Energy Bill to create 'low carbon economy', says Davey
Energy minister Ed Davey has unveiled the Government's new Energy Bill, setting out the roadmap for the UK's switch to "a low-carbon economy". Household energy bills could rise by at least £100 by 2020 to help pay for the switch to "clean" energy. Energy companies will be allowed to increase the amount they levy consumers from £3bn a year to £7.6bn. Mr Davey said that energy efficiency would be "front and centre" of government policy. He added that the proposals would amount to the "biggest transformation of Britain's electricity market". The Energy Bill aims to move the UK's energy production from a dependence on fossil fuels to a more diverse mix of energy sources, such as wind, nuclear and biomass. The switch would cost the country £110bn over the next ten years, Mr Davey said. But in a statement published alongside the Bill, he said that energy-intensive industries, such as steel and cement producers, would be exempt from additional costs arising from measures to encourage investment in new low-carbon production. "The transition to the low carbon economy will depend on products made by energy intensive industries – a wind turbine, for example, needing steel, cement and high-tech textiles. This exemption will ensure the UK retains the industrial capacity to support a low carbon economy." (BBC)
Corporate Reputation
BP hit by temporary ban on US contracts
BP has been temporarily suspended from new contracts with the US Government, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. While it is unclear how long the ban will last, it follows BP's record fine earlier this month over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The EPA said it was taking action due to BP's "lack of business integrity" over its handling of the blowout. But BP said it had spent $14bn (£8.8bn) on its response to the spill. "The BP suspension will temporarily prevent the company and the named affiliates from getting new Federal Government contracts, grants or other covered transactions until the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets federal business standards," said the EPA in a statement. The EPA and BP both said that the temporary ban would not affect existing agreements BP has with the Government. (Financial Times*, BBC, Times*, Independent)
Five staff sacked by Barclays following libor scandal
Barclays yesterday said five employees had been sacked as a result of the Libor-fixing scandal which landed the bank with a £290m fine and cost its chairman and chief executive their jobs. Rich Ricci, the chief executive of Barclays' corporate and investment banking division, told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards that "a lot" of the individuals identified in its internal probe had left the bank, so it could not take action against them. He added that eight additional staff had also been disciplined. More than a dozen banks are also under investigation by authorities over the setting of Libor rates, but Barclays is the only one to have settled its case. Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive, Stephen Hester, has also warned that the state-backed bank faces its own hefty fine running into hundreds of millions as a result of Libor abuses. The Treasury said yesterday that oil prices and commodities could fall under new draft legislation to prevent future rigging in the wake of the scandal. (Independent, Guardian)
International Development
Concern at outsourced clinical trials in developing world
Few drug companies have robust measures to ensure outsourced clinical trials in developing countries are safe and ethical, an independent report says. Most of the companies in the study provided no evidence of exerting real influence over the way the trials were conducted by contractors. However, the latest ‘Access to Medicine Index’ also praised firms for stepping up their efforts to provide affordable medicines. Published every two years, the report ranks the world's 20 biggest drug companies. GlaxoSmithKline remains at the top of the index, followed closely by Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi. AstraZeneca slipped down the rankings most significantly. This is the third report by the Netherlands-based index, which is funded by organisations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK's Department for International Development. The index report says that the drive to improve access "has landed in more boardrooms", with companies discounting products by as much as 50-60 percent. (BBC)
Ford says China should embrace electric cars
Ford's chairman said China should take steps against traffic congestion as its cities become increasingly crowded. An estimated 350 million people will move into Chinese cities in the next two decades, threatening to worsen air quality and traffic. To avoid gridlock in its roads, China should facilitate the adoption of electric cars and embrace new technologies that help motorists find parking spots and avoid traffic, Bill Ford, executive chairman and great- grandson of the automaker's founder, said in Shanghai on Wednesday. China, which the World Bank estimates to be home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities, will probably fall short of its target for electric-vehicle sales to reach five million by 2020 because they're expensive and lack charging infrastructure, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. To encourage consumers to adopt electric cars, China needs more charging stations, a power grid that can provide sufficient energy and generation plants that run on cleaner fuel, Ford said. However, electric cars will only solve part of the problem, Ford admitted: “Even if they're clean cars, a clean traffic jam is still a traffic jam." (Independent)
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