt was Andrew Jackson, and he did it by eliminating the second bank of the U.S.  Nearly 100 years later we got the third bank, known as the Federal Reserve, plus the income tax. 

                  During that time, tariffs averaged 40-50 percent.  After the income tax, tariffs dropped to an average of about 7 percent, where they remain today.  If we went back to 40 percent, like we had for nearly 150 years, we would bring production home and free our citizens from impoverishing taxes. 

                  Dear folks, this is a watershed moment to take a creative and serious look at the sacred cows in our nation and fry some serious burgers. We don't know history.  We don't know liberty.  We don't know earthworms or aquifers or immune systems.  I'm hoping this election is an opening to discovery.  Perhaps we could even figure out how to put negative occurrences like jails, pollution, and cancer on the nation's balance sheet, as a liability rather than an asset (Gross Domestic Product--more jails?  wonderful, pour more concrete and make more jobs).  

                  Perhaps we'll eliminate federal involvement in education, from kindergarten to college.  Make every teacher accountable to performance.  Eliminate ALL federal intervention in the food system, in farming, in energy.  The Constitution (read it) doesn't allow for any of this and it's time to examine all of it.  Shut down foreign military bases; bring them all home.  Stop ALL foreign aid, from USAID to military aid.  Sell stuff is fine; giving it isn't. 

                  I think whatever taxes we pay should be able to be designated to certain departments.  That way we the people could support or defund departments directly.  The reason we have K street is because all our freedoms are for sale.  Eliminate government manipulation and the lobbyists all go home.  These are simple things.  Let's do it.

                  What is your first request for the Trump/RFK Jr. agenda?

Joel Salatin

About Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson.  Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate.

With 12 published books and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming, and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world.  He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs at a Wall Street business conference.

Often receiving standing ovations, he prefers the word performance rather than presentation to describe his lectures.  His favorite activity?–Q&A.  “I love the interaction,” he says.

He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia.  Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products.  When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.

Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement.  He writes the Pitchfork Pulpit column for Mother Earth News, as well as numerous guest articles for ACRES USA and other publications.  A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action.

How to remove a dam.

Dear Spain,

Better utilization of engineering and modeling expertise in advance of the flash floods in eastern Spain over the past week could have reduced the devastation. The climate hoax can now be with the other long list of any government/UN hoaxs. 

Spain destroyed more than 256 dams between 2021 and 2022, "to restore the natural course of rivers", to comply with UN Agenda 2030.

Valencia suffered from a flood in October 1957, known as the Great Flood of Valencia, which resulted in significant damage to property and caused the deaths of 81 people. This flood was mainly caused by the overtopping of the River Turia which was then diverted in 1969 to avoid the centre of the city. During floods, most of the river water is now diverted southwards along a new route that borders the city. 

Spain, like many countries have removed dams as part of an EU directive see https://damremoval.eu/ It’s true that removing dams can sometimes lead to increased flood risks in areas downstream, particularly if those dams were originally constructed to control water flow and mitigate flooding. 

Dams allow for the irrigation of land and crops, enabling people to be self-sufficient, which goes against the Agenda 2030. But no, the flooding is a result of "climate change". All of the EU has committed to "Agenda 2030." 

But if I were the leader of any EU country and the UN asked me to destroy its dams to advance some nebulous climate agenda, I’d tell the UN to go fornicate itself with a cactus.

Sincerely,

citizen of Croatia, citizen of Europe

PS. za moju Hrvatsku.

Prvo bi rekao da naši stari nisu bili glupi i da su znali što rade. Dobar primjer je izgradnja akvedukta koja je započela u svrhu opskrbe vodom grada Rima te trajala sljedećih 500 godina, tijekom kojih je sagrađeno ukupno 11 akvedukata. 

Puno primjera je i iz Hrvatske prošlosti, gdje se gradnjom riječnih brana i usmjeravanjem rijeka dolazilo do pitke vode i  plodnih polja. Kako pri samoj gradnji brana, tako i kod rušenje istih, neovisno o tome jesu li zaštićena područja ili ne, u prirodi se treba ponašati u skladu s nekakvim pravilima. Svaki zahvat u prirodi je i dalje zahvat, stoga je potrebno proći sve procedure, napraviti studiju utjecaja na okoliš, tehničku dokumentaciju o izvođenju radova. Monitoring se treba provoditi cijelo vrijeme nakon izvođenja radova kako bi se eko sustav stabilizirao. 

