The pay gap between men and women is at risk of widening for the first time on record, a leading pay equality campaign group warns. The Fawcett Society says that women still earn 14.9 percent less on average than men for the same job, and this gap could widen as public sector cuts push women into the private sector, where the gap is wider. The warning coincides with a survey by TheChartered Management Institute suggesting that a woman who reaches director level can earn £423,000 less than a man in her career. CMI’s ‘2012 Gender Salary Survey’, also finds that the average pay gap stands at £10,060, a drop from 2011 when the difference was £10,546. Ceri Goddard, the Fawcett Society's chief executive, said the CMI survey should serve as "a wake-up call to government – business as usual isn't working". (BBC, Telegraph, Independent)
Google funds campaign against bonded labour in India
Google is funding a campaign run by five Indian NGOs against bonded labour. The campaign, called ‘Bandhua 1947’, seeks to push the Indian Government to enforce the ‘Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1976’. Human Rights Watch estimates that 40 million Indian labourers work under bonded labour, which denies them basic rights and allows employers to keep them in slave-like conditions. Google has donated about $4.5m to the campaign, as part of its effort to engage with issues of trafficking and workers’ rights. (Smart Planet)
Environment
Global drive to value nature headed for Asia
A new global coalition of businesses seeking to lead on protecting biodiversity and natural resources was launched in Singapore in early November. The TEEB Business Coalition formed last year as part of a major international initiative called The Economics of Eco-systems and Biodiversity (TEEB). The coalition aims to integrate the value of natural resources into the mainstream economy to better manage and protect them. Special advisor to the United Nation’s Environment Programme’s ‘Green Economy Initiative’ Pavan Sukhdev, who headed the original TEEB study in 2008 highlighted the importance of Singapore as a springboard to emerging markets , and the increasing need to place a monetary value on the ‘ecosystem services’ provided by biodiversity. (Eco Business)
Utilities warned of risk from renewables
Wind and solar power plants are having a “profound negative impact” on Europe’s gas and coal generators, a report by the rating agency Moody’s has warned, in a fresh sign of how quickly the growth of green power is transforming energy markets. The report follows a similar warning in July from UBS analysts, who said European utilities risked having as much as half their power generation profits wiped out by 2020 as renewables reshaped the energy landscape. UBS downgraded utilities, including Germany’s RWE and EDF of France, as a result. Nearly 100 gigawatts of renewable generation have been installed in western European countries since 2006, notably in Germany, Spain and Italy. This means green power now accounts for more than a third of Europe’s total installed capacity base, a proportion set to rise to 50 percent by 2020. (Financial Times*)
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