BEIRUT: Parliament speaker Nabih Berri urged Lebanon’s government, central bank and commercial banks on Wednesday to declare a “financial state of emergency” and review all steps to protect the collapsing currency.
He also said Lebanon would not get a penny from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or any donor state unless it carries out reforms, at the forefront of them accelerating an overhaul of its loss-making electricity sector.
The Lebanese pound has lost about 75% of its value since October, when long-brewing economic troubles mushroomed into a financial crisis regarded ass the biggest threat to Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war.
The pound, officially pegged at 1,507.5 to the dollar since 1997, traded at 6,300/6,500 on the parallel market Wednesday, a market participant said, weaker than levels of 6,000/6,200 cited by market participants on Tuesday.
With dollars scarce, the financial meltdown has frozen savers out of their deposits and forced up prices in the import-dependent economy.
“It is unacceptable that Lebanese be made hostages of black markets in currency, food, medicine and fuel,” Berri said during an emergency meeting of the Amal Movement, the Shiite Muslim party he leads.
Donor states that have provided Lebanon with aid in the past have said it will not receive any until it undertakes reforms to fix the state corruption and waste that are at the root of the crisis. Lebanon began talks with the IMF in May.
“Any Lebanese official will be mistaken if he believes the IMF or any state or donor party can give us one penny of aid if we do not implement reforms,” Berri said.
“Frankly, the world and international community believes Lebanon is a bottomless basket, and before this bottom is closed there will be no aid.”
As Lebanese pound crumbles, Berri urges ‘financial state of emergency’
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As Lebanese pound crumbles, Berri urges ‘financial state of emergency’
- Parliament speaker Nabih Berri called for declaring a “financial state of emergency”
‘The future is renewables,’ Indian energy minister tells World Economic Forum
- ‘In India, I can very confidently say, affordability (of renewables) is better than fossil fuel energy,’ says Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi during panel discussion
- Renewables are an increasingly important part of the energy mix and the technology is evolving rapidly, another expert says at session titled ‘Unstoppable March of Renewables?’
BEIRUT: “The future is renewables,” India’s minister of new and renewable energy told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.
“In India, I can very confidently say, affordability (of renewables) is better than fossil fuel energy,” Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi said during a panel discussion titled “Unstoppable March of Renewables?”
The cost of solar power has has fallen steeply in recent years compared with fossil fuels, Joshi said, adding: “The unstoppable march of renewables is perfectly right, and the future is renewables.”
Indian authorities have launched a major initiative to install rooftop solar panels on 10 million homes, he said. As a result, people are not only saving money on their electricity bills, “they are also selling (electricity) and earning money.”
He said that this represents a “success story” in India in terms of affordability and “that is what we planned.”
He acknowledged that more work needs to be done to improve reliability and consistency of supplies, and plans were being made to address this, including improved storage.
The other panelists in the discussion, which was moderated by Godfrey Mutizwa, the chief editor of CNBC Africa, included Marco Arcelli, CEO of ACWA Power; Catherine MacGregor, CEO of electricity company ENGIE Group; and Pan Jian, co-chair of lithium-ion battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology.
Asked by the moderator whether she believes “renewables are unstoppable,” MacGregor said: “Yes. I think some of the numbers that we are now facing are just proof points in terms of their magnitude.
“In 2024, I think it was 600 gigawatts that were installed across the globe … in Europe, close to 50 percent of the energy was produced from renewables in 2024. That has tripled since 2004.”
Renewables are an increasingly important and prominent part of the energy mix, she added, and the technology is evolving rapidly.
“It’s not small projects; it’s the magnitude of projects that strikes me the most, the scale-up that we are able to deliver,” MacGregor said.
“We are just starting construction in the UAE, for example. In terms of solar size it’s 1.5 gigawatts, just pure solar technology. So when I see in the Middle East a round-the-clock project with just solar and battery, it’s coming within reach.
“The technology advance, the cost, the competitiveness, the size, the R&D, the technology behind it and the pace is very impressive, which makes me, indeed, really say (renewables) is real. It plays a key role in, obviously, the energy demand that we see growing in most of the countries.
“You know, we talk a lot about energy transition, but for a lot of regions now it is more about energy additions. And renewables are indeed the fastest to come to market, and also in terms of scale are really impressive.”
Mutizwa asked Pan: “Are we there yet, in terms of beginning to declare mission accomplished? Are renewables here to stay?”
“I think we are on the road but (its is) very promising,” Pan replied. There is “great potential for future growth,” he added, and “the technology is ready, despite the fact that there are still a lot of challenges to overcome … it is all engineering questions. And from our perspective, we have been putting in a lot of resources and we are confident all these engineering challenges will be tackled along the way.”
Responding to the same question, Arcelli said: “Yes, I think we are beyond there on power, but on other sectors we are way behind … I would argue today that the technology you install by default is renewables.
“Is it a universal truth nowadays that renewables are the cheapest?” asked Mutizwa.
“It’s the cheapest everywhere,” Arcelli said.