Moramo paziti na sedrene barijere, na zaštićene vrste, kao i na to da se obala prilagodi novom vodotoku. Generalno, moramo voditi računa o tome kakvog će utjecaja zahvat imati na okolinu. U sklopu takvih radova, često dođe do zamućivanja vode. Tek tad možemo dobiti neke referentne rezultate i zaključiti jesu li akcije rušenja, sada već stoljetnih brana, bile uspješne.

Cheaters tend to think everyone cheats. Liars tend to think that everyone lies.

It’s hard for people to imagine another way to see the world that they don’t have in their minds, so it’s a gear shift to realize that if other people have different tastes to me, they probably don’t see things the same way I do, therefore I cannot judge other peoples outputs by my framework.

It goes further than that it’s a phenomenon that affects All our calculations about other people. It’s the assumption that I see the world this way, and because I am a people, I, therefore, conclude that different people see the world the same way I see it.

A lot of this is that we don’t know what we don’t know and what we don’t know is how other people think; we only know how we, ourselves, think. It’s the level of narcissism that is fundamentally, at the heart of all of the pain of humanity. No one knows what another person is capable of thinking and doing and never will. Trust is a very huge issue for a lot of people, especially if they grew up with severely personality-disordered parents who were neglectful and/or abusive. In this environment, a child’s needs are never met and they almost become little con men to get what they need and want. Lying and cheating become second nature, an automatic reflex, a child’s default. 

If you are a cheater and a liar and could never trust anyone when you were growing up, how can you trust people as a grown-up? You can not. If you can’t trust yourself to live a life based on integrity and honesty, how can you trust anyone else? You can not because it is like a foreign land to you and you don’t even speak the language. It’s the same thing on the other side of the coin, too: empaths get into a lot of trouble because they assume that other people have integrity, and are honest and straightforward, too. They want to think the best about other people coming out of the gate with little to no real information about them. You can not even really know your friends until mid-life when enough challenging experiences, setbacks, and failures have accumulated for everyone.

Most folk, however, do not naturally do this kind of introspection and self-awareness-building. Once you have had this kind of gear-shift however, it’s hard to go back to just assuming you know what people’s motives are or that you can predict their responses and behaviors accurately... instead, you’re instantly and unavoidably aware of how unpredictable and unfathomable other people really can be.

It then becomes increasingly clear who the real grown-ups with integrity are who do the next right thing (which is usually the harder thing) versus those who play the blame game and look for the easy way out or remain stuck.

Varalica misli da svi varaju, lažov da svi lažu, loš da su svi loši, a dobar da su svi dobri. Svatko polazi od sebe. Toliko i hvala.

BRICS currency

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin unveils BRICS prototype currency. Putin was seen holding a mock-up of the “BRICS bill,” featuring the flags of the five member nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – interconnected in a circle.

One of the primary issues with the “BRICS Bill” lies in its inconsistent representation of member nations. For instance, the bill features Pashto text referring to the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” (the Taliban regime), yet it bears the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Since the Taliban regime is not internationally recognised and has limited diplomatic acceptance, this inconsistency highlights the challenges of unifying such diverse nations under a single currency framework. Additionally, many BRICS members, including India and South Africa, are reluctant to formally engage with unrecognised governments, further complicating the bill’s acceptance.

Using the “BRICS Bill” for economic exchanges would introduce significant limitations for member states, many of which are not the most economically powerful. Forcing reliance on a shared currency would hinder BRICS countries’ ability to freely trade with non-member states. This limitation is exacerbated by the bloc’s ongoing efforts to reduce dependency on the US dollar while simultaneously maintaining global trade relations. According to the Johannesburg Declaration, BRICS nations are exploring mechanisms to increase trade in local currencies, but the creation of a shared currency remains a distant goal.

A major concern among BRICS nations is the potential destabilisation of national currencies. If a shared “BRICS Bill” were to be introduced, it could lead to inflation and depreciation of national currencies, especially for smaller economies like South Africa or Brazil. A potential decline in the value of national currencies would negatively impact economic stability, making the adoption of a shared currency an unattractive option.

