Demography, growth and the environment - Falling fertility

Astonishing falls in the fertility rate are bringing with them big benefits

THOMAS MALTHUS first published his “Essay on the Principle of Population”, in which he forecast that population growth would outstrip the world’s food supply, in 1798. His timing was unfortunate, for something started happening around then which made nonsense of his ideas. As industrialisation swept through what is now the developed world, fertility fell sharply, first in France, then in Britain, then throughout Europe and America. When people got richer, families got smaller; and as families got smaller, people got richer.

Now, something similar is happening in developing countries. Fertility is falling and families are shrinking in places— such as Brazil, Indonesia, and even parts of India—that people think of as teeming with children. As our briefing shows, the fertility rate of half the world is now 2.1 or less—the magic number that is consistent with a stable population and is usually called “the replacement rate of fertility”. Sometime between 2020 and 2050 the world’s fertility rate will fall below the global replacement rate.

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Asking Questions about Transparency

It often feels like Obama is in the room with us at RISD these days, raising our collective awareness about a new way of leading marked by transparency. Already we've seen his government publishing the appropriations requested, stimulus money granted, and visitors to the White House on the web for all to see. In general, the web has also raised all of our expectations about the availability of information. Transparency now is so much easier to accomplish.

John has taken this to heart, and we've seen the mantra of transparency raise all sorts of questions here at RISD. Like many organizations, we seem to be wrestling with transparency's boundaries. This year, amidst complex budget cuts, we learned about the difference between transparency and clarity — access to all the financial facts versus access to understanding the essential facts that affect us all. In a community of artists and designers, this often means communicating visually. We seem to understand that transparency means a commitment to revealing who makes the decisions, and providing understanding about the basic facts that affect all people in the organization.

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Risk-Taking by Boards and the Financial Crisis

Writing about the role that risk-taking by boards had in the run-up to the financial crisis, Vice Chancellor Leo Strine, Jr. of the Delaware Court of Chancery wrote an op-ed piece on the New York Times’ DealBook blog that some boards went along with investor demands to create profits.

Whatever the possible causes of the recent financial debacle, it seems clear that there is one cause that can be ruled out: that the directors and managers of the failed firms were unresponsive to investor demands to take measures to raise profits and increase stock prices.

Rather, to the extent that the crisis is related to the relationship between stockholders and boards, the real concern seems to be that boards were warmly receptive to investor calls for them to pursue high returns through activities involving great risk and high leverage. Indeed, the recent financial industry debacle is perhaps most surprising for its predictability in light of mundane realities accepted by social scientists of the center left and right.

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Developing Your Leadership Presence

What about when you are pushed in front of the microphone or given very little prep time for something like an introduction of a guest speaker?

This question came from Tonya in response to my previous post on developing your leadership pitch.

Here's the quick answer, you walk to the microphone and you smile. You take a moment to size up the audience and then you say what you have to say briefly and to the point. Most importantly, as they advise running backs who score touchdowns, act like you have been there before. The great ones hand the ball back the referee; the wannabes whoop and holler.

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Denmark in climate deal warning

Denmark's prime minister says he does not think a legally binding deal on climate change will be agreed upon at a December summit in Copenhagen.

Lars Loekke Rasmussen spoke ahead of an EU summit at which climate change will be one of the main topics.

EU leaders must also decide how to secure the Czech Republic's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

The treaty would create a full-time EU president, and leaders are expected to discuss who could fill the role.

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FT interview: Prof. John Coffee of Columbia Law School

Prof. John Coffee of Columbia Law School discusses regulatory reform and executive compensation.

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Why You Shouldn't Hire A Perfect Job Candidate

It means you're holding out for someone who will probably be both overpaid and bored.

The current job market reminds me of a story about a church committee assigned to hire a new pastor. Numerous well-qualified candidates applied, but none seemed to meet the committee's requirements. Frustrated with this perfectionism, one of the committee's members submitted an anonymous résumé with the accomplishments of a certain priest who had lived and preached in Galilee 2,000 years before. The committee reviewed the résumé and rejected it. Even Jesus Christ wasn't good enough.

