CEO of Key Elements Group

  David Zaikin: Breakfast Business with Joe Lynam is on-air every weekday morning from 6:30-7AM, giving you the main business stories of the day, with Newstalk's Business Editor Joe Lynam. This 30-minute programme focuses on the key business stories from home and abroad, market analysis, new business innovations and profile interviews. You can contact the show at business@newstalk.com . Read more--->>>>>>

  Wealthy countries that fail to ensure COVID-19 vaccinations in developing nations risk reversing gains for a global sustainable future. David Zaikin : Local authorities distribute doses of the Sinovac vaccine against COVID-19 at a hospital in Fredonia, Colombia, on March 10, 2021. The global pandemic response has exposed an unsettling trend. Wealthier nations have been accused of hoarding vaccines – in some cases five times more than they need – while poorer countries could wait years for lifesaving immunization. A massive 90% of people in 67 low-income countries may not get immunized in 2021, largely due to higher-income countries taking more than they need. It reads like a dystopian novel. While Europe and North America have carried out a combined 123 million vaccinations, the entire African continent has administered just under 3 million, with many African countries facing a long wait to receive any doses. This follows a stark address from the World Health Organization's

  ‘The good news is that friendly nations like Canada, Australia, and India are naturally rich in rare earths’ Australia’s Vital Metals is getting ready to kick off mining operations at its Nechalacho rare earths project in Canada’s Northwest Territories, which will make it the country’s first producer of the elements used in magnets for electric vehicles, aerospace, defence and electronics. Credit: Vital Metals. The facts are nothing short of startling. A high-tech F-35 stealth fighter jet contains 920 lbs. of rare earth elements (REEs). Each US Navy Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS destroyer has 5,200 lbs., and a Virginia-class submarine has 9,200 lbs. These commodities are also key to the future of alternative energy, electric vehicles, mobile phones, and even headphones. Combine that with the fact that 80% of all American rare earth supplies come from China. A nation now run by leader, Xi Jinping, who recently ordered his Marine Corps — in an act of sheer madness, or, to up the ante on th

  I write about global business and investing in emerging markets. That’s right. China is preparing to be the world’s Green OPEC. Who’s ready to challenge them on that? As the West kicks fossil fuels to the curb, it is turning to only two sources of energy to generate electricity: wind and solar. Wind is still a European business, but that will change. Solar used to be a European business. It used to also be an American one. Now it’s a Chinese industry. Of the top 10 solar companies in the world, 8 are Chinese. None are European (Norway’s REC Group used to be there, but it’s now owned by ChemChina). One is American — First SolarFSLR +5.8% of Ohio. They also manufacture in Asia, though their technology is different than most so a lot of their supply chain is local. “One of the biggest mistakes the West has done on green policies to cut CO2 emissions and trying to reduce dependence on oil and gas producing nations is that the transition to renewable energy puts the West at the merc

I write about global business and investing in emerging markets. China’s government wrapped up the annual “Two Sessions” political meetings in Beijing on Thursday and – taking a cue from the U.S. and Europe – climate change was top of mind. What does it mean? It means China is gearing up to invest in clean power technologies (think EV batteries and solar panels) and will add more zero-carbon, zero-emissions energy to its grid. Nuclear stood front and center during Premier Li Keqiang’s 2021 Government Work Report delivered at the start of the week long meeting. “We are going to increase nuclear and make sure it is safe,” he said. Li’s boss, Xi Jinping, had paved the way for this in September when he said that the world’s worst polluter (though India may have them beat on any given day) is going “zero carbon” by 2060 in its energy grid. Perhaps we will know a bit more about the new nuclear plans, and how many coal plants it plants to knock out (they’ve been ramping up coal for