Latest news with #UGS
Euractiv
a day ago
- Business
- Euractiv
Keeping EU Shipping Competitive in the Energy Transition
As the European Commission prepares its Maritime Industrial Strategy, the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) is calling for a balanced and forward-looking vision—one that enables a realistic energy transition while preserving the global competitiveness of the European shipping sector. At the heart of this Maritime Industrial Strategy, they argue, must be the shipping industry itself. Shipping is not merely a mode of transport. It is the strategic backbone of Europe's economy, powering industrial development, ensuring supply chain continuity, and enabling energy security. As the driving force behind Europe's broader maritime cluster, shipping sustains high-quality employment and drives innovation across shipyards, equipment manufacturers, technology providers, and service industries. Recognised in the Draghi Report as one of the ten critical sectors essential to restoring European competitiveness, maritime transport demands a policy framework that both defends the EU's strategic autonomy and keeps its trade routes open and resilient. At the European Shipping Summit in March 2025, during the UGS's special event, Charles Michel—President Emeritus of the European Council (2019–2024) and former Belgian Prime Minister—captured the sector's importance: 'Shipping is a key driver of Europe's competitiveness and economic strength, ensuring the seamless movement of goods that sustain industries and trade.' 'Decarbonisation must go hand in hand with competitiveness' In the face of mounting competition from Asia, the UGS emphasises the need to maintain the EU's existing maritime support framework which levels the playing field with third countries. During her keynote address at the opening of the 'European Shipping Summit 2025,' Melina Travlos, UGS President, said: 'It is necessary to establish and implement policies that ensure the safeguarding of European shipping's leading global position, acknowledging that competitiveness and sustainability are not opposing forces but parallel paths to be pursued together.' This imperative extends to EU climate regulation, which must be fully aligned with global measures under the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Upon IMO's adoption of a global fuel standard and carbon pricing mechanism (IMO Net-Zero Framework) the EU must harmonise its instruments, particularly the FuelEU Maritime Regulation and EU ETS, to avoid regulatory duplication, double payment, and distortions in the global market. Speaking at the Shaping the Future of Shipping Summit in Athens in June 2025—co-hosted by the Hellenic Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy, the International Chamber of Shipping, and the UGS—Melina Travlos issued a clear message: 'Policymakers cannot regulate shipping without shipping,' she said, urging that regulation should foster innovation, support decarbonisation, and ensure fair competition, not stifle progress. Ms. Travlos called for maritime policy at every level—national, regional, and global—to be shaped with full respect for the industry's deep operational knowledge. 'Decarbonisation will not move beyond ambition without safe, scalable, and globally accessible alternative fuels' At the core of shipping's green transition lies one indispensable ingredient: alternative marine fuels. Yet the industry warns that progress will stall unless fuel suppliers are held accountable for providing safe, affordable, and compliant fuels at sufficient quantities. Instead of relying almost exclusively on shipowners, a self-defeating approach that only serves revenue-generating purposes, binding targets must also be set on fuel producers, together with meaningful incentives, to ensure adequate supply of alternative fuels at competitive prices. Funding remains a critical piece of the puzzle. Revenues from national, EU or international climate-related measures should be reinvested directly into maritime decarbonisation. Funding instruments must reflect real-world industry requirements and cater for the needs of all shipping sectors, including bulk/tramp shipping, which accounts for almost 85% of the global transport work. Priority should be given to bridge the significant price gap between traditional and alternative fuels. While the EU Innovation Fund has taken initial steps, its complexity and misaligned eligibility criteria with EU shipping realities, make it unsuitable for SMEs and the bulk/tramp sector. A redesign of the EU funding mechanisms is needed to serve this sector and its SMEs, too. 