According to the Department of Labor, unemployment rose to 9.8% in September, and that doesn't include people who have given up looking. Employers with job openings have plenty of well-qualified job candidates to choose from, and like a beauty queen choosing from an abundance of suitors, they're getting awfully picky. In fact, they too seem to be looking for, and expecting, perfection. I say this both from personal experience and from hearing many anecdotal accounts from colleagues seeking employment. The pursuit of perfection is a powerful trend in the present job marke

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Bad work habits

Everyone has them. Bad work habits, from procrastination to ignoring emails.

A habit is defined as a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition. If no one picks up on it, the habit will become more or less permanent. This can cause workmates undue stress without them even realising it, let alone yourself. What are some of the worst habits and how do we deal with them?

CNN and Careerbuilder.com have put together a list of eight work habits that should be stopped. Blurring the lines between being casual and friendly, being disrespectful and always doing the bare minimum are ranked as among the worst habits.

The other bad one is just sticking to your job description and job title, doing no more than that. Conversely, forgetting what your job is and spending more time organising your social calendar and other activities, or frittering away work hours on Facebook, is pretty atrocious.

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The New Degree – Masters of Corporate Governance

The financial crisis has altered the perception of what directors need to know.

“Education is a lifelong journey.” “A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.” Such clichés have been a staple of the greeting card and bookmark industries for decades, but there is more than a grain of truth to each. Indeed, no corporate director would say “no” to a little extra knowledge, especially in this economic environment, which is why director education programs continue to be a fundamental component of executive enhancement.

Today’s corporate education programs have attained a level of diversity and comprehensiveness unimagined by previous generations of executives. The modern global business climate has opened up vast sections of fertile territory for new exploration and interaction. The complexities of modern markets have necessitated a new approach to mastering the ever-expanding requirements of finance, risk, and strategy. Technological innovation presents numerous opportunities for growth and expansion as well as challenges. In short, the business world has changed and continues to change at an impressive rate, and the continual accumulation of new knowledge is and will always be an absolute necessity.

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Reaping the benefits: Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture

The Royal Society has published the report of a landmark study examining the contribution of the biological sciences to food crop production. The study was conducted by a working group chaired by Sir David Baulcombe FRS. The group included experts on agriculture, international development, conservation biology and plant science.

Food security is one of this century's key global challenges. Producing enough food for the increasing global population must be done in the face of changing consumption patterns, the impacts of climate change and the growing scarcity of water and land. Crop production methods must also sustain the environment, preserve natural resources and support livelihoods of farmers and rural populations around the world. This report discusses the need for a sustainable intensification' of global agriculture in which yields are increased without adverse environmental impact and without the cultivation of more land.

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Cultivar para combatir el hambre

Los expertos en alimentación de la ONU consideran que la agricultura es la clave para combatir el hambre.

La FAO se pregunta cómo alimentar al mundo en 40 años. La respuesta: más inversión en desarrollo e investigación agrícola puede erradicar el hambre.

Según las previsiones, en el año 2050 la población se incrementará en un 34%.

Habrá 2.300 millones más de personas en el mundo, y para darles de comer será necesario producir un 70% más de alimentos de lo que se produce en la actualidad.

Y el aumento en la producción es necesario “porque a medida que los ingresos crecen en los países en vías de desarrollo empiezan a consumir más proteínas, que requieren una cadena más larga de alimentos”, explicó a BBC Mundo Gustavo Enríquez, economista de la dirección de desarrollo agrícola de la FAO.

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EU push for climate funding unity

EU leaders are trying to break an impasse over funding to help poor countries combat global warming on the last day of their Brussels summit.

Sweden's prime minister called on EU leaders to set a fixed sum, paving the way for other rich donors like the US and Japan to make similar pledges.

But a coalition of nine poorer European nations has threatened to block a deal unless richer EU countries pay more.

Earlier leaders agreed a deal to secure the ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

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EU tackles climate and treaty obstacles

Leaders need to agree a coherent EU position on climate targets

After Europe's emergency economic measures in the last few months, it is longer-term challenges that look set to dominate a two-day EU summit opening in Brussels on Thursday.

The Swedish EU presidency says the first working session will be devoted to climate change and preparations for the global conference in Copenhagen, now just weeks away.

A coherent EU position on new targets for tackling global warming is seen as vital to get developing countries on board and spread the green initiatives already taken by the EU.

The 27-nation bloc is committed to cutting CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 and by up to 30% if other countries join in.

