Latest news with #Captura
DW
2 days ago
- Business
- DW
Bolivia's elections headed for first presidential runoff – DW – 08/18/2025
Bolivians have voted in elections overshadowed by the worst economic crisis in four decades. Early exit polls show that the first round put an end to 20 years of leftist rule in the country. Early exit polls late Sunday showed that Bolivia's presidential race will likely go into a second round, with the ruling leftist party headed to its worst electoral defeat in a generation. Dark horse centrist senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise leader with over 32% of the vote, according to projections based on partial results by Ipsos and Captura polling firms. Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, a right-wing former president who briefly led the country in 2001, was second with around 26%. Business tycoon Samuel Doria Medina was projected to be in first place in pre-election polls, but he was relegated to third. Meanwhile, the ruling Movement for Socialism, or MAS, party is on track to lose power after nearly 20 years of dominance. Observers did not expect any candidate would reach the necessary majority in the first round. Presidential candidates need to win more than 50% of the vote, or over 40% support with a 10 percentage point lead, to avoid a runoff. The second round, scheduled on October 19, will be unprecedented in the country's history. Bolivia's general election on Sunday has been overshadowed by the worst economic crisis in four decades and the absence of former leftist President Evo Morales. Sunday's vote could put an end to the Andean nation's long-dominant leftist rule. For the past two decades, Bolivian politics have been defined by the ruling MAS party. Its founder, Morales, who first came to power in 2006, has been barred from running this race by Bolivia's constitutional court. It was ruled that he had already exceeded the two-term limit. The outgoing socialist President, Luis Arce, who had fallen out with Morales, opted not to seek re-election due to his plummeting popularity. Instead, Arce nominated a senior minister, Eduardo del Castillo, to be a MAS candidate. Projections late Sunday show that he had just over 3% of the vote. Morales, who served three consecutive terms, urged his supporters to cast a blank vote in protest over his disqualification. The ex-leader has been holed up in his political stronghold in Bolivia's tropical region of Chapare for months as he evades an arrest warrant on charges related to his sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girlwhile in office.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Two right-wing candidates headed to Bolivia presidential run-off: projection
Two right-wing candidates were expected to advance to a run-off for Bolivia's presidency after topping the first round of elections on Sunday, ending two decades of leftist rule, according to early projections. Center-right Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise frontrunner, with over 31 percent of the vote, according to separate projections by Ipsos and Captura pollsters based on partial results. He was followed by former right-wing president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga in second with around 27 percent, the projections showed. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped to finish first, trailed in third with 19.5-20.2 percent, far ahead of the main leftist candidate, Senate president Andronico Rodriguez. The election was dominated by the South American nation's worst economic crisis in a generation, which saw voters desert the ruling socialists in droves. Annual inflation hit almost 25 percent in July as the country runs critically short of fuel and dollars, the currency in which most Bolivians keep their savings. The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an Indigenous coca farmer, was elected president on a radical anti-capitalist platform. "The left has done us a lot of harm. I want change for the country," Miriam Escobar, a 60-year-old pensioner, told AFP after voting in La Paz. - 'Day that will mark history' - The main right-wing candidates have vowed to shake up Bolivia's big-state economic model and international alliances. "This is a day that will mark the history of Bolivia," Quiroga said after voting in La Paz. He has vowed to slash public spending, open the country to foreign investment and boost ties with the United States, which were downgraded under the combative Morales, who resigned in 2019 following mass protests over alleged election rigging. Agustin Quispe, a 51-year-old miner, branded Quiroga a "dinosaur" and said he backed Paz, who campaigned on a populist programme of fighting corruption, cutting taxes and delvering "capitalism for all." - Shock therapy - Many Bolivians have cited the kind of shock therapy administered by President Javier Milei to turn around his country's inflation-wracked economy as a model for their homeland. "What people are looking for now, beyond a shift from left to right, is a return to stability," Daniela Osorio Michel, a Bolivian political scientist at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, told AFP. Quiroga, who is on his fourth run for president, touted his experience in government and multilateral organizations as qualifying him for the task of saving Bolivia from bankruptcy. He served as vice-president under ex-dictator Hugo Banzer and then briefly as president when Banzer stepped down to fight cancer in 2001. - Morales looms large - Morales, who was barred from standing for a fourth term, has cast a long shadow over the campaign. The 65-year-old called on his rural Indigenous supporters to spoil their ballots over his exclusion and threatened mass protests if the right returns to power. Bolivia enjoyed more than a decade of strong growth and Indigenous upliftment under Morales, who nationalized the gas sector and ploughed the proceeds into social programs that halved extreme poverty. But underinvestment in exploration has caused gas revenues to implode, falling from a peak of $6.1 billion in 2013 to $1.6 billion last year. With the country's other major resource, lithium, still underground, the government has nearly run out of the foreign exchange needed to import fuel, wheat and other key commodities. bur-cb/st/des
