Thursday, April 15, 2021
Amazon claims social network Parler trying to conceal owners
SEATTLE — Amazon has accused Parler, the social network known as a conservative alternative to Twitter, of trying to conceal its ownership amid a legal dispute between Amazon and Parler stemming from the U.S. Capitol riots.
Angelo Calfo, an attorney representing Parler, disputed Amazon's claim and argued that the burden was on Amazon to prove who owns Parler, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.
“This is a ginned-up effort to try to throw mud at Parler, when Parler has been completely clear about its ownership,” Calfo said.
The legal dispute began in January after Amazon Web Services, the Seattle company's cloud-computing division, stopped working with Parler, temporarily wiping the platform off the internet. Amazon said Parler was unable to moderate a rise in violent content before, during and after the January insurrection.
Parler asked a federal judge in Seattle to force Amazon to reinstate it on the web. That effort failed. Parler then filed a new complaint over the same argument against Amazon in King County Superior Court.
Amazon immediately dragged the case back into federal court, where it was assigned the same judge who had ruled against Parler. Parler objected to the move, arguing the court has no jurisdiction over the case since both Amazon and Parler are incorporated in Delaware.
Amazon was originally incorporated in Seattle but reincorporated in Delaware in 1996, the Times reported.
Amazon said Parler has not shown it is a Delaware-based company, in part because it has not disclosed its owner.
Parler did share information about its corporate structure with Amazon at the start of its lawsuit, Calfo said. But the documents were sealed to protect the identities of the parties due to threats of violence.
Republican political donor Rebekah Mercer has confirmed she helped bankroll the site and has emerged in recent months as the network's shadow executive after its founder John Matze was ousted as CEO in February. But it remains unclear if she controls the social network. If so, the case against Amazon will likely be heard in front of a Seattle judge.
Parler is now online again, hosted by SkySilk, a Los Angeles-based cloud-computing company.
The Associated Press
Toshiba's CEO has stepped down but board members planned to oust him before the controversy over a $20 billion buyout bid, sources say
insider@insider.com (Reuters,Kate Duffy)
insider@insider.com (Reuters,Kate Duffy)
4/14/2021
Toshiba board members planned to replace Nobuaki Kurumatani before the buyout bid, sources said.
Kurumatani resigned from Toshiba on Wednesday. Chairman Satoshi Tsunakawa will replace him.
The board chairman Osamu Nagayama went to a meeting "to fire" him, one of the sources told Reuters.
Toshiba board members planned to oust CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani before CVC Capital Partners launched a $20 billion buyout bid last week, sources told Reuters.
Kurumatani on Wednesday resigned from Toshiba. Chairman Satoshi Tsunakawa, who led the company beforehand, will replace him.
The board told Kurumatani the day before the offer was announced that they would replace him, sources who didn't want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue told Reuters.
On the subject of Kurumatani stepping down, Toshiba told Insider: "It is a resignation in the middle of the CEO's term of office, which is unusual, but the resignation is decided by Mr. Kurumatani himself and should be respected."
Two members of Toshiba Corp's nomination committee, including board chairman Osamu Nagayama, met Kurumatani, himself a former CVC executive, before the buyout bid and told him they were looking for a new CEO, sources told Reuters.
Although the board hadn't formally started the process of replacing Kurumatani, the plan was already in motion, Reuters reported. Nagayama, who also heads the nomination committee, went to the meeting "to fire" him, one of the sources said.
Reuters reported that Kurumatani then informed them of the European private equity firm's plan to take Toshiba private. A day later, the Japanese conglomerate announced it had received the offer, two sources added.
The events of the meeting show how Kurumatani's tenure was undone by his flagging popularity even before the offer was announced. It marked the culmination of deepening discord between Kurumatani and activist shareholders, who had raised concern over what they said were governance issues.
The plan to remove him appears to have accelerated after the meeting on April 6 at Toshiba's headquarters in Tokyo. Toshiba on Wednesday said Kurumatani was stepping down after some three years as CEO.
Support for him both within the company and among investors had eroded, a person briefed on the matter said.
"A survey of managers at Toshiba showed low support for Kurumatani," the person who was briefed said. There was "deep distrust" of him among shareholders, they added.
Toshiba said Kurumatani was stepping down to "recharge" after achieving his plan to revive the conglomerate that had been weakened by an accounting scandal.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Kurumatani for comment about plans to have him replaced. Toshiba said it couldn't comment on speculation. Nagayama declined to comment. A representative for CVC Japan declined to comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
REUTERS/Issei Kato Toshiba Corp chief executive Nobuaki Kurumatani.
REUTERS/Issei Kato
Toshiba board members planned to replace Nobuaki Kurumatani before the buyout bid, sources said.
Kurumatani resigned from Toshiba on Wednesday. Chairman Satoshi Tsunakawa will replace him.