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Harrabin's Notes: Green tower

Rising high through the polluted air of Guangzhou City in southern China is a 71-storey tower block which, according to its designers, will be the most energy-efficient in the world.

Among a host of features designed either to make or save energy, the one that caught my eye was the shape of the Pearl River Tower itself.

It is built in a curve, facing the prevailing winds. And it has been deliberately sculpted to increase the speed of that wind and force it through slots in the building where wind turbines will be located.

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Teaching entrepreneurship: Nature or nurture?

Do entrepreneurs really need a business-school education?

AMONG the thousands of business schools now operating around the world you would be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t believe it can teach the skills of entrepreneurship. However, of the people who immediately spring to mind when one thinks of entrepreneurs—Bill Gates, Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey, for example—few have done more than deliver a speech at a business school. Indeed, a recent study by King’s College in London has suggested what many intuitively suspect: that entrepreneurship may actually be in the blood—more to do with genes than classroom experience. All of which invites the question—does an entrepreneur really need a business-school education?

Not surprisingly some of the best-known schools in the field have a ready answer to this: they don’t actually profess to create entrepreneurs, rather they nurture innate ability. Or as Timothy Faley of the entrepreneurial institute at Michigan’s Ross School of Business puts it: “A good idea is not enough. You need to know how to transform a good idea into a good business.”

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Separation Anxiety: Splitting the Chair, CEO Roles

Shareholders are pushing for companies to put different individuals into the roles of chairman and CEO. Here are some of the implications of such a move.

In the wake of corporate scandals, government bailouts, and heightened shareholder activism, the move to separate the roles of board chair and chief executive officer at U.S. public companies is gaining rapid ground. Advocates of role-splitting maintain that the arrangement is better business, enabling the CEO to run the company with minimum distraction while the chair leads the board, recruits new members, advises the CEO, and manages CEO succession. The move is heralded also as a way to promote more open communication, better manage risk, and ensure truly independent leadership.

There is, of course, a competing view that favors a single person serving as chair and CEO, but with a separate lead independent director. Respected business leaders, corporate attorney Marty Lipton, for example, express a more traditional view that the chair/CEO model is better for driving long-term shareholder value in many companies. Supported by historical data that purportedly shows little correlation between splitting the roles and shareholder value, proponents of the merged role have a point when they suggest that the chemistry needs to be right to split the roles—or else risk adversity between board and management.

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The Boardroom’s Climate is Changing

More companies are designating specific committees for environmental issues to help inform the board of potential problems.

Environmental disclosure is a top priority on many boardroom agendas. The Obama administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Mary Schapiro, are ardent in their pursuit to reform corporate environmental disclosure practices.

Recently, the SEC formed the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) to address how environmental, climate change, and sustainability issues should be addressed from a regulatory standpoint. Headed by SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, the IAC provides the SEC with investors’ viewpoints on regulatory and disclosure issues. Current SEC regulations require companies to disclose any information pertaining to how their operations might cause harm to the environment. In order to accurately estimate the amount of environmental damage a company’s operations might have on the environment, firms must invest both manpower and financial capital to fund extensive research projects. For most companies, providing such figures is difficult and often significantly underestimates the true toll a corporation’s operations will have on the environment.

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US Utility Solar PV Markets and Strategies: 2009–2020

With over 4.8 GW of projects in the pipeline, utilities will be the largest group of photovoltaic (PV) project developers in the US over the next three to five years – marking a deviation from their previously limited role. Utility demand for PV in states with RPS, solar carve‐outs, and local requirements will carry the US market forward until costs become more competitive for broader deployment.

In stepping up their PV activities via power purchase agreements and ownership initiatives in 33 states, utilities are using the opportunity to evaluate PV’s role in their longer‐term generation mixes. Access to the federal investment tax credit (ITC) and stimulus funds has also emboldened utilities to deploy PV. Furthermore, utility strategies come at a lower risk as they seek public utility commission approval for rate‐based projects.

EER’s new study, US Utility Solar PV Markets and Strategies: 2009–2020, provides extensive analysis of US utility strategies in PV. Following are just a few of the key trends addressed in EER’s new solar market study:

See full Press Release, in pdf format.

Experto Europeo en Responsabilidad Social Empresarial

Este curso pretende ofrecer al alumno los conocimientos y la perspectiva necesaria para incorporar a cualquier empresa u organización criterios de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) en su gestión.

