11 Ingenious Solar Projects Impacting the Developing World. It's easy to take energy for granted, forgetting that throughout much of the world, a lack of power affects everything from business to education to matters of life and death. Approximately 1.5 billion people still don't have access to electricity worldwide, with an additional 1 billion having only intermittent access. By using the power of the sun — the ultimate natural resource — these issues can be ameliorated, if not solved. Scientists, social entrepreneurs and even big tech companies are working to make strides with solar power. The gallery above highlights some of the coolest and most innovative solar projects out there today. Whether it's simple lanterns with solar panels at the top, large stills that turn steam into drinking water or even artificial leaves that mimic photosynthesis, you'll be amazed what the sun can do. Have something to add to this story?
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Energy. CEO climate policy recommendations to G8 leaders. Spotify to make 'significant' revenue for UK record labels 'within six months' “If Spotify’s user base and advertising revenues continue to grow at their current rate, the music industry is looking at a really significant new revenue stream in about six months time,” said a senior figure in the music industry.
Currently the largest digital income record labels receive in the UK is from the sale of tracks and albums via iTunes. However, Spotify has already taken over iTunes, in terms of revenue levels, in its native Sweden. Per Sundin, head of Universal in Sweden, told The Swedish Wire: “In five months from the launch Spotify became our largest digital source of income and so passed by iTunes.” iTunes is less popular in Sweden than in the UK because many digital music consumers have only recently moved from downloading tracks illegally to legal services and are not as conditioned to purchasing tracks a la carte.
“Spotify is paying out royalties as well offering individual terms to the labels regarding equity levels. Appetite_for_change.pdf (application/pdf Object) The Carbon Conversation (via @eco_140, @ciscouki, @greenbang) #twtvite. The China Fix. In my more than two decades in China, I have seldom seen the foreign business community more angry and disillusioned than it is today. Such sentiment goes beyond the Internet censorship and cyberspying that led to Google's Jan. 12 threat to bail out of China, or the clash of values (freedom vs. control) implied by the Google case.
It is about the perception that antiforeign attitudes and policies in China have been growing and hardening since the global economic crisis pushed the U.S. and Europe into a tailspin and launched China to its very uncomfortable stardom on the world... Subscribe Now Get TIME the way you want it One Week Digital Pass — $4.99 Monthly Pay-As-You-Go DIGITAL ACCESS — $2.99 One Year ALL ACCESS — Just $30! Best Deal! Winter of Discontent in Beijing: Letter from China. “In my more than two decades in China, I have seldom seen the foreign business community more angry and disillusioned than it is today.”
So begins a commentary by veteran journalist and businessman James McGregor in Time this week. I sit up and take notice when someone with McGregor’s tenure sees reason to put things so starkly. He continues, “Such sentiment goes beyond the Internet censorship and cyberspying that led to Google’s Jan. 12 threat to bail out of China, or the clash of values (freedom vs. control) implied by the Google case. It is about the perception that antiforeign attitudes and policies in China have been growing and hardening since the global economic crisis pushed the U.S. and Europe into a tailspin and launched China to its very uncomfortable stardom on the world stage.”
So, why does this downturn feel more pronounced (and I agree that it does)? Management Online REview - Business and Cimate Change: Key Challenges in the Face of Policy Uncertainty and Economic Recession. Rio agrees deal with rival BHP and tees up rights issue | Business. Troubled Rio Tinto has agreed an alliance with rival mining giant BHP Billiton and launched a plan to tap its shareholders for more than $15bn (£9.34bn).
It moved quickly to address its debt mountain, announcing the plan just hours after walking away from its controversial tie-up with China's Chinalco. Rio will merge its Australian iron ore operations with BHP's own division, a move that could save the pair $10bn, and raise $15.2bn in one of the biggest-ever rights issues. A cash call had been expected following the collapse on Thursday of Rio's plan to sell a $19.5bn stake to Chinalco. This is a blow to China's financial ambitions, but has been welcomed by Rio shareholders who can buy 21 new shares for every 40 they own, at a 49% discount to yesterday's closing price.
Rio is trying to shore up its balance sheet having paid $38bn for aluminium producer Alcan in the summer of 2007 – just before the credit crunch sent commodity prices spiralling downwards. Edison Electric Institute. House Republicans blow off biz leaders who want climate action. House Republicans are ramping up their campaign against the Democratic leadership’s climate and energy bill — and telling business leaders to get with the program or get out of the way. On Tuesday, a group of key Republicans hosted a summit on Capitol Hill to bash the Waxman-Markey bill as an “energy tax” that would cost average Americans $3,100 a year (though that figure has been thoroughly debunked). “This legislation represents, and is tantamount to, an economic declaration of war on the Midwest by liberals in Washington, D.C.,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who spearheaded the event. Representatives from industry groups that oppose the climate bill, like the National Association of Manufacturers, spoke at the summit, but there were no panelists from companies and business groups calling for a carbon cap.
The number of businesses advocating climate action is growing, and they’re becoming more vocal — witness Johnson & Johnson and Nike’s recent demand that the U.S. Believe it or not? Climate Earth | Enterprise Carbon Accounting. Jeremy Jacquot | When Deniers Deny Their Own. Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate. Carbon matters - Linklaters.
