politicodiary

The Asian country which had not taken sides till now, is finally doing so. Japan has now said that it intends to phase the country out of using Russian oil, in a bid to join hands with the G7 nations in their fight against Russia’s war with Ukraine. The humanitarian crises have not been taken very well by anyone in the West. Literally every nation has protested against the humanitarian disaster created by Kremlin in Ukraine and its various cities. The devastation is horrid. On the weekend, leaders from the G-7 countries met online and announced their commitment to ban or phase out Russian oil imports in their latest effort to pressure Moscow into ending its aggression on Ukraine. “It’s an extremely difficult decision for a country that mostly relies on energy imports, including oil,” the Japanese PM Fumio Kishida told reporters the next day. Adding on to his conversation, he said, “G-7 unity is most important right now.”  Kishida said it will be a gradual and slow process of ...

India now seems to be in a position of handing off loans as it helps Sri Lanka in its darkest hour (literally). With reeling power cuts and shortage of oil, the country has been troubled over scarce electricity. The island has now secured a $500 million loan from India to save its sinking economy. Indeed, the island is looking cash strapped.   No wonder, this has left their thermal power generators dry, with the country finding it difficult to keep the lights on, disrupting transport networks as well. Even traders are seen running desperately low on foreign currency to fund imports. The country still uses fossil fuels to fire its thermal power plants. There have been frequent breakdowns at a huge coal power plant too. Blame it on lack of coal supply as well. So, the unannounced electricity power cuts and understandable. Even cooking gas and kerosene is not easily available to households. Officials said a formal agreement was being signed after two weeks of talks, in addition ...

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...