El objetivo principal es profundizar en el concepto y dimensiones de la RSE, dando a conocer las herramientas de gestión imprescindibles para la puesta en marcha de una estrategia de RSE y comprender la necesidad de enfocar la estrategia general de la organización hacia los criterios de RSE, para aumentar su competitividad. Además, el alumno adquirirá conocimientos sobre la gestión de las necesidades y expectativas de los stakeholders y su importancia en el desarrollo de las actividades de la organización.

El curso va dirigido a todas aquellas personas interesadas en conocer las implicaciones que este concepto empresarial supone de cara a la gestión y a las relaciones de la empresa con la sociedad y a aquellas que tengan alguna responsabilidad en alguna de las dimensiones de la RSE de su empresa, departamentos de responsabilidad social, gestión ambiental, comunicación, reputación corporativa, relaciones con inversores, acción social, recursos humanos, etc.


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Social Innovation Awards 2010

When: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Where: New York City, NY, USA

Join the innovative group of companies and people who are implementing groundbreaking strategies and programs that advance the field of better business

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Inversión en energía inteligente

El presidente inauguró una de las mayores plantas de energía solar en Estados Unidos, y espera reducir el uso de energía eléctrica.

El presidente de los Estados Unidos, Barack Obama inauguró en Florida el "Centro DeSoto de Energía Solar de Próxima Generación”, una de las más grandes plantas de energía solar y anunció una inversión de 3 mil 400 millones de dólares para impulsar nuevas tecnologías y modernizar el sistema eléctrico del país.

Esta inversión forma parte de la recuperación económica del país y pretende además de favorecer a miles de consumidores en 49 estados, proveer una cantidad considerable de empleos.

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UK looks to break climate logjam

The UK government is hoping to bridge some difficult divides over tackling climate change at a meeting in London.

The Major Economies Forum (MEF) brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries.

The meeting on Sunday and Monday will aim to make progress on protecting forests and providing finance to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

Ministers hope that discussions here will increase chances of agreeing a new climate treaty at December's UN summit.

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Local Assaults on the Global Climate Problem

This month, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, a city of about 500,000 inhabitants in the American Southwest, became the 1,000th local leader to sign on to a climate change agreement under the United States Conference of Mayors.

In signing the compact — initiated in 2005 by Greg Nickels, the mayor of Seattle and the president of the conference — local leaders commit to reducing their cities’ carbon emissions in concert with the national goals laid out by the Kyoto Protocol: a 7 percent reduction over 1990 emissions levels by 2012.

As with the country-level signatories to the Kyoto agreement, many cities will fail to meet this goal. But with prospects dimming that world leaders will agree to a substantive successor treaty to the expiring Kyoto accord at the global climate summit meeting in Copenhagen in December, local endeavors like Mr. Nickels’s mayoral agreement would seem to take on a whole new measure of import.

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Five Corporate Tax Issues Every Board Member Should Understand

Corporate tax issues may not be the first thing on board members’ minds. But they should occupy a prominent position on any board’s agenda, especially in today’s economy.

Board members may think of tax issues as the purview of lawyers and accountants: important, but probably best left to specialists. Yet boards need to stay current on tax matters for two main reasons: value and risk.

Appropriately planned taxes can enhance a company’s overall value by improving corporate earnings, strengthening the PE ratio of company shares, and influencing the way analysts perceive and cover the enterprise. Tax issues are also closely tied to risk. When companies engage in tax planning, they are interpreting laws, an activity made risky by the possibility of disagreement between the company and tax authorities. If not property controlled, tax issues can lead to a finding of material weakness by auditors. Tax planning is therefore a crucial part of risk management.

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Financial fraud 101 -- accounting for criminals

When Sam Antar was cooking the books for his company, he used a number of complicated accounting tricks to dupe auditors. But some tactics were simple.
Bernie Madoff may be the tip of the iceberg as the financial crisis unravels other frauds.

Bernie Madoff may be the tip of the iceberg as the financial crisis unravels other frauds.

"These auditors from the Big Four accounting firms are usually single kids just a few years out of school. What do kids in their 20s think about all the time? Sex," said Antar, who was at the center of a multi-million dollar fraud 20 years ago.