Climate Bridge. Corporate takeover at Poznan: some facts - Transnational Institute. The UN Climate Conference in Poznan is systematically privileging business lobby groups over public interest organisations. The UN Climate Conference in Poznan is systematically privileging business lobby groups over public interest organisations, according to members of the Climate Justice Now! Coalition.1 In addition, Indigenous Peoples´ representatives do not get formal access to the negotiations, despite the fact that they are amongst the most affected by climate change. * Who is the biggest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Poznan? * Who is the biggest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Poznan? According to the official participants list, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) has the largest NGO delegation, with 254 registered delegates at the UN Climate Conference.
The Indigenous Peoples´ delegates have made a proposal to the UNFCCC to address the lack of an official Indigenous Peoples body within the UN climate talks process. Notes 1. How climate change could affect corporate valuations - The McKinsey Quarterly - How climate change affect corporate valuations - Corporate Finance - Valuation. RGE - Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor. Dr. Doom - Profile - Nouriel Roubini - Predicting Crisis in the United States Economy. Wall Street crisis: Investors dump shares after Lehman collapse | Business. Employees carry boxes out of Lehman Brothers HQ in New York Link to video: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy protection Shares nosedived in London and New York today as traders dumped stock following the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which has left thousands of staff facing redundancy.
As distressed employees arrived at Lehman's offices in Canary Wharf and on Wall Street, with some fearing that they may not be paid this month, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares plunged by more than 5%. By the close it was down 212.5 points at 5204.5, down 3.9%, with £50bn wiped off the value of Briain's top 100 companies. The Dow Jones industrial average also fell sharply, losing 283 points by early afternoon in New York to 11138, a 2.5% decline. Markets were left reeling by the triple whammy of the failure of Lehman Brothers, the shock sale of Merrill Lynch, and the revelation that AIG, the world's largest insurance firm, may need to raise as much as $40bn (£22.2bn).
Market gloom. Forceforgood = business success + sustainability. Setting Precedent, Exelon Plans a Huge Cut in Its Emissions. Rebuffing The Rockefellers - washingtonpost.com. Exxon Mobil yesterday fended off a revolt by descendants of company founder John D. Rockefeller Sr. at the firm's annual meeting in Dallas and defeated a shareholder resolution that would have divided the jobs of chairman and chief executive, now both held by Rex W. Tillerson. The proposal, which was approved by 39.5 percent of shareholders, was one of four resolutions that garnered substantial shareholder support from the extended Rockefeller family, state pension funds, institutional holders and individuals, though all of the measures fell short of the majority needed.
The other resolutions would have forced the company to give shareholders some say over executive pay, prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, draw up a plan to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions and turn its attention toward clean energy resources. The meeting cast Exxon's founding family in an unusual role: dissident shareholders.
But the family stayed focused on Exxon. More than a century after John D. Environmental Business and Technology News. JPMorgan acquires Climate Care; A big challenge needs a big approach :: Climate Care. Climate change survey - How companies think about climate change - Energy, Resources, Materials - Environment - The McKinsey Quarterly. World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Business management strategy - Sustainability: An interview with Al Gore and David Blood - Strategy - Strategic Thinking - The McKinsey Quarterly. As McKinsey research indicates, executives around the world increasingly recognize that the creation of long-term shareholder value depends on a corporation’s ability to understand and respond to increasingly intense demands from society.
No surprise, then, that the topic of socially responsible investing has been gaining ground as investors seek to incorporate concepts like sustainability and responsible corporate behavior into their assessments of a company’s long-term value. Yet socially responsible investing has always been an awkward science. Early approaches simplistically screened out “sin sectors” such as tobacco. Subsequent evolutions tilted toward rewarding good performers, largely in the extraction industries, on the basis of often fuzzy criteria promulgated by the corporate social-responsibility movement. These early approaches tended to force an unacceptable trade-off between social criteria and investment returns. The Quarterly: That suggests greater complexity.
Lenny T. Generation Investment Management LLP. Kliener, Perkins, Caufield and Buyers - China. Planet Ark : Al Gore Joins Famed Silicon Valley Venture Capital Firm. The World Environment News is a daily environmental update bringing you all the latest environmental stories, pictures and video from across the globe, courtesy of the Reuters news service. if it’s happening in the world of environment, it’s happening in the World Environment News.
Latest News (169 stories) Japanese whaling group intends to resume its hunts Photo: Institute of Cetacean Research Date: 15-Apr-14 Country: Japan Author: Elaine Lies The group that conducts Japan's whaling says it expects to resume scientific whaling in the Antarctic after this year's hunt was canceled in the wake of an international court ruling ordering a halt to the disputed program. China set to elevate environment over development in new law Photo: Reuters/Stringer Nevada cattle rancher calls on local sheriffs to join his cause Photo: JIM URQUHART As fires die down, Chileans return to ravaged Valparaiso Photo: Eliseo Fernandez Quake measuring 6.1 magnitude strikes off Solomon Islands Photo: Carlos Barria.