Tag: #Energy

Energy cost inflation a major challenge for more than half of Germany’s economy

What was once the economic powerhouse of Europe is rapidly unraveling as business leaders, associations and consumers are finally coming to the realization that Germany is in serious trouble.

In the coming months, energy supplies will dwindle to the point that rationing will more than likely ensue. The resulting energy shortages will further skew prices above and beyond current inflationary levels, eventually leading to a collapse.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) conducted an analysis recently which found that energy cost inflation is a major challenge for 58 percent of German companies, while 34 percent say what happens next will determine their survival.

If prices continue to soar, that 34 percent will be out of business in no time. The domino effect of that loss will probably also yank an even higher percentage down with it.

Some companies are in talks about moving production overseas in order to survive. If that happens on a large enough scale, then Germany will ultimately lose a big chunk of its manufacturing base.

One in 10 German companies has already reduced or even halted all production due to the energy crisis. One in four German companies is now in the process of relocating company shares or parts of production and jobs abroad to countries where energy is more affordable.

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China’s Water Crisis Could Trigger Global Catastrophe

China’s water crisis is nothing new, but it’s gotten worse – and is now on the ‘brink of catastrophe‘ and could trigger a global catastrophe, according to Foreign Affairs.

 

Dried-up riverbed of Jialing river, a Yangtze tributary, China, August 2022
Thomas Peter / Reuters

 

Given the country’s overriding importance to the global economy, potential water-driven disruptions beginning in China would rapidly reverberate through food, energy, and materials markets around the world and create economic and political turbulence for years to come. -Foreign Affairs

For starters, there’s no substitute for water – which is essential for food production, electricity generation and sustaining all life on earth.

In China, which consumes ten billion barrels of water per day (approximately 700x its daily oil consumption), decades of economic and population growth have pushed northern China’s water system to unsustainable levels.

According to the report, the per-capita water supply around the North China Plain at the end of 2020 was nearly 50% below the UN’s definition of acute water scarcity at 253 cubic meters. Other major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, are at similar (or lower) levels. 

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