So Antar would pair "cute hot female" employees with male auditors as part of his distraction strategy. "In effect, I was a fraudster, matchmaker and pimp," said Antar, who avoided jail time by working with the government, and now advises government agencies and businesses on avoiding accounting fraud.

Since the financial crisis struck, accounting scams -- such as the multi-billion dollar Bernard Madoff scheme -- have made regular headlines.

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IEA Participates in Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka provided inputs to the meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF), hosted by the UK government together with the US. The two-day meeting in London, which provides an opportunity for informal talks on climate change outside the official UNFCCC negotiations, involved 17 major economies together with countries particularly vulnerable to climate change, such as Algeria, Bangladesh, Lesotho, Costa Rica, Maldives, and Ethiopia. Mr. Tanaka gave a presentation focused on the findings of the special early excerpt on climate change of the World Energy Outlook 2009 and on the IEA’s energy technology roadmap work. See the presentation here.

See full Press Release.

The Boardroom’s Climate is Changing

More companies are designating specific committees for environmental issues to help inform the board of potential problems.

Environmental disclosure is a top priority on many boardroom agendas. The Obama administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Mary Schapiro, are ardent in their pursuit to reform corporate environmental disclosure practices.

Recently, the SEC formed the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) to address how environmental, climate change, and sustainability issues should be addressed from a regulatory standpoint. Headed by SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, the IAC provides the SEC with investors’ viewpoints on regulatory and disclosure issues. Current SEC regulations require companies to disclose any information pertaining to how their operations might cause harm to the environment. In order to accurately estimate the amount of environmental damage a company’s operations might have on the environment, firms must invest both manpower and financial capital to fund extensive research projects. For most companies, providing such figures is difficult and often significantly underestimates the true toll a corporation’s operations will have on the environment.

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Conditions for innovation are important

Governments should:
1. Put in place incentives for firms to innovate within their borders. These should include robust R&D tax incentives; incentives, such as accelerated depreciation, to invest in new equipment, particularly IT; and other policies that spur investment in the building blocks of growth, such as workforce evelopment tax credits.
2. Be open to high-skill immigration. High skill immigrants are the source of many new ideas and innovations. Countries that are open to high skill immigration will be able to better succeed.
3. Foster a digital economy. Nations should not only expand public investments in IT in areas such as health care, energy systems, transportation, government, and education, but also put in place the right regulatory frameworks to spur, not limit, digital investment. Nations need to also consider how existing regulatory and public procurement policies can be redesigned to intentionally spur digital transformation.
4. Support the kinds of institutions that are critical to innovation. Nations need to expand funding not just for university research, but for the kinds of mechanisms and institutions that help foster commercialization of research. In addition, they need to boost support for a host of efforts such as local economic development, entrepreneurship development, and workforce training.
5. Ensure that regulations and other related government policies support, not retard, innovation. Too often, powerful interest groups (business, civic, and labor) fight against change and innovation, often under the guise of the public interest, but all too often the result is that progressive and positive innovation is slowed. Nations should ensure that their regulations, procurement, and other related policies tilt toward innovation.

See full Report, in pdf format.

Australia coastal living at risk

Australians may have to leave coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten homes, according to a new report.

The parliamentary committee report says urgent action is needed, as seas are expected to rise by 80cm (31 inches).

About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas, and the report recommends new laws banning further development in coastal regions.

Correspondents say the authorities are divided over whether to retreat from rising seas or defend the coastline.

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Promotion from within increases confidence in bosses

Survey claims only 38% of workers confident their bosses will lead them safely through recession.

And a large part of the reason for such a low level of support is, say the survey’s authors, a lack of faith in bosses who are shipped in from outside the organisation, and hence pretty much unknown to staff.

66% of organisations recruiting leaders from within the business have bosses regarded as good or very good, compared to 51% of firms which hire externally for the top jobs. Pretty firmly counter to the prevailing pre-recessionary orthodoxy, which stated that external hires were better because they have wider experience, have shareholders’ interest more closely at heart and aren’t unafraid to kill the odd organisational sacred cow. Internal hires, by contrast, were only for those firms which were so tragically dull or monumentally cheap they could neither get nor afford the best management talent.

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Employers still discriminate on racial grounds, claims DWP

The DWP has tested the prospects of three culturally diverse fake 'job seekers', with worrying results...