Despite the challenges surrounding the “BRICS Bill,” discussions about creating a digital BRICS currency are gaining momentum. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been a vocal advocate for a digital currency to facilitate trade among BRICS nations without replacing national currencies. However, even this idea faces significant hurdles, including the logistical complexities of implementing a digital currency across a diverse bloc of nations. It remains to be seen whether a digital BRICS currency will materialise, but discussions on the topic are still in the early stages.

Adopting a shared “BRICS Bill” could lead to negative consequences from Western countries, including the imposition of sanctions and higher tariffs. BRICS’ growing influence is already viewed as a challenge to Western financial dominance, particularly in light of the bloc’s ongoing expansion. Introducing a shared currency could escalate tensions and lead to economic retaliation from key global players like the US and the European Union. Such risks have led BRICS leaders to exercise caution when considering a shared financial instrument.

The BRICS Bill is more symbolic than practical, and adopting it as a currency would likely harm member states’ economies by destabilizing national currencies and reducing economic independence.

Hong Kong carbon emissions

 

Hong Kong aims to slash its carbon emissions to 50 percent of its 2005 levels by 2035. This target includes ending coal use for daily electricity generation, promoting electric vehicles, and achieving zero landfill use, all as part of the city’s broader plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Industry leaders said on Friday that the government should streamline approval procedures, allow more pilot projects, and offer more financial support, all of which would accelerate investment and help reduce costs. The InnoTech Forum was hosted by InvestHK, the government department tasked with promoting foreign investment in the city.

Senior executives from across the energy supply chain in Hong Kong have called for more support to accelerate the development of the city’s hydrogen ecosystem.

“If the government can come up with a code of practice and standards applicable to hydrogen projects in Hong Kong in the future, it will make it easier for companies that want to invest in the sector,” said Norman Cheng, business development director at Veolia Hong Kong. A clear road map of where hydrogen development is going “would also enhance the confidence of investors”, he added.

Veolia, a global company involved in the management of water, waste and energy resources, has joined with gas distributor Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas) to develop Hong Kong’s first green hydrogen project at the South East New Territories Landfill Extension in Tseung Kwan O. It will capture and turn landfill gas into hydrogen to supply energy while preventing emission of the highly potent greenhouse gas.

A slow approval process is one of the “pain points” for companies interested in deploying hydrogen demonstration projects in Hong Kong, said Shao Ruizhe, assistant president with China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong).

“We hope that as hydrogen energy technology matures in the future, the approval time can be shortened,” he said, adding that approval for a project the company is involved in took about a year.

His company has partnered with Hong Kong Nation-Synergy International Hydrogen Power Technology and Sinopec (Hong Kong) on a pilot project to generate electricity from hydrogen and supply it to a construction-site office at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in Lok Ma Chau.

Hong Kong Nation-Synergy is part of Zhejiang province-based Sino-Synergy Hydrogen Energy Technology (Jiaxing), which makes fuel-cell engines. Sinopec (Hong Kong), part of China’s largest petroleum fuel producer China Petroleum & Chemical, runs a network of petrol stations in the city and is building the city’s first hydrogen refuelling station.

The Hong Kong government should set up more hydrogen demonstration projects, said Cynthia Zhu Zheyu, CEO of Sinosynergy International, which oversees Sino-Synergy’s Hong Kong and overseas business.

At least 14 pilot projects by 10 firms have won government approval to demonstrate hydrogen's effectiveness and safety in various contexts.

Setting up more projects would boost the confidence of the city’s hydrogen stakeholders and allow the industry to achieve the scale it needs to drive down costs, she said, adding that more government funding is also needed.

“We are very fortunate to see that the Chief Executive’s policy address this week has increased the new energy fund for the transport sector from HK$200 million [US$26 million] to HK$750 million,” she said. However, the amount is still “too little” compared with what is needed for development, she added.

“We hope the government can inject more funds into this field,” she said.

Hong Kong has a distinct advantage of being close to the mainland, where many companies have developed a wide range of cost-competitive green technologies that Hong Kong firms can adopt to scale up hydrogen production and use, said Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan.

