2024-10-22 20:04

Oct 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will award grants totaling $196 million for the repair and replacement of aging natural gas pipelines across 20 states, the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has announced on Tuesday. The grants, funded by President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will support 60 modernization projects. This round of funding will focus on replacing old, leak-prone pipes which pose safety hazards, inflate energy costs, and contribute to environmental harm. "Aging, leak-prone natural gas pipes can be dangerous, drive up energy costs for families, and harm the environment, which is why the Biden-Harris Administration is supporting funds to replace aging pipelines," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement. "We are making significant progress in our efforts to cut pollution – including super-pollutants like methane – while creating thousands of good union jobs and lowering energy costs for Americans," said White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-allocates-196-million-natural-gas-pipeline-modernization-2024-10-22/

2024-10-22 19:41

ROME, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Rome and Milan bore the brunt of rising temperatures as Italy's largest cities endured the warmest weather in more than 50 years in 2022, statistics agency Istat said on Tuesday, in its contribution to mounting evidence of climate change. Istat said it was releasing 2022 numbers only on Tuesday because they had taken time to process. They are likely to be cooler than this year's figures as the European Union's climate change monitoring service said last month this year's summer had been the warmest northern hemisphere summer since records began. Italy, especially the south, has been at the forefront. Europe's highest temperature yet of 48.8 degrees was registered in Sicily in 2021. The average temperature in Italian regional capitals in 2022 was 16.6 degrees Celsius (61.88°F), 1.7 degrees higher than what Istat refers to as "climate normal," based on figures collected over decades, for the 1981-2010 period. Since 1997, temperatures had been above the referenced "climate normal" in every year apart from 2005 and 2010, with the 2022 value the highest yet, the agency said. Rome and Milan, Italy's most populated cities, had the biggest climate anomalies in 2022, with temperatures of 2.7 degrees and 2.5 degrees higher respectively, Istat added. It also said 2022 was the second driest year for regional capitals since 1971, with average rainfall of 576 millimetres (22.68 inches). Over the period, only 2007 had less rain. Droughts linked to climate change are increasingly serious in Italy, with Sicily this year battling with severe water shortages. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/rome-milan-took-most-heat-italys-cities-sweltered-data-shows-2024-10-22/

2024-10-22 19:36

MEXICO CITY, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Mining and transport conglomerate Grupo Mexico on Tuesday reported a 17.55% increase in its net profit during the third quarter, boosted by copper prices and higher production levels. The company's net profit came in at $820.1 million, below expectations of analysts polled by LSEG that saw it at $935.65 million. Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX) , opens new tab, controlled by billionaire German Larrea, is one of the world's largest copper producers with mines in Peru, the United States, Spain and its home base of Mexico, where it also operates major freight railroads. Grupo Mexico also slightly upgraded its copper production expectations for 2024 to 1.09 million metric tons, slightly up from its 1.08 million metric tons outlook posted back in July. Revenue for the major global copper producer, which also operates sprawling freight railroads in Mexico, rose 13.13% to total $4.13 billion in the quarter. The company's consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached $2.17 billion, up 22% compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, copper production reached 280,897 metric tons over the third quarter, up 10.6% from the same period in 2023, and sales in the mining division rose 17.8% from the year earlier. The company reported that copper prices also boosted its results, as those increased almost 8% throughout the year. On the other hand, the transport unit saw a 1.9% sales drop compared to the year-earlier period, a performance dragged down by higher selling costs. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/mining-giant-grupo-mexico-posts-18-net-profit-jump-q3-2024-10-22/

2024-10-22 19:33

Platform aims to initially attract $8 bln through six pilot projects Focus on energy, industry and mobility, nature-based solutions Platform was developed based on discussions held at the G20 WASHINGTON/BRASILIA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Brazil is working to lure more foreign investment in sustainable development with a new platform, to be launched on Wednesday, highlighting $8 billion in promising private-sector projects and looking to triple that portfolio in a year. Four officials, who discussed the program anonymously before a launch event on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington, called it a concrete example of Brazil's agenda as this year's G20 chair and host of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP). With the new platform, Brazil's government will select projects aligned with its sustainable development priorities and work to leverage foreign capital with the coordination of state development bank BNDES, which may also contribute funding. Six pilot projects will be included at the launch, ranging from production of sustainable aviation fuel, fertilizers and green hydrogen to reforestation and mining of strategic minerals, according to the sources. The program builds on efforts by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to position Brazil as a favored destination for green investments. Other initiatives include measures to mitigate currency risks, issue green sovereign bonds and organize a domestic agenda around the "ecological transformation" of Latin America's largest economy. Foreign direct investment in Brazil declined in 2023, the first year of Lula's current term, but rebounded 14% in the first eight months of this year to $51 billion. The new program courting foreign investment will initially focus on accelerating initiatives in energy, industry and mobility, along with "nature-based solutions" for climate change such as reforestation, sources said. "Once a project enters the platform, it receives a certification, a seal of quality and prioritization, which we believe will help mobilize international private capital — our main target — as well as multilateral banks, climate funds," one source said. "This is what we aim to work on between our G20 presidency and COP30 in Belem." A second source said that by the time Brazil hosts the UN climate summit next November, projects on the new platform are expected to represent a potential investment of $20 billion via debt and equity. The BNDES will lead a new secretariat, backed by the UN's Green Climate Fund, that selects projects and helps to match them with financing, sources said. In designing the new platform, sources said Brazil drew on talks it has hosted with the Group of 20 major global economies regarding reform of multilateral banks and how countries can showcase their priority projects for foreign investment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-aims-lure-foreign-investment-with-green-development-platform-sources-say-2024-10-22/