'Without access to competitive ship finance, there can be no fleet expansion and renewal, no innovation, and no decarbonisation' Access to finance is becoming increasingly out of reach for many shipowners, particularly SMEs that are practically excluded from capital markets. Reversing the decline in traditional bank lending is critical for the competitiveness of EU shipping. The UGS advocates for a revitalised ship finance ecosystem, with enhanced traditional ship financing tools, primarily bank lending, including potentially new financial instruments tailored to the specific needs of EU shipping SMEs. Equally, the EU Taxonomy must be adapted to support realistic decarbonisation pathways. Cargo-based restrictions—such as penalising ships capable of transporting fossil fuels, even when those vessels meet strict emissions criteria—are counterproductive and should be abolished to unlock critical green investments. The forthcoming EU Port Strategy and Sustainable Transport Investment Plan are seen as key opportunities to correct past oversights. Prioritising fuel availability, infrastructure, and enhanced access to ship financing will be vital. Integrating initiatives like Clean Energy Marine Hubs — a global public-private platform coordinating clean fuel production and distribution — will also be crucial, especially for the bulk/tramp sector, which, being itinerant in nature, needs access to alternative fuels worldwide. ''Training the workforce of the future'' No industrial strategy is complete without people. With hundreds of thousands of EU seafarers requiring upskilling in alternative fuels, digital tools, and modern safety systems, investing in training and employment is no longer optional—it is vital to the sector's long-term competitiveness, operational safety and a prerequisite for maintaining maritime know -how in the EU. 'Avoiding the pitfalls of protectionism' While strengthening European shipbuilding is a legitimate policy goal, stakeholders caution against protectionist measures disguised as industrial policy. Only voluntary, market-based incentives should be sought to attract investment and enhance Europe's competitive edge in this area. As the EU charts a course toward a green and competitive industrial future, the principles outlined in the Draghi Report offer a clear compass: embrace openness, uphold realism, and align ambition with global market realities. For Europe's maritime sector, these are not abstract ideals—they are the foundation of its survival and success.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UVA Tried To Shut Down Its Historical Tours Discussing Slavery. These Students Resisted.
Davis Taliaferro Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take For decades, the University of Virginia relied on the student-run group, University Guide Services (UGS), to lead admissions and historical tours on campus. That changed earlier this year when the university ended the group's special status designation. UGS leaders saw the move as part of a larger crackdown on history and truth-telling that is happening across the nation. Now, with the support of the student body, student guides are doubling down on their commitment to share their campus' history. UGS has led campus tours for UVA since the 1950s. Starting in the '90s, the group expanded the scope to include the more difficult parts of UVA's history. The tours mostly covered student life, but also the Unite the Right rally in 2017, in which neo-Nazis with tiki torches marched through the campus, and how enslaved workers built the school. The decision to include these topics caused an uproar from the Jefferson Council, a conservative alumni group. The council's website features blog posts critiquing UGS dating back to 2022. Posts often center alumni's negative experience with tours, claiming that guides hate UVA and that tours are 'part of a conscious strategy that weeds out conservative voices and reinforces a conformist, intellectual monoculture.' 'When I'm giving a tour and I'm critiquing something from the past, it comes from a place where I want people to understand where this university came from so that we can be better in the future,' Jack Giese, UGS co-chair, told Teen Vogue. 'We are not a group walking around grounds trying to make people hate UVA. We want people to understand where we came from.' Jack Giese Until recently, UGS was designated a Special Status Organization (SSO), which allowed it to host tours on behalf of the school and provided unique access to funding and office space. That special relationship between UGS and UVA began to fray in 2024, ostensibly due to issues with guide 'reliability and tour quality.' Over the summer, the university suspended UGS's special status, with promises to collaborate on a 'performance improvement plan.' Guides said that while they were surprised by the suspension, they continued to work with the university to find a solution. Ultimately, the two groups reached an impasse. Group leaders told Teen Vogue that the administration's reliability concerns focused on admissions tours, but the suspension needlessly prevented them from giving historical tours as well. While UVA interns continued admissions tours, the administration collaborated with UGS to map out a self-guided historical tour for visitors, but offered no assurances that it would not ultimately be used as a replacement for in-person tours. On the admissions side, the improvement plan included training that UGS told Teen Vogue felt redundant, given that they already had a semester-long training in place. They also claim the administration began to critique their tour outlines, including historical content. With no end to the negotiations in sight, UGS decided to resume historical tours in January 2025 without university approval. 'We had a hunch that they were just going to terminate the SSO agreement anyway,' UGS vice chair Ella Sher told Teen Vogue. 