However, he said the scale and speed of hydrogen development in Hong Kong will depend on the cost-reduction trajectories of other forms of green energy. So the government needs to proceed cautiously on policies.

“The costs of other green and low-carbon technologies are also falling, which means it is uncertain which green energy will be more cost-competitive,” he said.

Hong Kong Total Energy Consumption.

Total energy consumption per capita was 1.6 toe in 2022. Per capita electricity consumption is about 6.1 MWh. Total energy consumption decreased by 6% in 2022 to 11.7 Mtoe, after remaining stable in 2021 and declining by 8.5% in 2020. Previously, it had been fluctuating around 14 Mtoe since 2007. Gas covers 33% of the country's total energy consumption, coal 31%, oil 26%, and electricity 9% (2022). Coal had the largest share of total energy consumption until 2019 (44% in 2019) and has been increasing since 2000 (from 31%). Zeljko Serdar, CCRES

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Our blog posts are amazingly and rapidly growing, but the YouTube channel is staggers. Our YouTube channel, the content you’ve come to rely on for insights into supporting smallholder farmers, may not be able to continue much longer.

No, the channel isn’t shutting down right this minute, but without hearing directly from you, we risk not having the ability to demonstrate our impact. Our mission as a non-profit organization is to uplift smallholder farmers, and your voice can help show our supporters the value the YouTube channel brings and help shape the direction of our content! 

How do you Like and Subscribe to our YouTube channel? First, you need to sign up for a YouTube account - for free. Then simply give a 👍 Like for the videos you like and appreciate and tap the Subscribe button below the video to help support the channel growth.

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EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has ended. (2027.)

Things you need to know about a report on the future of farming presented to Commission chief von der Leyen. Seven months of intense debate behind closed doors appears to have produced what election campaign tubthumping and rowdy street protests failed to deliver: the outline of the way forward for Europe's unsustainable food production model.

1. Farm subsidies

The report opens the can of worms that is the €300 billion-plus EU farm subsidy budget, and concludes it should stop rewarding the largest farms and instead support those on lower incomes. 

The current area-based scheme has been under fire for a long time, but significant change has proven slow and difficult. However, farm lobbies and other members have now agreed for the first time that income support should target small- and medium-sized farmers — the majority in the EU — “who need it most.”

On the other hand, this income-based program should not depend on whether farmers comply with additional environmental rules — meaning those that go beyond existing EU law, such as nitrate pollution or habitat protection rules.

Instead, a separate set of payments should be distributed among farmers that use sustainable practices, and would be handled by both agricultural and environmental authorities. The participants also asked for an “annual substantial increase” in environmental support.

2. Sustainable food systems

The next two elephants in the room were sustainable diets and meat consumption. The experts agreed that it was crucial to support ongoing reductions in the consumption of animal-based proteins — e.g. meat and dairy — in favor of plant-based alternatives. 

They also called for a review of EU food labeling legislation and urged that food marketing to children be addressed, while advocating tax reductions and other social and fiscal incentives. “The sustainable choice needs to become the choice by default,” the report said.

At the end of the previous mandate the Commission was set to publish a sustainable food systems framework to shift consumption patterns in that direction, but the initiative was shelved amid a tense debate.

3. Emissions

The agricultural sector is responsible for over 10 percent of the EU’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — mostly from livestock. Yet although the EU has committed to reduce GHG emissions by at least 55 percent through 2030, no targets have been set for agriculture.

According to the report, “the diversity and complexity of agricultural systems ... call for tailored solutions.” It asked the EU executive to set customized emissions reduction goals for different types of agriculture.

Regarding animal farms, it proposed territorial action plans to ensure a just transition in regions with a high concentration of livestock (think pig farming in Catalonia or the Netherlands). This would foresee mechanisms such as voluntary buyout schemes — to reduce animal numbers — or reskilling programs to transition to alternative production systems with a focus on young farmers.

4. Environmental law

Participants also rallied behind some of the most controversial EU environmental bills, such as a law to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems — although advocating “the establishment of a well-resourced nature restoration fund” outside the farm budget.

The report drew particular attention to the EU’s outdated animal welfare rules, urging the passage of a revision that should have been presented by the EU executive last year, such as a ban on the use of farm cages. The document said the ban must be accompanied by “a species-specific and appropriate transition period.”