The board chairman Osamu Nagayama went to a meeting "to fire" him, one of the sources told Reuters.
Toshiba board members planned to oust CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani before CVC Capital Partners launched a $20 billion buyout bid last week, sources told Reuters.
Kurumatani on Wednesday resigned from Toshiba. Chairman Satoshi Tsunakawa, who led the company beforehand, will replace him.
The board told Kurumatani the day before the offer was announced that they would replace him, sources who didn't want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue told Reuters.
On the subject of Kurumatani stepping down, Toshiba told Insider: "It is a resignation in the middle of the CEO's term of office, which is unusual, but the resignation is decided by Mr. Kurumatani himself and should be respected."
Two members of Toshiba Corp's nomination committee, including board chairman Osamu Nagayama, met Kurumatani, himself a former CVC executive, before the buyout bid and told him they were looking for a new CEO, sources told Reuters.
Although the board hadn't formally started the process of replacing Kurumatani, the plan was already in motion, Reuters reported. Nagayama, who also heads the nomination committee, went to the meeting "to fire" him, one of the sources said.
Reuters reported that Kurumatani then informed them of the European private equity firm's plan to take Toshiba private. A day later, the Japanese conglomerate announced it had received the offer, two sources added.
The events of the meeting show how Kurumatani's tenure was undone by his flagging popularity even before the offer was announced. It marked the culmination of deepening discord between Kurumatani and activist shareholders, who had raised concern over what they said were governance issues.
The plan to remove him appears to have accelerated after the meeting on April 6 at Toshiba's headquarters in Tokyo. Toshiba on Wednesday said Kurumatani was stepping down after some three years as CEO.
Support for him both within the company and among investors had eroded, a person briefed on the matter said.
"A survey of managers at Toshiba showed low support for Kurumatani," the person who was briefed said. There was "deep distrust" of him among shareholders, they added.
Toshiba said Kurumatani was stepping down to "recharge" after achieving his plan to revive the conglomerate that had been weakened by an accounting scandal.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Kurumatani for comment about plans to have him replaced. Toshiba said it couldn't comment on speculation. Nagayama declined to comment. A representative for CVC Japan declined to comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Rocky View Schools latest board to pass on testing Alberta's controversial draft curriculum
Sarah Rieger CBC 4/14/2021
Rocky View Schools, the fifth largest school board in the province serving more than 26,000 students at 51 schools in areas surrounding Calgary, will not pilot the new provincial K-6 curriculum this fall.
Sarah Rieger CBC 4/14/2021
© Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
Rocky View Schools is the latest school board to announce it will not be piloting Alberta's new draft curriculum.
The pandemic is expected to continue to create a burden on both students and teachers going into the next school year, the board said in a release Tuesday, so it hopes to avoid putting additional pressure on an already difficult situation.
"While we appreciate that the government has provided flexibility in piloting, we have heard from our administration and many parents and staff requesting that the pilot does not occur in RVS classrooms for a number of reasons," said board chair Fiona Gilbert.
"Piloting a new curriculum will only put more pressure on teachers, schools and the system while we work through recovering from the impacts of the pandemic."
Gilbert said there were also concerns about some of the approaches and topics outlined in the curriculum, and that the board was not comfortable putting it before students at this time.
Rocky View Schools is the fifth largest school board in the province, and serves more than 26,000 students at 51 schools in areas surrounding Calgary.
The board's superintendent said Rocky View Schools will focus on bringing teachers and principals together to provide feedback on the curriculum, and identify needed changes.
Rocky View Schools is the latest of several school boards across the province to reject the K-6 curriculum pilot project, including the Calgary Board of Education, Edmonton Public Schools, Edmonton Catholic, as well as the Métis Nation of Alberta and Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations.
The new curriculum has been criticized by both educators and parents for its approach toward religion, Indigenous history and colonialism, among other topics.
A plagiarism expert also found multiple instances of passages that closely resembled other sources.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange told CBC News last month that school district participation in the pilot project was voluntary but that she hoped to have representation from urban and rural schools.
The province has said the new curriculum will be mandatory for all Alberta elementary schools to teach by September 2022.
Rocky View Schools is the latest school board to announce it will not be piloting Alberta's new draft curriculum.
The pandemic is expected to continue to create a burden on both students and teachers going into the next school year, the board said in a release Tuesday, so it hopes to avoid putting additional pressure on an already difficult situation.
"While we appreciate that the government has provided flexibility in piloting, we have heard from our administration and many parents and staff requesting that the pilot does not occur in RVS classrooms for a number of reasons," said board chair Fiona Gilbert.
"Piloting a new curriculum will only put more pressure on teachers, schools and the system while we work through recovering from the impacts of the pandemic."
Gilbert said there were also concerns about some of the approaches and topics outlined in the curriculum, and that the board was not comfortable putting it before students at this time.