Between November 2008 and May 2009, the Department for Work and Pensions sent out fake job applications to 987 vacancies advertised in seven UK cities. Each employer targeted received an application from three fictional, but culturally distinct, applicants – ‘Alison Taylor’, ‘Nazia Mahmood’ and ‘Mariam Namagembe’. The idea being to investigate whether the assumed race of an applicant would affect the success of their initial application. The DWP claims that, worryingly, in many cases it did.

The three candidates were all given equivalent qualifications and experience, including British education and work histories. But in jobs across nine occupations, ‘Alison Taylor’ had to submit nine applications for a positive response, while ‘Nazia Mahmood’ and ‘Mariam Namagembe’ had to submit 16 each. The report concludes that racial discrimination is the only explanation for this discrepancy.

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Acuerdo climático o "catástrofe"

El primer ministro británico, Gordon Brown, recordó que los negociadores de un acuerdo global sobre cambio climático tienen menos de 50 días para prevenir un calentamiento global de graves consecuencias.

En un discurso en Londres en el lForo de las Grandes Economías ante los representantes de los 17 mayores emisores de dióxido de carbono -el gas que produce el efecto invernadero- el jefe de gobierno advirtió de las consecuencias "catastróficas" que podrían sobrevenir si no se alcanza un acuerdo en diciembre con ocasión de la cumbre de Naciones Unidas sobre cambio climático en Copenhague.

Brown criticó que las negociaciones no estén avanzando a buen ritmo, e hizo un llamamiento a los líderes mundiales para que se comprometan en forma directa y quiebren el impasse.

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Boards: Consider Risk When Determining Compensation

Boards of directors are used to taking flack for executive compensation practices, but this time it is serious. Spurred on by angry taxpayers, the government will be pressuring boards of directors of financial companies to see that their compensation practices do not incent inappropriate risk taking that could lead to taxpayer losses. But how can a board do that if the company does not have a defensible framework for assessing and managing its enterprise risks? How can directors estimate the effect that different compensation policies will have on their company’s risk if they don’t know how much risk the company is taking or where it comes from? The urgent need to defend compensation practices may finally prod managements and boards to do what they should have been doing all along – building effective enterprise risk management capabilities.

Grumblings about excessive executive pay have a long history but petulant investors armed with peashooters have now been reinforced by government officials bearing automatic weapons. Boards are in the cross hairs because it is their direct responsibility to set executive pay and the public is outraged that some people collected huge payouts for blowing up companies that required government bailouts. (Of course, the government itself played a leading role in creating the crisis, but that is another story.)

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Toxinas, venenos "ecológicos"

Algunas de las sustancias tóxicas más potentes se generan en la naturaleza a partir de toda clase de seres vivos

Un tópico erróneo suele inducir a pensar que lo "natural" es bueno en contraposición a lo "artificial". Nada más lejos de la realidad. En la naturaleza hay gran cantidad de toxinas generadas o transportadas por microorganismos, plantas, hongos y animales de todo tipo. Estas sustancias tóxicas pueden generar diversos daños y, en algunos casos, incluso la muerte.

Las toxinas han surgido a lo largo de la evolución como una estrategia de conservación de los seres vivos para asegurarse la alimentación y defenderse de los enemigos. Miguel Motas, profesor titular de toxicología de la Universidad de Murcia, explica que son poderosas mezclas químicas de diversa índole, en su mayoría, proteínas y sustancias de bajo peso molecular, con capacidad para afectar a procesos vitales de la presa o del predador. Una toxina puede interferir en la transmisión neuromuscular, en la circulación sanguínea o en la permeabilidad de las membranas, como forma de garantizar el dominio sobre la víctima.

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PM warns of climate 'catastrophe'

The UK faces a "catastrophe" of floods, droughts and killer heatwaves if world leaders fail to agree a deal on climate change, the prime minister has warned.

Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the "impasse".

He told the Major Economies Forum in London, which brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries, there was "no plan B".

World delegations meet in Copenhagen in December for talks on a new treaty.

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When Green Becomes Routine

Eric G. Olson, a management consultant and author of the coming book “Better Green Business,” predicts that the word green will gradually disappear from the business lexicon over the next 5 to 10 years, as environmental stewardship becomes fully integrated into everyday business practices.

