Britain’s big firms need to hire more women executives “and do it quickly”, the author of a landmark report into inequality in boardrooms has warned. Lord Davies has called for women to make up a third of all boardroom positions at Britain’s top 350 firms by 2020 as he releases his five year summary report. The former trade minister’s report says that UK top companies have reached a “major milestone”, as there are now no more all male boards in FTSE 100 companies. However, more needs to be done: although 26 percent of board positions are now held by women, that target should now be 33 percent for FTSE350 firms, the report says. A key issue identified in the report is the lack of women at executive level, as they are filling non-executive positions instead. There are just five women chief executives in FTSE 100 firms and nine in FTSE 250 firms. Lord Davies said: “Fifty-one per cent of the working population is female but that is not represented in the executive committees of companies. The message to all chief executives is: you’ve got to fix your executive committees and you’ve got to do it quickly.” (Sky News)
Apple’s Tim Cook encourages corporate action to improve equality
Tim Cook has told a conference of business executives that American corporations have a responsibility to help improve equality, the environment and public education because of a lack of government progress in the past few decades. “To give people a basic level of dignity and human rights over 200 years after we said all men are created equal … this is something we’re going to continue to evangelise about because it’s shocking to me that in 2015 we are even having to discuss this subject,” said Apple’s CEO. Cook went on to say that climate change needs to be taken seriously. He said Apple’s data centres run on 100 percent renewable energy and that almost 90 percent of its supply chain now uses renewable energy too. “In some areas I don’t want anyone to copy us but in this one, I want everybody to copy us.” Cook heavily pushed Apple’s strategy of expanding their products to businesses, saying Apple needed partnerships with IBM, Cisco and Box to diversify into specialist business markets, such as financial services. (Guardian)
Climate Change
World’s climate pledges likely to lead to less than 3⁰C of warming, says UN
Pledges by most of the world’s countries on climate change are likely to lead to less than 3⁰C of global warming over the century, analysis of the data by the United Nations suggests. The UN praised governments for coming forward with plans to limit their greenhouse gas emissions from 2020. The plans from 146 countries that cover nearly 90 percent of global emissions, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), will form the centrepiece of the make-or-break Paris conference on climate change this December. However, while the plans represent a significant advance on current trends, which would result in as much as 5⁰C of warming if left unchecked, they are not enough in themselves to limit global warming to 2⁰C. Christiana Figueres, executive director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: “Fully implemented, these plans together begin to make a significant dent in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions: as a floor they provide a foundation upon which ever higher ambition can be built.” (Guardian)
Buddhists call for strong Paris climate deal to limit warming
Senior Buddhists have called on world leaders to agree a new climate change agreement at a conference in Paris next month. The 15 signatories, including the Dalai Lama, are urging politicians to completely phase out fossil fuels. They argue that the rise in global temperatures must be limited to 1.5⁰C in the future. Observers say it is the first time that so many leading Buddhists have joined together on a global issue. The statement from the leaders of over a billion Buddhists worldwide says that the causes of this “environmental crisis” are the use of fossil fuels, unsustainable consumption patterns, lack of awareness and lack of concern about the consequences of our actions. The leaders urge negotiators to use “wisdom and compassion” to find an agreement at the Conference of the Parties in the French capital at the end of November. The Buddhist intervention comes in the wake of similar statements of concern about climate change from Catholic and Muslim leaders. (BBC)
Energy
Morocco’s $2 billion solar plant will be the largest in the world
Morocco’s ‘super-solar’ plant, planned to be operational in 2020, will be the largest solar plant in the world, powering over one million homes. Costing around $2 billion, it is currently being built in the city of Ouarzazate and will begin with a 160 megawatt plant, expanding to the full capacity later. Morocco currently imports almost 97 percent of its energy, and decided to address this problem by exploiting its most plentiful natural resource. According to the Guardian, the world’s deserts receive enough sun in a few hours to power the entire world for a year. The huge Ouarzazate solar plant uses concentrated solar power technology, which concentrates the sun to heat water, instead of using photovoltaic panels. Morocco’s goal is not only to become energy self-sufficient, but also to bring electricity down to a price cheap enough for even the poorest households to afford. Morocco hopes to supply 42 percent of its needs by 2020 and could even sell its power to Europe in the future. (Fast Coexist)
Image Source: Dalailama1 by christopher / CC BY 2.0
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