Rocky View Schools is the fifth largest school board in the province, and serves more than 26,000 students at 51 schools in areas surrounding Calgary.
The board's superintendent said Rocky View Schools will focus on bringing teachers and principals together to provide feedback on the curriculum, and identify needed changes.
Rocky View Schools is the latest of several school boards across the province to reject the K-6 curriculum pilot project, including the Calgary Board of Education, Edmonton Public Schools, Edmonton Catholic, as well as the Métis Nation of Alberta and Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations.
The new curriculum has been criticized by both educators and parents for its approach toward religion, Indigenous history and colonialism, among other topics.
A plagiarism expert also found multiple instances of passages that closely resembled other sources.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange told CBC News last month that school district participation in the pilot project was voluntary but that she hoped to have representation from urban and rural schools.
The province has said the new curriculum will be mandatory for all Alberta elementary schools to teach by September 2022.
Laurentian University students and graduates, politicians condemn 'devastating' cuts
'Worst time possible'
For students like Kristiina Raisanen, the instability caused by Monday's announcement is fuelling a sense of anxiety.
The second-year student is pursuing a double major in political science and philosophy. Her program is also being terminated.
"I spent most of my day [Monday] crying and trying to work through the rest of my semester's work at the same time. This announcement is coming at the literal worst time possible. We're in one of our last weeks of school right now, and I have two papers and two exams to do by the end of this week," she said.
"It feels like the rug has been pulled from underneath my feet and I'm just perpetually falling."
CBC/Radio-Canada
SUDBURY
4/14/2021
© Erik White/CBC Laurentian University officials say the target date for completion of the key components of its financial restructuring plan is April 30. More information is available at laurentianu.info.
Students at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., continue to react to news the school is cutting dozens of programs and laying off about 100 professors.
Laurentian made the announcement Monday after declaring itself financially insolvent earlier this year. The school filed for creditor protection on Feb. 1, a first for a university in the province. In total, 69 programs were cut, including 28 in French.
Second-year student and university newspaper editor Lexey Burns says students have told her they are ashamed to be associated with the school.
"I had one girl text me yesterday wondering if a Laurentian degree would be respectable anymore," she said.
Others, she said, are wondering whether wearing clothes with Laurentian logos would be an embarrassment.
Laurentian University's financial challenges have existed for years. A court-appointed monitor's report says ongoing deficits were made worse by Ontario's tuition reduction and freeze, declining domestic enrolment, capital expenditures, the closure of its Barrie campus, and expenses related to the pandemic.
Burns says she's heard the argument that the cutbacks will enable the university to become leaner, but she doesn't agree.
"They say it's going to be a Laurentian 2.0 and I think they got the numbers mixed up. It's definitely more of a 0.2," Burns said.
"They've gotten rid of almost every single humanities program at Laurentian."
Midwifery program gone
Like Burns, the future for midwifery student Annette Cloutier is also up in the air.
Cloutier says cutting the midwifery program will impact students, as well as people in the region.
"A woman who wants midwifery care, woman-centered care, that is culturally appropriate, this is important to northern Ontario," she said.
"This should be available and accessible to northern Ontario women."
Recent Laurentian graduate Monseguela Thes says what's happening at the school will affect students and professors for years to come.
Thes graduated from the school last year with a business administration degree. He's originally from the Ivory Coast and says the cuts could affect where international students choose to go.
"I don't think people would feel free to come to Laurentian. It would be very difficult," he said. "I'm sure that it will be very tough for people to come back."
Politicians point fingers
Politicians are worried, too.
Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas and Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West said in question period Tuesday that Premier Doug Ford needs to fund Laurentian and stop the layoffs.
"Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano believe students, staff and the community around Laurentian aren't worth investment," said West.
Gélinas said Laurentian's more than 8,000 full- and part-time students are worried and deserve answers.
"Instead of being focused on their final projects and studying for their year-end exams, Laurentian students have been worried about their futures," said Gélinas.
She notes that Laurentian University is designated under Ontario's French Language Services Act, which means its French programs are protected.
Meanwhile, at the federal level, NDP MP Charlie Angus, who represents Timmins-James Bay, says the cutbacks are an act of national vandalism.
"You cannot treat a public institution, like a university or a hospital or any other public institution, as though it were just some mine that went bankrupt and you're going to sell off the assets," he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also weighed in on Laurentian's crisis, saying the federal government is waiting to see what steps the provincial government takes before offering support.
In a statement to CBC News, the office of Ontario's minister of colleges and universities says for most students, particularly if they are close to graduating, they will be able to complete their degree using all or part of the modules of terminated programs, "either through course substitutions at Laurentian or through letters of permission.
"For a small number of students, Laurentian will assist them in transition to a related program or another institution."
The ministry says it has provided Laurentian with "consistent operating grants ... over the last five years, of close to $80 million a year," and that it provided the school with "far more funding than other institutions."