Several external forces will drive this transformation, Mr. Olson said — particularly as large consumer products companies and retailers like Wal-Mart require suppliers to manage their own environmental footprints.

Companies without a clear strategy and committed leadership, Mr. Olson argues, will come up short.

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2009 Hurun Philanthropy List

The 2009 Hurun Philanthropy list, comprised of the Top 100 philanthropists in China, shows total donations since 2004 of 15.7 billion yuan. China’s most generous philanthropist, 87-year-old Yu Pengnian, has donated 3 billion yuan over a five year period. Huang Rulun of the Jinyuan Group ranks second with an 850 million yuan donation this year and 1.45 billion over a five year period. Zhu Mengyi of Hopson Development ranks third with total donations of 1.15 billion. There are 78 people from the 2008 Hurun Rich List in the 2009 Hurun Philanthropy List of which 7 are featured in the rich list top 10. The top 100 philanthropists donated an average of 160 million yuan which accounted for approximately 4% of the 2008 Hurun Rich List wealth.

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About the IEG Good Practice Awards

Background

Since 2004, the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) has annually selected a small number of winners from among operations evaluated in the previous fiscal year for its Annual Good Practice Awards.

Purpose

IEG Awards recognize strong Bank performance in design, implementation, and/or monitoring and evaluation that contributes to positive development outcomes. The main purpose of the Awards is to create incentives within the Bank for such performance. Former and current bank staff and Bank consultants are eligible for the Awards.

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Crisis Impact: Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Face Greater Risks

* Financial Crisis and Fragile Countries (pdf)

* Fragile states are less resilient to external shocks than other countries
* One billion people live in fragile and conflict-affected states; poverty rates average 54 percent
* Impact of the financial crisis on fragile and conflict-affected areas is discussed at the Bank-IMF 2009 Annual Meetings

Fragile and conflict-affected areas of the world face heightened risks following consecutive crises affecting food, fuel, and the global economy, the World Bank warns.

“Shocks that have occurred within the international financial system also affect countries where there is fragility,” says Alastair McKechnie, director of the World Bank's Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group.

“Those countries, almost by definition, are less able to cope with external shocks and crises. Therefore, there is a risk that social tension and violence could increase in some countries,” says McKechnie.

See full Press Release.

Nudging Recycling From Less Waste to None

At Yellowstone National Park, the clear soda cups and white utensils are not your typical cafe-counter garbage. Made of plant-based plastics, they dissolve magically when heated for more than a few minutes.

At Ecco, a popular restaurant in Atlanta, waiters no longer scrape food scraps into the trash bin. Uneaten morsels are dumped into five-gallon pails and taken to a compost heap out back.

And at eight of its North American plants, Honda is recycling so diligently that the factories have gotten rid of their trash Dumpsters altogether.

Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations.

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Green spaces 'improve health'

Research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health says the impact is particularly noticeable in reducing rates of mental ill health.

The annual rates of 15 out of 24 major physical diseases were also significantly lower among those living closer to green spaces.

One environmental expert said the study confirmed that green spaces create 'oases' of improved health around them.

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Local Assaults on the Global Climate Problem

This month, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, a city of about 500,000 inhabitants in the American Southwest, became the 1,000th local leader to sign on to a climate change agreement under the United States Conference of Mayors.

In signing the compact — initiated in 2005 by Greg Nickels, the mayor of Seattle and the president of the conference — local leaders commit to reducing their cities’ carbon emissions in concert with the national goals laid out by the Kyoto Protocol: a 7 percent reduction over 1990 emissions levels by 2012.

As with the country-level signatories to the Kyoto agreement, many cities will fail to meet this goal. But with prospects dimming that world leaders will agree to a substantive successor treaty to the expiring Kyoto accord at the global climate summit meeting in Copenhagen in December, local endeavors like Mr. Nickels’s mayoral agreement would seem to take on a whole new measure of import.

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UK urged to lead on future food

The UK should plough £2bn ($3.3bn) into crop research to help stave off world hunger, says the Royal Society.

It says the world's growing population means food production will have to rise by about 50% in 40 years and the UK can lead the research needed.

Approaches it endorses include genetic modification, improved irrigation and systems of growing crops together that reduce the impact of diseases.

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Copenhagen: deal or no deal? A PwC update on climate negotiations post Bangkok

Copenhagen: deal or no deal?