In addition, it proposed an EU-wide benchmark to assess farm sustainability according to a set of common criteria, as well as a just transition fund to facilitate an agri-food sector shift toward a healthier and more climate-friendly path.

5. This is just the beginning

Last but not least: None of the report’s recommendations are set in stone. Von der Leyen has committed to include the results of the stakeholder dialogue in a Vision for Agriculture and Food, to be put together during her first 100 days. Within the EU executive, however, some recommendations from the dialogue are expected to fare better than others, according to a senior EU official.

In addition, it’s not clear whether the broader food and agriculture sector will back the results, given that the report’s conclusions touched on issues that politically powerful farming groups have opposed, while its language on issues strongly backed by green NGOs was at times timid.

Green groups have hailed the outcome of grueling talks over the future of agriculture in the EU as broad acceptance, even from the industrial farming lobby, of the need for a fundamental transformation of food production in Europe after six decades of the Common Agricultural Policy.

A 110-page report published today – the result of seven months of a ‘strategic dialogue’ between NGOs, farmers’ unions and lobbyists for the industrial and organic agriculture sectors launched in the wake of protests across Europe last year – was endorsed unanimously.

“This agreement is not just a milestone, but hopefully a game-changer,” said Ariel Brunner, director of BirdLife Europe, one of the environmental groups that took part in the talks. After months of intense negotiations, we’ve finally reached a turning point where, despite the differing interests and politics, there’s a collective recognition that the status quo simply isn’t an option.”

Briefing journalists as the report was published, Brunner said the agreement should signal a return to “normal politics” after sometimes violent protests that forced European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to backtrack on aspects of the Green Deal, withdrawing a proposal to halve pesticide use and easing environmental controls.

“Ultimately, the problems of the farmers will not be solved by telling them that reality will go away, or by whipping that hatred against environmentalists,” Brunner said.

Presenting the report in Brussels, von der Leyen said it would feed into a “road map” – officially a ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’ – that would be published in the first hundred days of her second five-year mandate, set to begin in November.

Greenpeace, another group that took part in the dialogue process, highlighted several positive aspects of a report it said reflected a “fundamental rethink” of Europe’s approach to food production.

One was a call to better target Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding, which at €378bn representing nearly a third of the EU budget for the period 2021-7 – payments to farmers should be based on genuine need, not area farmed.

Moreover, the portion of direct payments linked to environmental measures should see a “substantial annual increase” from the current 32%, the report stated.

“It’s clear that subsidising rich landowners and choking the countryside with the excrement of millions of suffering pigs and cows isn’t helping the majority of farmers,” said Marco Contiero, agricultural policy director at Greenpeace EU.

“The EU must stop bankrolling mega-farms that pollute our rivers and drive droughts and floods, and instead help those farmers who are struggling, but making an effort to restore nature and provide for healthier diets,” Contiero said.

The environmentalist praised the dialogue process, which involved dozens of working group meetings and seven full plenary sessions, the last of which was an intense round-the-clock effort last week to achieve consensus on the text of the final report.

Unlike the often divisive public discourse, unsubstantiated claims could be immediately “put under scrutiny”, leading to an outcome that was “serious, robust, and based on evidence”, Contiero said.

To the relief on many conservationists, the process which was born out of a backlash against EU environmental rules, did not result in renewed calls to roll back key nature protection legislation.

In fact it concluded that governments should fully implement the EU Birds and Habitats Directives, the Water Framework and Nitrates Directives (the latter behind rolling protests in the intensively farmed Netherlands) – and the recently adopted Nature Restoration Law, which the centre-right European People’s Party tried hard to block in the European Parliament.

In some ways, the report breaks what amounted almost to taboos in EU and national policy-making, in particular noting that meat consumption needs to fall, with citizens deriving more of their protein from plants.

But it remains a compromise. The European Environmental Bureau noted it only contains “timid” language on moving away from industrial farming. Nevertheless, for the NGO umbrella group’s nature, health and environment director Faustine Bas-Defossez, it marked a “pivotal moment” in EU farming policy.