Those grants accounted for more than 40 per cent of Laurentian's total revenue in 2019-20, the ministry says, compared to a 23 per cent average for the universities' sector overall.
Students at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., continue to react to news the school is cutting dozens of programs and laying off about 100 professors.
Laurentian made the announcement Monday after declaring itself financially insolvent earlier this year. The school filed for creditor protection on Feb. 1, a first for a university in the province. In total, 69 programs were cut, including 28 in French.
Second-year student and university newspaper editor Lexey Burns says students have told her they are ashamed to be associated with the school.
"I had one girl text me yesterday wondering if a Laurentian degree would be respectable anymore," she said.
Others, she said, are wondering whether wearing clothes with Laurentian logos would be an embarrassment.
Laurentian University's financial challenges have existed for years. A court-appointed monitor's report says ongoing deficits were made worse by Ontario's tuition reduction and freeze, declining domestic enrolment, capital expenditures, the closure of its Barrie campus, and expenses related to the pandemic.
Burns says she's heard the argument that the cutbacks will enable the university to become leaner, but she doesn't agree.
"They say it's going to be a Laurentian 2.0 and I think they got the numbers mixed up. It's definitely more of a 0.2," Burns said.
"They've gotten rid of almost every single humanities program at Laurentian."
Midwifery program gone
Like Burns, the future for midwifery student Annette Cloutier is also up in the air.
Cloutier says cutting the midwifery program will impact students, as well as people in the region.
"A woman who wants midwifery care, woman-centered care, that is culturally appropriate, this is important to northern Ontario," she said.
"This should be available and accessible to northern Ontario women."
Recent Laurentian graduate Monseguela Thes says what's happening at the school will affect students and professors for years to come.
Thes graduated from the school last year with a business administration degree. He's originally from the Ivory Coast and says the cuts could affect where international students choose to go.
"I don't think people would feel free to come to Laurentian. It would be very difficult," he said. "I'm sure that it will be very tough for people to come back."
Politicians point fingers
Politicians are worried, too.
Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas and Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West said in question period Tuesday that Premier Doug Ford needs to fund Laurentian and stop the layoffs.
"Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano believe students, staff and the community around Laurentian aren't worth investment," said West.
Gélinas said Laurentian's more than 8,000 full- and part-time students are worried and deserve answers.
"Instead of being focused on their final projects and studying for their year-end exams, Laurentian students have been worried about their futures," said Gélinas.
She notes that Laurentian University is designated under Ontario's French Language Services Act, which means its French programs are protected.
Meanwhile, at the federal level, NDP MP Charlie Angus, who represents Timmins-James Bay, says the cutbacks are an act of national vandalism.
"You cannot treat a public institution, like a university or a hospital or any other public institution, as though it were just some mine that went bankrupt and you're going to sell off the assets," he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also weighed in on Laurentian's crisis, saying the federal government is waiting to see what steps the provincial government takes before offering support.
In a statement to CBC News, the office of Ontario's minister of colleges and universities says for most students, particularly if they are close to graduating, they will be able to complete their degree using all or part of the modules of terminated programs, "either through course substitutions at Laurentian or through letters of permission.
"For a small number of students, Laurentian will assist them in transition to a related program or another institution."
The ministry says it has provided Laurentian with "consistent operating grants ... over the last five years, of close to $80 million a year," and that it provided the school with "far more funding than other institutions."
Those grants accounted for more than 40 per cent of Laurentian's total revenue in 2019-20, the ministry says, compared to a 23 per cent average for the universities' sector overall.
'Worst time possible'
For students like Kristiina Raisanen, the instability caused by Monday's announcement is fuelling a sense of anxiety.
The second-year student is pursuing a double major in political science and philosophy. Her program is also being terminated.
"I spent most of my day [Monday] crying and trying to work through the rest of my semester's work at the same time. This announcement is coming at the literal worst time possible. We're in one of our last weeks of school right now, and I have two papers and two exams to do by the end of this week," she said.
"It feels like the rug has been pulled from underneath my feet and I'm just perpetually falling."
Regina committee delays vote on federal conversion therapy ban
Regina’s community wellness committee had to delay a vote on conversion therapy legislation Wednesday morning, working its way through a lengthy list of delegates speaking on two resolutions.
The resolutions are: The committee recommend to council for "the Mayor to write to the Federal Government on behalf of Regina City Council in support of Bill C-6,” and the approval of that recommendation at council’s April 28 meeting.
Committee chair and councillor Andrew Stevens (Ward 3) allowed 16 of the 26 scheduled delegates to speak.
By noon they were out of time, prompting Stevens to schedule an additional meeting next week for the remaining speakers.
The federal Bill C-6 had its first reading on Oct. 1 and its second on Dec. 11.
The committee’s documents noted the federal Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights had to amend its definition of conversion therapy, re-introduced at the Dec. 11 reading.