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Captura Announces Sale of Carbon Removal Credits and Strategic Partnership With Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
Captura is now selling carbon credits from its first commercial Direct Ocean Capture facilities, with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines signing the first large-volume offtake agreement for 30,000 tons Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has also invested in Captura through its venture capital arm, MOL Switch LLC, and entered a strategic partnership to explore deploying commercial Captura plants TOKYO & PASADENA, Calif., March 26, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), a global shipping leader, has become the first company to sign a large-volume offtake agreement for the permanent removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere using Captura's Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology. Under the agreement, MOL has purchased 30,000 carbon removal credits, to be delivered by one of Captura's first commercial DOC facilities before the end of 2030. The commercial agreement will support MOL's 2050 net zero target. Captura's DOC technology offers a highly scalable and efficient form of carbon removal by combining innovations in electrochemistry with the natural carbon removal capability of the world's oceans. It works by extracting a measurable stream of CO2 from seawater, creating capacity for the ocean to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere. The technology has already been demonstrated in three operational pilot plants, and early design work is now underway for Captura's first commercial facility, expected to capture 30,000-50,000 tons of CO2 per year. In addition to the carbon credit purchase, MOL and Captura have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enter a strategic partnership aimed at deploying commercial DOC plants. Captura's business model is to license its technology to deployment partners who will build, own and operate large-scale DOC facilities around the world. Furthermore, MOL Switch, MOL's corporate venture capital firm, has invested in Captura as part of its work to support the development of new technologies and business models to decarbonize the energy sector. Tomoaki Ichida, CEO of MOL Switch, stated, "At MOL, we are dedicated to advancing innovative decarbonization solutions that align with our sustainability goals. DOC technology offers a cost-effective and durable approach to carbon removal, and we are excited to collaborate with Captura—both by purchasing high-quality carbon credits to support our net-zero efforts and by strategically investing and partnering to help scale and deploy this high-potential technology. We see this as a crucial step in our sustainability journey and a significant business opportunity in the rapidly growing carbon removal market." This announcement follows the start of successful operations at Captura's third DOC pilot plant in Hawaii, unveiled two months ago. This pilot is now operating at the rate of 1000 tons of CO2 captured annually and marks the final step in Captura's technology development program, building on its earlier 1-ton and 100-ton systems in California. This third pilot demonstrates Captura's modular technology at a scale and performance level that can be repeated to build large commercial facilities. Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura, said, "Our go-to-market strategy has always focused on proving that our technology can scale sustainably and affordably before bringing it to market. We've achieved this through a diligent pilot and scale-up program, successfully increasing capacity by a factor of 1,000 while meeting all key performance indicators. With the successful operations of our 1000-ton pilot, we have validated the readiness of our technology for large-scale deployment and are now actively securing offtake agreements for commercial facilities. "This partnership and first offtake agreement with MOL marks a major milestone in bringing our technology to market. We are excited to collaborate with MOL as we rapidly advance towards commercial deployment and expand access to high-quality carbon removal solutions." Captura's DOC technology also previously secured a carbon removal pre-purchase from Frontier Climate, acting on behalf of Stripe and Shopify. Signed in 2022 with a standard value of $500,000, the pre-purchase agreement supported Captura's early technology development, with the carbon removal to be delivered from a forthcoming Captura facility. To learn more about Captura, visit About Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.: Founded in 1884, MOL is a leading company in the shipping industry that operates various social infrastructure businesses, centering on the oceangoing shipping business with a fleet of over 900 vessels. It is one of the first in the shipping industry to set a target of achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2050, and is committed to reduce GHG emissions including involvement in Carbon Dioxide Removal industry through concerted efforts as the group. About Captura: Captura is a Direct Ocean Capture company headquartered in Pasadena, California. Captura combines innovative technology with the natural carbon removal powers of the ocean to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at large scale and low-cost, providing a critical capability in the fight against climate change. Captura was founded at Caltech and its solution has been supported by the Carbon Removal XPRIZE, the Department of Energy's ARPA-E, and Frontier Climate. View source version on Contacts Media Contact: Taylor Sign in to access your portfolio
