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There is a saying in English “there is nothing new under the Sun”. There is also the Romanian saying “nu e nimic nou sub soare” but judging by what my friends tell me, these two phrases have similar meanings but different emphasis. Whilst the Romanian phrase may convey the message “I already know that” the English phrase conveys more the sense that “we have been here before / this is not something completely novel”. Both phrases illustrate that the possession of knowledge is an advantage.

There may be particular exceptions such as in arbitrage, but the usefulness of knowledge which is pooled and shared is much greater than that which is available to only a few. The British Romanian Chamber of Commerce – and the COP26 climate change conference which is taking place in Glasgow at the start of November – both illustrate this.

Chambers of commerce exist to promote the interests of their members and, through them, of society as a whole. Members of the BRCC range from multinationals through small- and medium-sized enterprises to charities and “not-for-profit” organisations. All have a voice and a role to play in the Chamber and also in society.

Doing business – particularly international business – is not always straightforward. The advantage of members of the Chamber is that whatever problem they may face, there is a very good chance that another member of the Chamber will already have encountered and dealt with that issue. The Chamber is an excellent place to pool knowledge and if there should be an issue facing one or more members to which a ready solution is not already known (e.g. in responding to new proposed legislation or administrative measures), the Chamber is in an excellent position to ask for answers at the appropriate level on behalf of all of the members. There is strength in numbers.

In the case of the BRCC, the concept of strength in numbers is magnified through the business organisations in which the BRCC is active. In Romania, this is Coalitia pentru Dezvoltarea Romaniei (“CDR”) and in the UK, this is the British Chambers of Commerce (“BCC”). In CDR the BRCC joins with other bilateral chambers of commerce acting in Romania and with Romanian business organisations, interfacing with the Romanian Government and individual Ministries.

The BCC consists of the regional chambers of commerce in the UK as well as the global network of bilateral chambers, such as the BRCC, a total of 128 chambers. The BCC is therefore in an unrivalled position to inform government in the UK of business and economic trends, both domestic and international, through the experience of members of chambers in the network.

Both CDR and the BCC offer opportunities to share knowledge amongst their members (and so with the BRCC’s members) – they also offer a platform to share information with the “powers that be” based on the experience of the underlying business members. Neither CDR nor the BCC is a political organisation but the foundation of fact reported by the underlying membership bases places them on a different level than simple lobbyists.

If all of this sounds very theoretical, the BCC’s COP26 campaign “Chambers unite for a greener future” is an excellent example of how these relationships work in practice. The BCC sees the climate challenge – evidenced by increasing numbers representing average temperatures – as the single most important long-term issue facing us – many, hopefully all, businesses agree with this view.

Hopefully also the politicians meeting at COP26 will have the wisdom to commit to legal measures which will reduce the carbon footprint of human activity and to improve the resilience and sustainability of society – of which business forms an essential part. They should be in no doubt that the BCC and its member chambers (including the BRCC) will support them in this.

Whilst climate change is not something new for this planet, the question of how this generation and its business activities will respond to this challenge and cope with climate change is a new issue for us all, to which each of us needs to have an individual response. Knowledge is power and ideas for businesses to respond to the challenge of climate change are available through the BCC’s network campaign, with pooled resources such as the UK’s Climate Hub (https://smeclimatehub.org/uk/) and also (https://smeclimatehub.org/), as well as the “Member in the Spotlight” campaign which publicises the best practices and carbon footprint reduction measures taken by members of chambers in the BCC’s network. The tools are there for us all to use to make use of in making our businesses carbon-neutral, resilient and sustainable.

So, if we hear that there is a climate change threat to many of our business models (to say the least), one might respond with the saying “nu e nimic nou sub soare” because we should all be aware of the issue. Knowledge of the issue is not the same as action to deal with the issue and in that we can say that “there is nothing new under the Sun”: even if the challenges are new to us on an individual basis, other people have considered them and have developed responses. It is up to us to learn from them.

Source: Strength in numbers – including temperature figures

My Romanian friends know that as a British person, talking about the weather comes easily to me. This has been particularly so after what, for me at least, has been a summer of lovely weather in Bucharest and in Scotland. It will however have escaped few of us that elsewhere

in the world, people have not been so fortunate with their weather.

It should also not have escaped the notice of most of us that much of the “interesting” weather we are seeing is discussed in the context of global warming. The purpose of this article is not

to debate the science involved, but rather to draw the attention of readers to the COP26 conference which will take place in Glasgow in November 2021. In longer terms, this is the 26th Conference of the United Nations on Climate Change and is particularly significant, as it is expected that the nationally determined contributions towards mitigating climate change which were agreed in Paris in 2015 will be upgraded at COP26. This means that national measures to mitigate climate change – in particular the emission of greenhouse gasses – in participating states such as the UK and Romania are likely to be increased, with further measures to decarbonise the economy.

This presents a particular opportunity for business in Romania and in the UK, as well as a wake-up call for businesses to become more resilient (if this latter element was needed after businesses have coped with the current pandemic and disruption caused by both the virus and by measures to contain it).