That definition says conversion therapy “means a practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender or gender expression to cisgender, or to repress or reduce nonheterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour or non-cisgender gender expression.”
The definition also says it doesn’t include “a practice, treatment or service that relates to the exploration and development of an integrated personal identity without favouring any particular sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”
Emmanuel Sanchez, who grew up in Regina and moved to Calgary in January 2020, is one of the delegates who spoke opposing the resolutions based on Ottawa’s definition of conversion therapy.
“I would absolutely get on board and support a federal conversion therapy ban, as long as it is worded correctly and truly bans the things they're trying to ban,” he told the Leader-Post.
His critique is the proposed ban only allows for affirmative-type counselling, while prohibiting counselling work that challenges a client.
Sanchez, now a youth pastor, cited his personal story as an example.
He grew up in his Regina church community with same-sex attractions, eventually having gay relationships when he turned 16.
Trying to understand himself, he sought counselling from a therapist who affirmed his gay identity, but didn’t alleviate his anxiety, depression or suicidal wishes.
Sanchez said another therapist, a church pastor “who neither affirmed nor condemned my choices,” helped him work through his mental health struggles.
Following his Christian faith, he has chosen to live a celibate life while seeing therapists to work through his same-sex attractions.
Since Calgary passed a municipal bylaw banning conversion therapy last May, Sanchez has been denied services.
“I still require support and counsel to help me live the life I've chosen,” he said. “I've been denied by (counselling agencies), because it has to do with helping me to live a celibate life.”
Wednesday’s resolutions don’t, as of yet, seek to create a municipal bylaw banning conversion therapy, like what’s been done in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon.
Sanchez encouraged the committee, if a municipal ban is created, to ensure it respects “the individual's freedom at any age to chose the type of support they want and their desired goals.”
Calgary's bylaw allows for fines of up to $10,000 to be levied against people or businesses who violate it.
eradford@postmedia.com
Evan Radford, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Regina Leader-Post, The Leader-Post
Regina’s community wellness committee had to delay a vote on conversion therapy legislation Wednesday morning, working its way through a lengthy list of delegates speaking on two resolutions.
The resolutions are: The committee recommend to council for "the Mayor to write to the Federal Government on behalf of Regina City Council in support of Bill C-6,” and the approval of that recommendation at council’s April 28 meeting.
Committee chair and councillor Andrew Stevens (Ward 3) allowed 16 of the 26 scheduled delegates to speak.
By noon they were out of time, prompting Stevens to schedule an additional meeting next week for the remaining speakers.
The federal Bill C-6 had its first reading on Oct. 1 and its second on Dec. 11.
The committee’s documents noted the federal Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights had to amend its definition of conversion therapy, re-introduced at the Dec. 11 reading.
That definition says conversion therapy “means a practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender or gender expression to cisgender, or to repress or reduce nonheterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour or non-cisgender gender expression.”
The definition also says it doesn’t include “a practice, treatment or service that relates to the exploration and development of an integrated personal identity without favouring any particular sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”
Emmanuel Sanchez, who grew up in Regina and moved to Calgary in January 2020, is one of the delegates who spoke opposing the resolutions based on Ottawa’s definition of conversion therapy.
“I would absolutely get on board and support a federal conversion therapy ban, as long as it is worded correctly and truly bans the things they're trying to ban,” he told the Leader-Post.
His critique is the proposed ban only allows for affirmative-type counselling, while prohibiting counselling work that challenges a client.
Sanchez, now a youth pastor, cited his personal story as an example.
He grew up in his Regina church community with same-sex attractions, eventually having gay relationships when he turned 16.
Trying to understand himself, he sought counselling from a therapist who affirmed his gay identity, but didn’t alleviate his anxiety, depression or suicidal wishes.
Sanchez said another therapist, a church pastor “who neither affirmed nor condemned my choices,” helped him work through his mental health struggles.
Following his Christian faith, he has chosen to live a celibate life while seeing therapists to work through his same-sex attractions.
Since Calgary passed a municipal bylaw banning conversion therapy last May, Sanchez has been denied services.
“I still require support and counsel to help me live the life I've chosen,” he said. “I've been denied by (counselling agencies), because it has to do with helping me to live a celibate life.”
Wednesday’s resolutions don’t, as of yet, seek to create a municipal bylaw banning conversion therapy, like what’s been done in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon.
Sanchez encouraged the committee, if a municipal ban is created, to ensure it respects “the individual's freedom at any age to chose the type of support they want and their desired goals.”
Calgary's bylaw allows for fines of up to $10,000 to be levied against people or businesses who violate it.
eradford@postmedia.com
Evan Radford, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Regina Leader-Post, The Leader-Post
Savings drawdown could add half a percent to global growth: think-tank
PARIS (Reuters) - The global economy could grow half a percentage point faster next year if households spend some of the huge savings they built up during the coronavirus pandemic, a French economic think-tank said on Wednesday
Under the first scenario, global economic growth was seen at 4.5% next year and under the second it came out at 4.0%, the OFCE said in an update of its global forecasts.