'We needed to start building up that infrastructure again so that we could give more consistent tours in the spring and also in the following years.' That hunch proved correct. In late February, the administration officially terminated its relationship with UGS, noting the 'limited results' of the negotiations. In a statement to the student newspaper The Cavalier Daily, Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment, noted that only 15 guides had completed the administration's training plan. UGS leaders say the group has about 70 members. A University of Virginia spokesperson did not respond to Teen Vogue's multiple requests for an interview. Sher, Giese, and fellow co-chair Davis Taliafero suspect that there are deeper reasons why the SSO agreement was severed. In an open letter from December 2024 announcing their decision to move forward with their own independent historical tours, they wrote, 'We can only see this suspension as a reaction to the anti-history voices who have long been attacking our organization.' Jack Giese Though they don't mention the Jefferson Council by name in their letter, according to The College Fix, a right-wing education news site, the council claimed responsibility for UGS's suspension. An article quoted council cofounder, Thomas Neale, admitting, 'This [suspension] was 100% due…to us.' In some of its blog posts, the council highlights the administration's connections to UGS, advocating that UVA cut ties. 'Let the student guides find their own audience for their tours…if they can,' wrote James A. Bacon, a member of the council's advisory board, in November 2023. Another of Bacon's posts claimed the backlash against guides was spearheaded by council cofounder and a former member of UVA's board of visitors, Bert Ellis. As one of his last acts on the board, Ellis voted to dismantle UVA's office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The resolution passed unanimously in early March and cited Donald Trump's executive order requiring federally funded schools to eliminate DEI efforts. The executive order is just one of Trump's efforts to politicize funding in higher education. Speaking with The Daily Progress about the vote, Ellis said, 'Every aspect of DEI is to be ripped out, shredded, and terminated.' From the beginning, Ellis's tenure on the board was mired in controversy. UVA students protested his appointment in 2022 due to his political views. As a student in the 1970s, Ellis invited eugenicist William Shockley to a campus debate. In 2020, Ellis also caused a stir by attempting to forcibly remove a protest sign from a student's door. On March 26, Ellis was removed from the board by Governor Glenn Youngkin, who wrote that Ellis violated the board's code of conduct, but did not provide further details. 'What's frustrating is that we see a lot of fear right now within colleges and administrators who are not necessarily willing to speak up for students,' Taliafero told Teen Vogue. 'And I think if they were, our outcome would've been a whole lot different.' (Teen Vogue reached out to Ellis for comment.) UVA has remained adamant that the suspension of UGS had nothing to do with its tour content. In a statement about the suspension posted to UVAToday, a spokesperson wrote that UGS's status was suspended because 'it was clear to us that the guide service needed time to improve its reliability and consistency.' The post does mention that the university 'asked the guide service to respond constructively to the persistent (if intermittent) complaints about what a wide variety of guests have described as excessive negativity.' According to UGS's data, their tours have received mostly positive reviews with only rare complaints about historical content. Taliafero says the administration's concerns about guide reliability, however, are not unfounded. In early February 2024, an error underestimated the number of people scheduled to attend a tour. Where previous guide no-shows just resulted in larger tour groups, this time, people who wanted to take a tour were turned away. The incident became a major focal point in the guides' discussions with the administration. Still, Giese said, a suspension seemed to be out of proportion to the problem. 'Personally, if I were an administrator and I had an issue with [tour size]...my response would not have been, I'm going to suspend the organization and probably decrease dramatically the number of people who are available to give tours,' he said. Undeterred by the SSO termination, UGS continues to give historical tours. They intend to carry on as a student group with overwhelming support from their peers. During campus elections in early March, a referendum on the ballot condemning the UGS suspension passed with 80% of the vote. (The referendum was written prior to the SSO termination.) While some students are understandably anxious, UGS chairs say that the events of the past year have motivated students to join their group. 'History tells you about how people in the past stood up to things like this," Taliafero said. "So I think when we look at history, we can find a lot of inspiration to continue the work that we're doing.' Allie Kim Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Want to read more Teen Vogue history coverage?
