politicodiary

Have we ever thought how the current situation between Russia and Ukraine affects Africa? Africa may pay attention that both Russia and Ukraine play a major role in the global agricultural market. Even one may be unaware, wheat and other grains do exist at the back of heart of geopolitics following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.   Both the countries involved in the war situation have a significant agricultural. Africa has spent US$4 billion on purchase of Agricultural products from Russia in 2020. 96% of imports are for wheat and sunflower. Egypt has the highest imports numbers, almost half, followed by Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Algeria, Kenya and South Africa. Africa has also purchased agricultural goods worth US$2.9 billion from Ukraine 2020, most of it was wheat, followed by maize and few other products like sunflower oil, barley, and soy beans. European Union produced 14% of global wheat, out of this 10% is produced by Russia and 4% is produced by Ukraine. The wheat prod...

EU Commission is in for a surprise as the Irish government goes ahead with a fossil fuel car ban announcement for 2030 The Irish government has surprisingly, not informed the European Union Commission about what it is going to do with its cars using fossil fuel. It apparently, has decided to ban sale of all vehicles making use of fossil fuels till 2030. So, while the Irish government has done what looks like a favour to the Irish environment, it is actually not. It might jeopardize the automotive sector, without having found an alternative to totally wiping out the coffers of companies that have not shifted to any other renewable form of energy mode.    This does become jarring because the Irish government is to inform the EU before taking such a decision.  The Irish government announced last year its intention to implement the law by the beginning of December 2020 — setting a 10-year countdown for the legal sale of petrol and diesel cars.  This is a problem bec...