Business opportunities from this should not be hard to find – for instance, both in Romania and in the UK, there have been significant developments of renewable energy to reduce the role of fossil fuels.

Resilience is an essential part of the sustainability of businesses: international supply chains and food security are obvious candidates for being adversely affected by changes in weather and climate. The issue goes beyond the availability of goods and foodstuffs: the risk of losses of agricultural products due to changing weather patterns has implications for financial services, whether through insurance or through futures and derivatives markets. Enforcement is also likely to be relevant to businesses – in the UK the ultra-low emissions zone for vehicles is already in force for vehicles in central London. Given the importance placed on planting trees to mitigate climate change, instances of illegal logging such as have appeared in the Romanian media over the years can be expected to take on a greater significance and it is to be hoped that this damaging practice can be effectively suppressed by serious enforcement measures (the curtailment of deforestation and the protection of ecosystems and natural habitats form specific parts of the goals of COP26).

The British Chambers of Commerce (to which the BRCC is affiliated as part of the BCC’s Global Network) sees the climate challenge as the single most important long-term issue and had a number of campaigns relating to it, as well as resources to assist businesses wherever they are located. At one end of the scale, the list of the principal partners of the COP26 event in Glasgow includes many large UK companies and multinationals. Changing business models to reduce carbon footprints and to improve resilience is not a matter for the large corporates alone, however. Small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) which form part of the supply chains of large corporates may of course find that they are asked by their large corporate customers to demonstrate their green credentials, just as they do in relation to the prevention of modern slavery and other labour abuses and exploitation.

SMEs should not however limit their ambitions to keeping larger supply-chain customers happy. SMEs make up a major part of the global economy and have a significant role to play in their own right. This importance is reflected in the UK’s Climate Hub (https://smeclimatehub.org/uk/ ) and also in the equivalent for SME’s elsewhere in the world (https://smeclimatehub.org/). Quite apart from the wider questions of climate change and of how businesses are perceived by their customers, staff and other stakeholders, taking practical measures to “future-proof” a business is good sense. Who could argue with measures such as minimising waste from products and packaging, making business premises heat-efficient and so on? As a simple example, I can remember the campaign some years ago to save power – and money – by switching off unnecessary lights. It was good business sense then and is good business sense now – as well as helping to meet the COP26 targets and mitigate the effects of any climate change. It is also good business sense to be ahead of market trends – and trends to further decarbonise the economy appear to be certain to follow COP26.

Source: Let’s talk about the weather…

Looking back over my 25 years of working as a commercial lawyer in Romania, I notice how there are cycles of economic and investment interest in particular sectors of the economy. Ten years ago, my colleagues and I were busy with the “first wave” of renewable energy projects (we worked then on successful wind projects alone with an aggregate installed capacity approaching 200MW). That “first wave” brought a great deal of investment into Romania but, in the early months of 2013 many, if not most, new investments were effectively halted by changes made to the support scheme, subsequently compounded by other legislative measures which made it more difficult to develop and commission a successful renewable energy project on a greenfield site. Eight years later, renewable energy investments are back: so far this year, we have dealt with the sale of unbuilt wind projects with an aggregate capacity of 50MW. What has changed and what are the prospects for a more successful outcome to this second wave of renewable energy investments than we had in 2013?

On one level, global warming and the move to “carbon-neutral” are now accepted international issues and there is EU funding to help communities that have worked in the coal industry to re-train in renewable energy. Romania is still blessed with abundant potential sources of renewable energy but energy security and independence have become more important, particularly given the regional political developments to the south and east of Romania. Whatever the reasons may be, Romanian government policy is now to increase the proportion of Romania’s energy from renewables from 24% (2020) to 30.7% by 2030. New projects will therefore need to be developed and commissioned if this target is to be met.

The changes made to the support scheme for renewable electricity sources in 2013 have already been mentioned. That system of requiring energy suppliers to purchase quotas of “green certificates” issued to renewable electricity producers remains in place for projects commissioned before 1 January 2017. Renewable energy projects commissioned since then however have only the power which they generate to sell on the electricity markets.

On the face of it, the absence of a support scheme for new projects since 2016 may make the current interest in renewable energy projects appear unlikely, but the technology has matured since the “first wave” in 2010-12 and it is now reasonable to expect a renewable energy project to be able to compete with electricity from other sources on an even footing. I certainly saw projects proposed during the “first wave” which appeared remotely unlikely to be feasible without the support scheme (e.g. involving the construction of cable routes of tens of kilometers from the generation site to the grid access point). The development of a market for energy from renewable sources which does not depend on artificial support schemes appears to offer a much more sustainable environment for projects, being less susceptible to short-term political interference. We are now seeing projects which remained unbuilt in 2013 being “dusted off”, often with the redesign of the original plans to include a more powerful and efficient generating plant.

Even if today’s projects need to survive and prosper purely based on the electricity which they produce, it should be noted that there are legal provisions that can assist renewable energy projects. Producers of electricity from renewable sources of energy benefit from guaranteed access to the grid, subject to the safety of the national grid. Guaranteed access may involve work to reinforce the grid, but this will be identified in the solution study, technical connection approval, and connection agreement for a project, so developers can assess in advance what work and expense will be involved.

