- World Bank says Paris climate goals at risk from new coal schemes
- UK retreats on plans to make companies list foreign workers
- Fifa faces legal challenge over Qatar migrant workers
- RBS squeezed struggling businesses to boost profits, leak reveals
- Global demand for energy will peak in 2030, says World Energy Council
Policy
World Bank says Paris climate goals at risk from new coal schemes
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has outlined a five-point plan to meeting the Paris Agreement’s globally agreed climate goals. Slowing down construction of coal-fired power stations will be vital to hit globally agreed climate change goals, and climate ambition must be baked into development plans for every developing country, Kim said. Calls for the “greening” of finance by the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, were also strongly backed by Kim who said the sector needed to be “fit for purpose to assess climate risks and opportunities”. He added that without climate-driven development, climate change could force more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. Countries need more efficient water supply systems, climate-smart agriculture, early warning systems, better social protection and a reduction in disaster risk. (Business Green)
UK retreats on plans to make companies list foreign workers
The UK government has watered down plans to make companies reveal how many foreign workers they employ. After several days of pressure from around the world, senior ministers on Sunday made it clear that any information collected on foreign employees would not be made public and would only be used to inform policy on tackling skills shortages. The home secretary, Amber Rudd, said the proposal was merely an attempt to “nudge” businesses towards “better behaviour”. Her comments on foreign workers were intended to guide a wider government strategy of improving training for local workers, reducing the economy’s reliance on imported labour. (Financial Times*)
Human Rights
Fifa faces legal challenge over Qatar migrant workers
Fifa is facing legal action in the Swiss courts over its alleged complicity in the mistreatment of migrant workers in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup. The legal challenge is brought by the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) on behalf of a Bangladeshi migrant worker called Nadim Sharaful Alam. It is the first time that Fifa has been made directly accountable in the Swiss courts. If the action is successful it could open the door for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to make similar claims that could run into tens of millions of pounds. Fifa has consistently argued that while it does not have responsibility for wider “societal problems” in host countries, it is doing what it can to make the Qatar World Cup a catalyst for change. (Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
RBS squeezed struggling businesses to boost profits, leak reveals
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) bought up assets cheaply from failing businesses it claimed to be helping, leaked documents show. Staff could boost their bonuses by finding firms that could be squeezed in what it called a “dash for cash”. The documents show the bank’s efforts to make money out of struggling businesses were ramped up after the 2008 financial crisis. More than 12,000 companies were pushed into the bank’s controversial “turnaround” division in the wake of the crash. They could be put there simply for falling out with the bank. Between 2007 and 2012, the value of loans to customers in this division increased five-fold to more than £65 billion. (BBC)
Energy
Global demand for energy will peak in 2030, says World Energy Council
Global demand for energy per capita will peak in 2030 thanks to new technology and stricter government policies, the World Energy Council has predicted in a new report. But while overall per capita energy demand will begin to fall, demand for electricity will double by 2060, requiring greater infrastructure investment in energy efficiency. The “phenomenal” growth of solar and wind energy is predicted to continue, while coal and oil will fade out of the energy mix. But fossil fuels will remain the number one source of energy, the report predicts. The council said moving from petrol cars to cheaper technologies such as electric vehicles will prove “one of the hardest obstacles to overcome” in efforts to decarbonise global energy use. (Guardian)
Image source: RBS – St Philips Place, Birmingham by Elliott Brown / CC BY 2.0
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