With just one negotiating session left to go to the Copenhagen Climate Change summit in December, climate change specialists Richard Gledhill and Jonathan Grant of PwC’s Sustainability and Climate Change practice, give their views on the impact of the latest round of talks in Bangkok, and other recent developments.

Richard Gledhill, PwC Sustainability and climate change comments:

“Perhaps for the first time, real negotiations took place, but countries are as far apart as ever and there is now less optimism that Copenhagen will deliver a robust deal.”

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Governing for Nonprofit Excellence - Executive Education Program

Nonprofit organizations require strong, innovative leadership, especially during uncertain times. Governing for Nonprofit Excellence (GNE), an HBS Social Enterprise Initiative program, is designed to maximize the contributions of individual nonprofit board members. Participants are challenged to examine their role and the role of their boards in improving organizational effectiveness.

What You Can Expect
By examining issues of critical concern to board leaders, this leadership development program prepares participants for strategic planning and organizational transformation. Board members gain the skills needed to maintain mission clarity, forge effective relationships with CEOs, structure and manage important alliances, and achieve financial sustainability.

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FTSE 350 Carbon Disclosure Report: Carbon dawns on UK plc leaders but business falls short on targets

* FTSE 350 reveal 3.4 billion metric tonnes of carbon: 61% of UK emissions in latest Carbon Disclosure Project report
* Highest ever levels of disclosure and emissions reported
* Over a third disclose reduction targets compared with over half in similar Global 500 report

At the launch of the FTSE 350 Carbon Disclosure Project report, and with less than 60 days to go to Copenhagen Climate Summit, Ian Powell, Chairman and senior partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) said the balance sheets of UK plc were reflecting the fact that business is waking up to climate change.

Respondents to the survey, for which PwC act as advisors and report writers, reported the highest ever levels of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 61% of the UK’s total emissions. Household names such as Unilever, Tesco, Shell, Centrica, HSBC and Vodafone were amongst over 260 respondents to the annual assessment of how Britain’s top companies are tackling climate change.

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The end of UK GAAP - Are you prepared?

Date: 5 November 2009, 11am

Overview:
The UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) is proposing to replace UK GAAP with a new 3-tier system based on public accountability - EU-adopted IFRS, IFRS for SMEs or FRSSE. There is still time to make your views heard, but do you understand the implications of the proposals on your business?

The webcast will address the effect the UK ASB's proposals will have on all UK companies whether they are privately-owned, subsidiaries of UK listed groups, or have an overseas parent.

This is an opportunity to hear PwC partners discuss:

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Implementing Energy Efficiency Policies: -- Are IEA Member Countries on Track?

Are IEA member countries doing enough to capture the full potential benefits from energy efficiency policy? This innovative book provides the first assessment of IEA member countries’ progress on implementing energy efficiency policy. Using a rigorous evaluation process, it finds that while these countries are implementing a full range of energy efficiency measures, their efforts fall short. Pressing energy, climate and financial challenges require even more energy efficiency policy action – particularly in the transport sector. To address this action gap, IEA member countries must urgently ramp up their energy efficiency policy efforts. To order, click here....
See also the Energy Efficiency webpage.

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Europe takes the lead with ambitious climate targets

EU sends a "clear message" to the world, offering up to 95 percent emissions cut by 2050 if a deal is reached in Copenhagen.

The 27-nation EU has already agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, but if a climate deal is sealed in December, the union will raise its offer and cut 30 percent by 2020 and between 80 and 95 percent by 2050, the Guardian reports.

"This should be seen as a clear message to the world," says Andreas Carlgren (photo above), the Swedish environment minister who chaired a meeting in Luxembourg, where environment ministers from the member countries finalized a common EU negotiating position.

"We expect to reach an agreement in Copenhagen," he added, according to the newspaper.

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Energy Firms Deeply Split on Bill to Battle Climate Change

As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming, the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over policy decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades.

Producers of natural gas are battling their erstwhile allies, the oil companies. Electrical utilities are fighting among themselves over the use of coal versus wind power or other renewable energy. Coal companies are battling natural gas firms over which should be used to produce electricity. And the renewable power industry is elbowing for advantage against all of them.

Some supporters of global warming legislation believe that the division in the once-monolithic oil and gas industry, as well as other splits among energy producers, could improve the prospects for the legislation.

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