The U.S. economy was seen achieving growth next year of 5.9% under the first scenario and of 3.7% without the boost from savings being spent down.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, could see 5.5% growth next year under the first scenario and 4.1% under the second, while French growth would reach 6.0% and 4.3% respectively.
Britain could see growth of 5.0% with a savings drawdown or 3.2% without while Italy was seen at 5.5% and 3.9% respectively.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Gareth Jones)
PARIS (Reuters) - The global economy could grow half a percentage point faster next year if households spend some of the huge savings they built up during the coronavirus pandemic, a French economic think-tank said on Wednesday
.
© Reuters/FABIAN BIMMER
Lockdown in the streets of Hamburg
With businesses such as restaurants, cinemas and hotels still closed in many countries, many households in developed countries have accumulated far greater savings than normal.
Whether households start spending these savings or sit on them in anticipation of financial challenges ahead is one of the biggest puzzles facing economists and policymakers as they try to figure out how fast economies will recover from the pandemic.
The OFCE think-tank approached the issue by comparing a scenario for major economies where households spend in 2022 a fifth of the extra savings they built up during 2020 and 2021 with a scenario in which they do not.
With businesses such as restaurants, cinemas and hotels still closed in many countries, many households in developed countries have accumulated far greater savings than normal.
Whether households start spending these savings or sit on them in anticipation of financial challenges ahead is one of the biggest puzzles facing economists and policymakers as they try to figure out how fast economies will recover from the pandemic.
The OFCE think-tank approached the issue by comparing a scenario for major economies where households spend in 2022 a fifth of the extra savings they built up during 2020 and 2021 with a scenario in which they do not.
Under the first scenario, global economic growth was seen at 4.5% next year and under the second it came out at 4.0%, the OFCE said in an update of its global forecasts.
The U.S. economy was seen achieving growth next year of 5.9% under the first scenario and of 3.7% without the boost from savings being spent down.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, could see 5.5% growth next year under the first scenario and 4.1% under the second, while French growth would reach 6.0% and 4.3% respectively.
Britain could see growth of 5.0% with a savings drawdown or 3.2% without while Italy was seen at 5.5% and 3.9% respectively.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Gareth Jones)
DEAD CAPITAL*
Businesses are sitting on record $130B in excess cash, but will they invest it coming out of the pandemic?THEY DIDN'T INVEST IT PRIOR TO THE PANDEMIC
Bianca Bharti
FINANCIAL POST
FINANCIAL POST
4/ 14/2021
Canadian businesses are sitting on a record cash pile, but whether and how they spend it may determine the shape of the post-pandemic recovery, according to a recent report from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Canadian businesses are sitting on a record cash pile, but whether and how they spend it may determine the shape of the post-pandemic recovery, according to a recent report from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
© Provided by Financial Post
In the report, CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal estimated that businesses are currently sitting on $130 billion in excess cash, a level “above and beyond” what would have been the case without the pandemic.
The report followed the bank’s November estimate that Canadian households — made frugal by lockdowns and layoffs — had accumulated more than $90 billion, in no small part thanks to federal aid programs.
“We know (households) are going to spend part of it and that is one of the reasons we expect a very strong recovery,” Tal told the Financial Post in an interview. Households are expected to lead a seven-per-cent annualized rate of growth in second half of the year, according to the report.
“Now we look at businesses and we found that they sit on even more excess cash. So the question is whether or not this money will be spent to reverse the decline in business investment.”
Tal pointed out that businesses’ participation in Canada’s economic recovery could be limited by a couple of factors.
In the report, CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal estimated that businesses are currently sitting on $130 billion in excess cash, a level “above and beyond” what would have been the case without the pandemic.
The report followed the bank’s November estimate that Canadian households — made frugal by lockdowns and layoffs — had accumulated more than $90 billion, in no small part thanks to federal aid programs.
“We know (households) are going to spend part of it and that is one of the reasons we expect a very strong recovery,” Tal told the Financial Post in an interview. Households are expected to lead a seven-per-cent annualized rate of growth in second half of the year, according to the report.
“Now we look at businesses and we found that they sit on even more excess cash. So the question is whether or not this money will be spent to reverse the decline in business investment.”
Tal pointed out that businesses’ participation in Canada’s economic recovery could be limited by a couple of factors.
Canadian businesses still worry about survival even as the pandemic's end draws closer
One major inhibitor to business investment is the federal government’s Canadian Emergency Business Account program, which provides interest-free loans of up to $40,000 and recently expanded to $60,000. More than 500,000 Canadian businesses have received CEBA support so far, which totals more than $46 billion.