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Yahoo
Nearly 950,000 planned to participate in 2025 Utah Great Shakeout
SANDY, Utah () — On Thursday, April 17, Utahns throughout the state will be practicing their for the day Utah gets hit by 'the big one.' The is a day dedicated to refreshing Utahns' earthquake safety skills. On the day of the drill, The Great ShakeOut says it registered to participate – most of which are students in K-12 schools and universities, but also include government officials, hospitals, and businesses. The exercise is scheduled to kick off at 10:15 a.m. Participants are encouraged to practice their earthquake procedures even if they aren't registered to take part. According to the , the Wasatch Fault, which stretches from southern Idaho through northern Utah into central Utah, releases a major earthquake about every 350-400 years. The most recent 'major' earthquake took place nearly 350 years ago. 'It's unfair': International PhD student at BYU speaks after his student visa was revoked Experts say there is a 57% probability that the Wasatch Front will experience at least one 6.0 magnitude or greater earthquake and a 43% probability of a 6.75 magnitude or greater earthquake in the next 50 years. UGS also says Utah has experienced only 17 earthquakes greater than a magnitude of 5.5 since 1847. The most recent was in 2020 when Magna was that rattled the Salt Lake valley and damaged buildings. In order to start preparing for 'the big one,' officials with say you should move or secure things that could fall on you. 'Look for heavy objects such as books and potted plants on high shelves, computer terminals, and top-heavy furniture that could topple or fall and injure you during an earthquake,' the website reads. 'Determine how such items can be secured. If they cannot be secured, be ready to move away from them in an earthquake.' Motorist finds body of 73-year-old man on side of I-15 In preparation for a possible earthquake, Utahns are also advised to have a communication plan with family members and a 14-day food and water storage. During an actual earthquake, take cover under something sturdy such as a desk, table or heavy piece of furniture. If you are in bed, stay there. If you're not in bed, drop to the ground. Most people are injured by objects falling on them, so move away from tall things that could topple and fall, as well as windows. In the moments after an earthquake, officials say you should report to a family meeting place or work rally point. Help locate those injured in the quake but be careful when walking in or around damaged buildings. Utahns should also be prepared for aftershocks that after the earthquake and drop, cover, and hold on when one strikes. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine gas imports increase 12 times in one month
Ukraine imported 511.8 million cubic metres of natural gas in February, the highest monthly volume in 1.5 years since September 2023. Compared to January, Ukraine's gas imports increased 12 times. Source: ExPro data Details: Most of the gas was imported from Slovakia – 234.4 million cubic metres, or 45.8% of all imports. In addition, 218 million cubic metres (42.6%) were imported from Hungary and 59.5 million cubic metres (11.6%) from Poland. Most of the natural gas was imported to the "customs warehouse" of the Ukrainian UGS facilities – 401 cubic metres, of which 188.1 cubic metres were imported via short-haul service. In addition, 110.8 cubic metres were imported directly into the Ukrainian gas transmission system. ExPro reports that the significant increase in natural gas imports in February was due to several factors, mainly the decline in Ukrainian production after the Russian attacks at the beginning of the month. In addition, cold weather persisted in Ukraine in February, which led to higher demand for natural gas. It is forecast that imports in March may be lower than in February. In early March, Ukraine is expected to experience gradual warming, which will reduce natural gas consumption. In addition, Ukraine has gradually restored gas production facilities since the Russian attacks. Background: Ukraine has increased its imports of electricity by almost 30% in February 2025, up to 244,000 MWh compared to January 2025. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
