Economic inequality for women costs $9 trillion globally, study finds
Economic inequality for women costs an estimated $9tn per year globally, according to a report released today by ActionAid, an NGO that works to reduce poverty. The issue of wealth inequality has become a hot topic and is a key focus of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week. According to ActionAid’s report, the issue of income inequality is underscored by the more specific problem of gender inequality. Citing UN studies, the report notes that women comprise 60% of the world’s working poor, and that only about half of them participate in the labour force. To compound the problem, a 2014 World Bankreport shows that, on average, women earn 10%-30% less than men for comparable work. If women in developing countries were paid as much as men and had equal access to the labour market, the report calculates, they would make an extra $9 trillion per year. Such an economic expansion could provide an astounding boost to global markets and the world’s economy. (The Guardian)
Climate Change
Climate change inaction pushes ‘doomsday clock’ closest to midnight since 1984
The symbolic ‘doomsday clock’ moved to three minutes before midnight on Thursday because of the gathering dangers of climate change and nuclear proliferation. It is the closest the clock has come to midnight since the cold war (1984). The last move of the clock hands, which are set every year by the magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, was in 2012, also because of climate change. As the scientists noted on Thursday, 2014 was the hottest year in 130 years of systematic record keeping. But the scientists suggested that the greater danger lay in the failure of leaders to recognise and act on climate change. “Stunning government failures have imperilled civilisations on a global scale,” Kennette Bennedict, the executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said. “World leaders have failed to act on a scale or at a speed to protect humanity from catastrophe.” (The Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
Fossil fuel firms accused of renewable lobby takeover to push gas
According to industry insiders, major fossil fuel companies and energy utilities have used their financial power to take control of key renewable energy lobby groups in Europe in an effort to slow the continent’s transition to clean energy, the Guardian reports. Energy firms such as Total, Iberdrola, E.On and Enel have together adopted a dominant position in trade bodies such as the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), constituting a majority on both group’s boards. Officials in EPIA were told to argue for a renewable-gas alliance, while EWEA lowered its 2030 clean energy ambitions by a third, according to ex-staffers and policy insiders. They argue that the more pro-gas stance influenced the 2030 targets adopted by EU governments last year, around renewables’ share of Europe’s energy mix. “One of the advantages the fossils still have over renewables is capital,” the Green MEP Bas Eickhout said. “The strategy is familiar. It ends with a fossil fuel takeover.” (The Guardian)
Private jet scandal gives Swedish giant rough ride
A scandal over the use of private jets has triggered one of the biggest corporate upheavals in Sweden’s recent history. Industrivärden, the owner of controlling stakes in companies including Volvo, Ericsson and Sandvik, and Handelsbanken, Sweden’s biggest bank and an Industrivärden holding, will both get new chairmen and chief executives under the shake-up. The jet scandal erupted after it emerged that wives and children accompanied directors on business trips abroad as well as to a hunting lodge owned by SCA, a paper and forestry company in which Industrivärden owns a large stake. The affair has also shaken faith in the much-admired Swedish model of active ownership under which shareholders nominate board directors and help guide companies’ strategies. Swedish investors complained that power at Industrivärden was too concentrated between its chairman and CEO, who sometimes signed off each other’s’ expenses. (Financial Times*)
Technology and Innovation
Toyota’s fuel cell cars take off
Toyota has ramped up production of its pioneering fuel cell car the Mirai, after receiving 1,500 orders during its first month on sale. The company has confirmed that it is planning to increase production from 700 units this year to approximately 2,000 units in 2016 and around 3,000 in 2017 – a move which Toyota said reflected the rising demand for zero emission vehicles. A lack of refuelling infrastructure has, to date, largely limited fuel-cell vehicles to delivery vans or warehouse uses. However, the UK government last year pledged £11 million to build up to 15 hydrogen refuelling points across the country, while Toyota is working with Air Liquide, a global producer of hydrogen and other gases, to build 12 stations in the US. Meanwhile, the number of fuel cell cars on offer is also gradually expanding. The Mirai is the second hydrogen-powered car on the market and is likely to be followed by Honda’s FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) in 2016. (BusinessGreen)
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