Most of that money will have to be paid back, Tal said, save for $20,000 which will be considered a grant if a businesses pays the rest of the loan back by December next year.
The second inhibitor lies in which sectors performed well during the pandemic.
“Those sectors that were benefitting from the crisis, they don’t really show any significant increase in business investment intentions,” Tal said.
Technology companies and manufacturers, for example, are reluctant to invest more than normal because they anticipate their demand to go down once life returns to normal.
At the same time, sectors that suffered during the pandemic — such as oil and gas — have indicated a need to invest even though their cash reserves plummeted.
“It’s really consistent with the narrative of this crisis, which I (describe) as deep but narrow,” Tal said.
By deep but narrow, he means the impact for sectors is “very deep” for those that experienced losses, but also narrow and limited to a few sectors compared to any other recession.
Mostafa Askari, chief economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, said once macroeconomic conditions normalize, business investment will pick up. However, until then, consumers will lead the recovery because their desire to spend has been mounting over the course of numerous lockdowns.
“There has to be a view that the economy is going to grow at a healthy pace, that the COVID impact is gone and global conditions are going back to normal,” he said. “All those effects will encourage businesses to increase their investment.”
*A TERM MADE POPULAR BY GOV OF THE BANK OF CANADA; MARK CARNEY
WATER IS LIFE
Epic drought means water crisis on
Epic drought means water crisis on
Oregon-California border
PORTLAND, Ore. — Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project that spans the Oregon-California border learned Wednesday they will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of several tribes.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project that spans the Oregon-California border learned Wednesday they will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of several tribes.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Oregon’s governor said the prolonged drought in the region has the “full attention of our offices,” and she is working with congressional delegates, the White House and federal agencies to find relief for those affected.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation briefed irrigators, tribes and environmental groups early Wednesday after delaying the decision a month. The federally owned irrigation project will draw 33,000 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake, which farmers said was roughly 8% of what they need in such a dry year. Water deliveries will also start June 1, two months later than usual, for the 1,400 irrigators who farm the 225,000 acres (91,000 hectares).
“The simple fact is it just hasn’t rained or snowed this year. We all know how dry our fields are, and the rest of the watersheds are in the same boat. ... There is no easy way to say this,” Ben DuVal, president of the Klamath Water Users Association, told several dozen irrigators who gathered in Klamath Falls on Wednesday morning to hear the news.
“We all know what this is going to mean to our farms, our families and our community as a whole. For some of us, it may mean we’re not in business anymore next year.”
Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement that Oregon water regulators are reviewing a plan to allow irrigators to pump more than twice as much groundwater per acre for their crops as allowed last year when drought reduced water supplies to a lesser extent.
“My message to the people of the Klamath Basin today is this: You are not alone,” said Brown, who has also declared a drought emergency in the region.
The Bureau of Reclamation set aside $15 million in immediate aid for irrigators, and irrigation districts at Wednesday's meeting said they could expect some additional water from two other reservoirs and groundwater wells. Another $10 million will be available for drought assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, following the release of a water operations plan for the Klamath Reclamation Project, according to a news release from Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, with U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz.
The seasonal allocations are the most dramatic development in the region since irrigation water was all but cut off to hundreds of farmers in 2001 amid another severe drought — the first time the interests of farmers took a backseat to those of fish and tribes.
The crisis made the rural farming region hundreds of miles from any major city a national political flashpoint and became a touchstone for Republicans who used the crisis to take aim at the Endangered Species Act, with one GOP lawmaker calling the irrigation shutoff a “poster child” for why changes were needed. A “bucket brigade” protest attracted 15,000 people who scooped water from the Klamath River and passed it, hand over hand, to a parched irrigation canal.
“My hope is we can all stick together and look to help each other where we can,” said DuVal, who added that his biggest fear is "outsiders coming in and using what we do here and using our crisis as a soapbox for them."
The Yurok Tribe, one of the tribes affected by the water decision, said that even with the slashes to farmers' water, they were facing a “catastrophic loss” of salmon this year.
“The Yurok Tribe is suffering significant economic damage on top of the extreme cultural and social impacts of failing fish runs," said tribal Vice Chairman Frankie Myers.
Jay Weiner, an attorney for the Klamath Tribes, said the tribe was pursuing legal action over water releases that will impact fish and accused the federal government of precipitating the crisis by mismanaging water in the basin for decades.
“What we’re seeing with climate change increasingly — year after year after year — is that there is not enough water to go around. This crisis should not come as a surprise to anyone,” he said. “We have over-drafted our account, essentially, and now we have to deal with the consequences.”
The situation in the Klamath Basin was set in motion more than a century ago, when the U.S. government began drawing water from a network of shallow lakes and marshlands and funneling it into the dry desert uplands. Homesteads were offered by lottery to World War II veterans who grew hay, grain and potatoes and pastured cattle.