2024-10-22 19:27

Protesters demand electricity after days without power Blackouts worsen amid economic crisis, affecting food and water supplies President Diaz-Canel urges grievances to be aired with discipline HAVANA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Just three or four city blocks in all of Central Havana remained without electricity on Monday evening - an island of darkness in the Cuban capital's sea of flashing lights, pounding reggaeton and jammed bars and cafes. That is where an unusual protest broke out. Near the intersection of Campanario and Salud streets, dozens of residents chanted "We want light!" while banging pots with metal spoons. They were angry, they said, after four days without electricity in their homes following a near-unprecedented collapse of Cuba's grid on Friday. Cuba's grid operator restored power to Havana by nightfall on Monday, days after a grid failure cut power for the Caribbean country's 10 million people. Officials on Tuesday said around 90% of Havana - a city of around 2 million people - had seen light return by midday. The government has warned that despite progress, blackouts will continue. Cuba's oil-fired power plants, already obsolete and struggling to keep the lights on, reached a full crisis this year as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico dwindled. "We've gone four days without electricity. Our food is going bad. Our kids are suffering. We don't have ... water," said Marley Gonzalez, a resident who banged a pot in protest, surrounded by her neighbors. Blackouts as long as 18 or 20 hours a day have become the norm in the past month across Cuba's outlying provinces, where tensions have flared amid an unprecedented economic crisis that has also made food, water, fuel and medicine scarce. But the latest all-day blackouts in Havana, densely populated and long protected from the worst outages, marked a sudden change for the capital's residents. Reuters spoke with seven people during and after the protest on Monday evening. Most described the prolonged blackouts as a last straw, another in a growing list of problems. Housewife Ramona Martinez, 37, said she could not afford to feed her four children on the 2,600 peso monthly stipend ($8 based on Cuba's widely used unofficial rate) she received from the government. Prices have soared in Cuba over the past three years, while wages and benefits have barely budged. "It's not even enough for a bag of (powdered) milk," said Martinez as her 6-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy, retched on the bed in her one-room home. "This is crazy." Martinez's refrigerator, standing with its doors open, housed only a pill bottle of Vitamin C, a bag of thawed chicken and several empty plastic bottles. "They haven't put on the electricity and they don't give us any response," she said. "So we took to the streets as a community." The neighborhood around Campanario Street, where the protest took place, is stark. Heaps of trash line some intersections. Roads have deep potholes. Many families are crammed into small spaces in decrepit buildings whose facades and terraces are crumbling. FAIR WARNING During the protest, many residents, their patience worn thin, shouted in anger at their predicament. "My 85-year-old grandmother has been asking me for cold water since Friday when we lost power" said Alcer Alfonso, a young man in a ragged white T-shirt, as he rallied the crowd to chant "light!" Street protests in Communist-run Cuba are rare. On July 11, 2021, anti-government rallies rocked the island, the largest since former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Those protests followed months of isolation during the pandemic, but also, growing anger over shortages and blackouts. President Miguel Diaz-Canel spoke on national television on Sunday, just prior to the Central Havana protest, encouraging Cubans to air grievances with "discipline" and "civility." "We are not going to accept nor allow anyone to act with vandalism and much less to alter the tranquility of our people," Diaz-Canel said. "That's a conviction, a principle of our revolution." Police gathered on Monday at a nearby intersection in Central Havana, observing protesters from a distance but not confronting them. Resident Leyke Milay Puentes, 42, sat on her doorstep a few paces from the protest, pointing up and down the road at others just a city block away walking lit streets. "There's electricity over there and over there," she said, shaking her head. "Everywhere but here." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/havanas-still-dark-corners-protest-erupts-2024-10-22/

2024-10-22 18:49

Loonie trades in range of 1.3814 to 1.3820 Price of U.S. oil increases 2.2% Producer prices fall 0.6% in September 10-year yield pulls back from 11-day high TORONTO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened slightly against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as the recent move higher in U.S. bond yields lost some momentum and investors turned attention to an interest rate decision by the Bank of Canada. The loonie was trading 0.1% higher at 1.3820 to the U.S. dollar, or 72.36 U.S. cents, after trading in a range of 1.3814 to 1.3820. On Monday, the currency touched a near 11-week low at 1.3849. "The backup in U.S. yields has stalled, leading to some broader consolidation in the USD," said George Davis, chief technical strategist at RBC Capital Markets. "USD-CAD has followed suit as the market awaits tomorrow's Bank of Canada meeting for new direction." The U.S. 2-year yield was little changed at 4.030% after climbing more than 50 basis points since September, while the U.S. dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab held near its highest level against a basket of major currencies since Aug. 2. Investors expect the BoC to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point on Wednesday, which would be the first reduction greater than 25 basis points in 15 years outside of the pandemic era. Since June, the central bank has eased three times by 25 basis points to leave the policy rate at 4.25%. The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, rose 2.2% to $72.09 a barrel as traders downplayed hopes of a Middle East ceasefire and focused on a tightening global supply and demand balance. Producer prices in Canada were down 0.6% in September from August due in part to lower prices for energy and petroleum products. Canadian bond yields were mixed across the curve. The 10-year was down 0.7 basis points at 3.227%, pulling back from an earlier 11-day high at 3.261%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/canadian-dollar-edges-higher-calmer-bond-market-2024-10-22/