‘Sugar tax’ may be needed to fight obesity, says top UK health official
The UK government could be forced to bring in a tax on sugar to help combat growing levels of obesity, the Chief Medical Officer for England has warned. Speaking ahead of an expected announcement by the World Health Organisation today that the recommended level of sugar in people’s diet be reduced dramatically, Dame Sally Davies told the Health Select Committee she expected ongoing research to establish that sugar is addictive. “We have normalised being overweight. I do fear this generation of children will live less than my parents’ generation,” she said. Professor Terence Stephenson, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which produced a report last year calling for a tax on sugary drinks, welcomed the idea of a more general tax. However, responding to Dame Sally’s remarks, a leading food industry body insisted sugar was not a cause of obesity – when eaten as part of a balanced diet – and said a tax would hit “the poorest families hardest”. (Independent)
Environment
BHP chief warns of shale gas reliance
Relying on shale gas would be a “very expensive” solution to meeting the world’s growing demand for energy, the chief executive of BHP Billiton, the mining, oil and gas group, has said. Andrew Mackenzie, who took over at BHP last year, also called for a price to be put on greenhouse gas emissions to address the threat of global warming, and said the mining industry needed to do more to develop technology to capture and store carbon dioxide. Speaking to the Financial Times in Houston, Mr Mackenzie said it was “completely impractical” to suggest that shale gas could be the sole answer to providing affordable energy for the world while cutting carbon emissions. “We have to be a little cautious about extrapolating the US experience to the rest of the world,” he said, adding that, outside of North America, shale reserves are still unproven and require much more testing and development. “It’s not particularly helpful to talk about how all our problems can be solved by something that is a very expensive solution for most countries,” he added. (Financial Times)*
A group of 140 California firms have reiterated calls for legislators to deliver ambitious action on climate change with the release of a new declaration signalling their support for policies that serve to cut emissions and drive investment in clean tech. The group last week issued an updated version of the Climate Declaration, orchestrated last year by the Ceres group of sustainable investors and Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP) group, and backed by 750 U.S. companies. The declaration asserted that the U.S. must undertake a “coordinated effort to combat climate change” if it is to “maintain our way of life and remain a true superpower in a competitive world.” Now the Californian version highlights the commitment of many of the state’s leading businesses to action on climate change and argues that it can play a key role in building a low-carbon economy. Significantly, the statement is backed by a host of blue chip firms, including Acer, Apple, Autodesk, eBay, Gap, General Motors, Intel, Levi Strauss, Nestle, Symantec and North Face. (GreenBiz)
Community Investment
Comcast extends low-cost broadband for poor families
US cable company Comcast, which is preparing to ask federal regulators to approve its proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable, has announced that it plans to extend indefinitely its program that provides low-cost broadband service and computers to poor families and give $1 million in neighbourhood grants to support digital literacy. Comcast’s Internet Essentials programme for poor neighbourhoods has already signed up 300,000 families for home Internet service. “In just two and a half years, this ground-breaking initiative has connected more than 1.2 million low-income Americans, or 300,000 families, to broadband Internet at home,” said David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast. The company estimates that 2.6 million families in the company’s service areas qualify for the program. Cohen added that “addressing the digital divide head-on has long been a priority for our company. We believe the Internet has the power to transform lives, strengthen communities and inspire a new generation of leaders.” (The New York Times)
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