“This starts with an unequivocal call to overhaul the EU’s archaic farm subsidies policy to focus precious public funds on rewarding nature- and climate-friendly farming outcomes and redirecting funds to support the farmers in genuine need, which would end decades of wasteful, unfair subsidies that benefitted the largest farms at the expense of everyone else and the environment,” Bas-Defossez said.

Whether or not the consensus achieved in producing the report signals a true tectonic shift in the dynamics of agricultural policy making in Brussels remains to be seen, with the key test being the ‘vision’ paper expected early next year.

The traditional opponent of the green camp – the powerful farming lobby groups Copa and Cogeca – commended the “deliberative approach” to producing the report, one that involved all stakeholders.

They welcomed in particular the recommendations for a ‘temporary Just Transition Fund’ and ‘a well-resourced nature restoration fund’ outside the scope of CAP funding to support farmers in the transition.

In other ways, the industrial farming lobby was cautious. “Many stakeholders will share their views on this report in the coming days and weeks, and the Commission must listen to them,” Copa President Christiane Lambert said.

One thing is clear, however: The forum participants will sit together again soon, having proposed the formation of a new consultative body — the European Board for Agri Food (EBAF).

 Von der Leyen likes the idea. So watch this space. The recommendations come in the wake of intense consultations with stakeholders across the agricultural sector. These discussions reflect the deep divisions over the future of European farming, exacerbated by multiple crises, including extreme weather events, rising inflation, and pressure from low-cost global competitors.

The report suggests a paradigm shift in how CAP subsidies are allocated, advocating for means-tested support to ensure funds reach the farmers most in need. This marks a departure from the current system, which links payments to land size and environmental compliance. The recommendations also include initiatives aimed at reducing consumer meat consumption and voluntary buyout programs for farmers in areas of intensive animal farming.

Prof Peter Strohschneider, who led a similar consultation in Germany, chaired the dialogue process. While the recommendations are not binding, EU officials suggest they will shape the agricultural policy of the incoming commission later this year.

The report also underscores the need for broader climate action within the agricultural sector, which accounts for a significant portion of EU greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from livestock farming. Despite this, agriculture remains one of the few sectors without specific emissions reduction targets, highlighting the contentious nature of proposed changes.

As the EU seeks to balance food production with environmental sustainability, the proposed reforms could signal a shift in the future of European farming, with the CAP potentially moving toward a more income-based and environmentally conscious framework.

Croatian Renewable energy / read between the lines

In today's rapidly advancing world, the demand for a continuous energy supply is more pressing than ever, fueled by global population growth, industrial expansion, and technological advancements. This escalating demand poses a significant challenge, stirring a robust debate among energy professionals and industry watchers about whether renewable energy sources can meet this need.

Croatia appears to be the only country in the European Union that is directly hindering the green transition. Despite its enormous potential for developing renewable energy sources, it will ultimately face penalties for failing to meet European and its goals.

The shift toward renewable energy sources offers profound environmental benefits. For instance, switching to an Energy-Star water heater is equivalent to the impact of not driving a car for four years. This approach substantially reduces water usage and greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional fossil fuels.

Beyond environmental gains, renewable energy presents substantial economic advantages. It includes creating jobs in the fast-growing green technology sector, energy price stability due to the reduced costs of wind and solar power over time, and decreased dependence on imported fuels.

The societal impacts of increasing renewable energy usage are equally compelling, ranging from health benefits due to less air pollution to promoting energy equity and accessibility. It ensures clean, reliable energy is available to more communities worldwide.

Critics point to intermittency and storage, while proponents highlight recent technological advancements and successes in integrating these sources into the grid. This discourse is pivotal as people navigate toward sustainable energy solutions that can support their future without compromising reliability.

As an independent regulatory body in Croatia, HERA has failed, for over a year and a half past the deadline, to issue a Decision on the amount of the unit fee for connecting to the grid, jeopardizing the achievement of Croatia’s and the EU’s strategic energy transition goals and preventing over 2 billion euros of investment in renewable energy projects.

HERA is accountable to the Croatian Parliament, and MPs, especially the Chairman of the Economic Committee, must oversee HERA’s work and can request the issuance of this disputed Decision. The development of renewable energy sources is crucial for Croatia’s progress, for improving the standard of living of its citizens, and for enhancing the country’s competitiveness.