Although interest in renewable energy projects has now reignited, there remains another step that could be taken to assist in making new projects bankable. Off-market bilateral power purchase agreements (PPAs) continue to be prohibited, with all energy transactions being performed using the platforms operated by the OPCOM market. Having a bilateral off-market PPA in place gives a degree of certainty to developers of renewable energy projects. There have been many voices in the industry calling for off-market PPAs to be permitted and whilst the Romanian government has expressed its intention to support renewable energy by permitting off-market PPAs, the necessary steps to issue regulations that will allow off-market PPAs have not yet been taken.

Even if Romania is now seeing a rise of interest from investors in renewable energy projects, it is great to be hoped that there will be no repetition of the political actions of 2013 and that willing buyers and willing sellers of electricity will soon be able to conclude off-market PPAs. If the former support scheme caused the market to “overheat” in 2012-13, it is hard to see how the removal of this restriction on off-market PPAs could cause problems in 2021, particularly considering the need to ensure that the EU 2030 climate target is reached. Hopefully, this time around we shall see the sustainable development of the Romanian renewable energy sector, without a repeat of the mistakes made in the “first wave” a decade ago. On to 30.7% renewable energy by 2030!

Source: What goes around, comes around – wind and other renewable energy projects return to activity in Romania

Thirteen months ago – not long after the UK had left the EU and the transitional period had started – we took the decision to send the staff of the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce to work from home. I did the same with the staff of my law firm, as did many other businesses. It has been a transition, if not to say a transformation. What can we expect to see as spring turns into early summer?

For those businesses which have survived – which fortunately appears to include most of the members of the Chamber – there is now the challenge of when and how to move back to what in 2019 was regarded as ”normal”. I have noticed that some people found the lockdown particularly testing over the last winter, but now we see around us increasing numbers of people who have started (or in some cases, completed) the vaccination process, as well as lengthening days and increasingly better weather. Against that, we also, unfortunately, see particular pressure on the intensive care facilities and curfews intended to slow and reduce the virus transmission rate. Seeing the streets of Bucharest almost deserted after eight o’clock in the evening hardly suggests that ”normality” is just around the corner.

The point was brought home to me in trying to plan a business trip from Romania to the UK in June. Some of my fellow directors of the Chamber have travelled internationally since the pandemic began, but my last cross-border trip was the Chamber’s business mission to Chișinău at the end of February 2020. The first issue to consider is that there are different restrictions and requirements according to whether the business visitor from Romania is going to Scotland, England, Wales or Northern Ireland. It appears to me that as a British citizen returning to the UK from work/residence in Romania the most user-friendly requirements are in Wales, but unfortunately, my business requires me to go to London, rather than Cardiff.

At the time of writing, Romania was not on the ”Red List” of countries from which travellers to the UK are placed under particular restrictions. The ”Red List” is however updated from time to time as conditions change and whilst I hope that Romania will never be included in that list, I cannot say that this will certainly be so.

There is also an extensive list of jobs that qualify for exemption from some of the restrictions on international travel. It appears to me that these are aimed more at people who travel to do particular kinds of work than they are at people who travel to do business.

Despite the speculation in the media about ”vaccine passports” I could see nothing in the published regulations about what difference – if any – completion of a course of vaccinations will make (it appears that, unlike the UK, Romania gives a definite date and time for a second vaccination before the first vaccination is given, which allows for a welcome degree of certainty in forward planning).

To add to the uncertainties of planning a business trip to the UK from Romania, there of course need to be considered any restrictions which will apply to the traveller on return to Romania.

If, as appears likely, any international business trip will involve one or more periods of self-isolation, the question arises as to whether such a trip should be bothered with, particularly in view of the skills which most, if not all of us have developed in video conferencing over the last year.

Restrictions on international travel – and on travel within the UK – may be hoped to be eased as we move into summer. However, for reasons which should be evident to all of us, it certainly cannot be taken as a certainty that this will be so.

In view of the uncertainties which still remain, I would not plan or make a business visit to the UK from Romania in the near future, unless such a trip was unavoidable. I think that it can be said that an international business visitor will be able to arrive and leave safely and that, with due care, it is unlikely that the traveller will be exposed to any greater risk of infection than if he or she had stayed at home. What is uncertain is the degree of inconvenience or ”down time” involved in getting there and in coming back. In these circumstances, I think that it makes more sense to travel if one is going to spend a reasonably long time in the destination country, and certainly if one is able to work remotely during the periods of self-isolation which appear to be necessary. These are the policies which I have seen adopted by those people I know who have travelled to or from Romania and the UK.

In the meantime, if businesspeople cannot travel in person and there is a limit to what can be done in video conferences, the obvious solution appears to be to find a reliable local representative or agent to work with. Being a bilateral organisation, the BRCC can help to locate suitable local contacts and indeed we have already done so for a number of businesses, both in Romania and in the UK. To contact us to enquire about this, our contact details can be found at www.brcconline.eu.

Source: Are we nearly there yet?