Croatia must increase its share of energy from renewable sources to meet the targets of the European Parliament and Council Directive (RED III) and the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), which oblige us to ensure that by 2030, at least 42.5% of final gross energy consumption comes from renewable sources. Croatia will only reach this target if HERA promptly issues the Decision on the unit fee for the connection.

Energy professionals must engage with the latest developments in renewable energy to contribute their expertise and innovation to fuel its growth. Their support for policies and practices that favor renewable energy expansion steers the global community toward a more sustainable and resilient energy future. To recap, HERA was required to issue the Decision on the amount of the unit fee no later than December 15, 2022. However, nineteen months later, Croatia still does not have a known connection fee to the electricity grid. Without knowing the connection fee, the development of new RES projects is halted because, without knowing the connection costs, investors cannot plan investments or secure project financing.

Why is it important to take good care of children?

The rise of homeschooling is making a transformative impact on education. I should start this by stating that neither of my kids is homeschooled. I have long been intrigued by the idea of it, but for various reasons, both kids have ended up at different traditional schools that suit their needs. 

The Croatian Education Act allows parents to educate their children at home. However, this is subject to certain conditions and regulations. For foreign residents or expatriates, homeschooling is also permitted, but they must adhere to the Croatian curriculum and education standards. Now that I see what is happening in the world, I would recommend homeschooling.

Homeschooling families typically design their curriculum or use pre-designed curricula tailored to their children's needs and interests. In many cases, homeschooling is a choice made by families seeking more flexibility, personalized instruction, or alignment with their educational values and beliefs.

Policymakers, educators, and stakeholders must acknowledge and accommodate the diverse needs of families to foster an inclusive educational ecosystem that supports homeschooling alongside traditional schooling options. By doing so, they can leverage the power of education diversity and cultivate a more dynamic and student-centered approach to learning.

Taking good care of children is crucial for several reasons:

Physical Health: 

Children are in a critical stage of physical development. Proper nutrition, healthcare, and safety measures are essential to ensure their physical well-being and growth.

Emotional Well-being: 

Children's emotional well-being is equally important. They need love, support, and a nurturing environment to develop emotionally and form healthy relationships.

Cognitive Development: 

Providing children with a stimulating environment that encourages learning and exploration is vital for their cognitive development. 

Social Skills: 

Children learn how to interact with others, communicate, and build relationships through their interactions with caregivers and peers. Proper care and guidance help them develop important social skills.

Education: 

Children who are well-cared for are more likely to succeed in school. They are better able to focus on learning and development when their basic needs are met.

Prevention of Abuse and Neglect: 

Taking good care of children can prevent abuse and neglect. Providing a safe and supportive environment reduces the risk of harm and promotes healthy development.

Future Success: 

Children who receive good care are more likely to grow into confident, well-adjusted adults who can contribute positively to society. Investing in children's well-being today can lead to a brighter future for them and for society as a whole.

In summary, taking good care of children is important because it sets the foundation for their physical, emotional, and cognitive development, as well as their future success and well-being. It is a responsibility that should be prioritized by families, communities, and society as a whole. 

#Prevention #Abuse #Neglect  #children #Education #Development #PhysicalHealth #SocialSkills #FutureSuccess #society #zeljkoserdar #mentor

Energy storage and battery manufacturers.

 

Think of energy storage, and what do you think of it? Probably lithium and nickel. But what about salt and bricks? One of the big challenges for the energy transition is storage. It’s a particular problem for industrial-scale buildings and areas that need a lot of energy. Currently about half the energy demand is heat, and electric batteries are (most of the time) the ones providing it.

China’s 2023 solar exports hit a record high with over 40% growth for all equipment. The surge was dominated by modules that reached a new high of 227 GW. Meanwhile, cells had the most rapid growth at 61.6% to 38 GW.  

The country consolidated its control over module supply chain manufacturing, with its share exceeding 80%. Our research reveals that Asia Pacific (excluding China) hosts most Chinese overseas facilities, totalling over 70 GW of production capacity for cell and module. 

However, despite this record growth, export revenue dropped by 5.6% to US$49 billion due to a decline in prices driven by oversupply. As more markets continue to adopt local content requirements (LCRs), China will start to face increasing constraints for solar exports. In response to growing LCRs, Chinese players are globalizing manufacturing capacity to offset a loss in exports.

Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia are among the top markets for Chinese manufacturing investment. Consequently, Chinese storage investors and manufacturers have grown their overseas footprint to 22 countries.  

However, due to a loose trade policy, only a maximum of 20% of the overseas capacity planned by Chinese battery manufacturers will be applied in the energy storage segment.

Environmental concerns and talent shortages are hindering the operation of overseas factories. However, despite high capex and long construction cycles, Chinese manufacturers are still investing in overseas facilities to get closer to the downstream market and expand customer relationships.  

They are also attracted by government subsidies at all levels to absorb investment and create jobs, including grants, tax breaks, and low-interest loans.  

Our research finds that the large regional variation in lead time is due to the dominance of Asian sources for raw materials and manufacturing equipment, as well as challenges in obtaining environmental impact assessments and permits. Likewise, obtaining safety, production and sales licenses vary across regions, as does construction efficiency, and the availability of talent to run factories.

Europe and the US are the top lithium-ion battery export markets for Chinese players. All the while, China is cooperating closely with South Korea in the battery supply chain, with considerable import and export volumes being exchanged. 

Our insights reveal that Chinese manufacturers are likely to maintain their export advantage on energy storage products due to their high productivity and low costs. Elsewhere, factories outside of China still face various long construction cycles, slow production capacity ramp up, and unverified product quality. 

Indeed, most overseas production capacity has been allocated to electric vehicles (EVs), limiting the local supply flowing into the energy storage sector, thus leaving a huge opportunity for China's exports. 

Nevertheless, Chinese manufacturers should be cautious of persistent oversupply in the energy storage segment. In 2023, Chinese investment into battery capacity increased by nearly 30%, shifting from EVs to energy storage systems (ESS).  

What’s more, China‘s planned energy storage capacity for 2030 has already far exceeded the world’s demand, exacerbating competition among Chinese manufacturers.   

The problem is not so much money, but time. The hydrogen market faces a range of challenges, from policy uncertainty to lack of offtake, renewable feedstock sourcing, and supply chain challenges. However, hydrogen’s key problem in 2024 is that it’s simply too expensive to produce and transport. 

Costs have risen for all renewable markets since 2020, and hydrogen is no exception. For one thing, hydrogen projects are capital intensive, and higher risk means higher than average rates for borrowing in what is already a high-rate environment. For another, the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE), a key element of the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH), has surged.  

Policy support in the form of production-side incentives and decarbonization mandates is helping to reduce both price and offtake risk, which in turn is enabling first-mover projects to obtain debt more cheaply. However, aside from electricity costs, a series of other issues remain that continue to impact hydrogen production costs.  

Currently, engineering, procurement and construction firms (EPCs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have a lack of experience of commercial-scale hydrogen projects. As a result, EPC capacity is constrained, and project cost estimates tend to be high. At the same time, economies of scale are not yet being realised.  

Similarly, project developers and owners themselves often lack experience. They are therefore likely to go back to the drawing board multiple times to reduce costs and potentially change scope in what is a relatively new and unpredictable market. Meanwhile, higher contingency costs and additional supervision add to owner budgets. 

In time, though, capital costs will decrease as OEMs and EPCs develop greater expertise. Standardization will reduce the amount of engineering required for each project, while OEMs will be able to increase manufacturing and diversify suppliers to reduce risk. 

Where you need heat, you need a big battery. Or do you? There are plenty of options on a residential scale, but what about industrial?

In California, a company called Rondo is approaching the issue of heat delivery to commercial-scale buildings with a novel solution: they’re using bricks to store energy at half the cost of green hydrogen or chemical batteries. 

Finally, another innovative way of storing energy in the form of heat comes from the Norwegian-based company Kyoto. What they call the Heatcube is a structure of vertical tanks filled with molten salt, that are charged by renewable electricity at periods of low cost. Installed at the site where heat is needed, the Heatcube stores it at 500c for use when required. An effective power-sourcing strategy will also be important, particularly in the near term, with geographies needing to play to their strengths in this respect and optimize accordingly.