The project turned the region into an agricultural powerhouse — some of its potato farmers supply In ‘N Out burger — but permanently altered an intricate water system that spans hundreds of miles from southern Oregon to Northern California.
In 1988, two species of sucker fish were listed as endangered under federal law, and less than a decade later, coho salmon that spawn downstream from the reclamation project, in the lower Klamath River, were listed as threatened.
The water necessary to sustain the coho salmon downstream comes from Upper Klamath Lake — the main holding tank for the farmers’ irrigation system. At the same time, the sucker fish in the same lake need at least 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimetres) of water covering the gravel beds that they use as spawning grounds.
In a year of extreme drought, there is not enough water to go around. This year, those on all sides of the issue predict a summer as bad — or worse — than 2001 as climate change takes hold.
Beyond the farmers' concerns, the Klamath Tribes sued the Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday to ensure minimum water levels in Upper Klamath Lake for the sucker fish and asked for a temporary restraining order from the court. That order, if granted, would mean less water flowing down the Klamath River for the coho salmon that are critical to the Yurok Tribe. The tribe is already documenting a proliferation of worms that carry a bacteria fatal to salmon in the lower river because of historically low water levels.
The Klamath Tribes said in a statement after filing their lawsuit that it was “beyond repugnant” that the mismanagement of the ecosystem in the basin forced them to court, potentially jeopardizing a fish key to another tribe's heritage.
“Our hearts break that we have been forced into this position,” Klamath Tribes council member Clay Dumont said. “We know how important the salmon are to our tribal brothers and sisters."
____
Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gfl
Oregon’s governor said the prolonged drought in the region has the “full attention of our offices,” and she is working with congressional delegates, the White House and federal agencies to find relief for those affected.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation briefed irrigators, tribes and environmental groups early Wednesday after delaying the decision a month. The federally owned irrigation project will draw 33,000 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake, which farmers said was roughly 8% of what they need in such a dry year. Water deliveries will also start June 1, two months later than usual, for the 1,400 irrigators who farm the 225,000 acres (91,000 hectares).
“The simple fact is it just hasn’t rained or snowed this year. We all know how dry our fields are, and the rest of the watersheds are in the same boat. ... There is no easy way to say this,” Ben DuVal, president of the Klamath Water Users Association, told several dozen irrigators who gathered in Klamath Falls on Wednesday morning to hear the news.
“We all know what this is going to mean to our farms, our families and our community as a whole. For some of us, it may mean we’re not in business anymore next year.”
Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement that Oregon water regulators are reviewing a plan to allow irrigators to pump more than twice as much groundwater per acre for their crops as allowed last year when drought reduced water supplies to a lesser extent.
“My message to the people of the Klamath Basin today is this: You are not alone,” said Brown, who has also declared a drought emergency in the region.
The Bureau of Reclamation set aside $15 million in immediate aid for irrigators, and irrigation districts at Wednesday's meeting said they could expect some additional water from two other reservoirs and groundwater wells. Another $10 million will be available for drought assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, following the release of a water operations plan for the Klamath Reclamation Project, according to a news release from Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, with U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz.
The seasonal allocations are the most dramatic development in the region since irrigation water was all but cut off to hundreds of farmers in 2001 amid another severe drought — the first time the interests of farmers took a backseat to those of fish and tribes.
The crisis made the rural farming region hundreds of miles from any major city a national political flashpoint and became a touchstone for Republicans who used the crisis to take aim at the Endangered Species Act, with one GOP lawmaker calling the irrigation shutoff a “poster child” for why changes were needed. A “bucket brigade” protest attracted 15,000 people who scooped water from the Klamath River and passed it, hand over hand, to a parched irrigation canal.
“My hope is we can all stick together and look to help each other where we can,” said DuVal, who added that his biggest fear is "outsiders coming in and using what we do here and using our crisis as a soapbox for them."
The Yurok Tribe, one of the tribes affected by the water decision, said that even with the slashes to farmers' water, they were facing a “catastrophic loss” of salmon this year.
“The Yurok Tribe is suffering significant economic damage on top of the extreme cultural and social impacts of failing fish runs," said tribal Vice Chairman Frankie Myers.
Jay Weiner, an attorney for the Klamath Tribes, said the tribe was pursuing legal action over water releases that will impact fish and accused the federal government of precipitating the crisis by mismanaging water in the basin for decades.
“What we’re seeing with climate change increasingly — year after year after year — is that there is not enough water to go around. This crisis should not come as a surprise to anyone,” he said. “We have over-drafted our account, essentially, and now we have to deal with the consequences.”
The situation in the Klamath Basin was set in motion more than a century ago, when the U.S. government began drawing water from a network of shallow lakes and marshlands and funneling it into the dry desert uplands. Homesteads were offered by lottery to World War II veterans who grew hay, grain and potatoes and pastured cattle.
The project turned the region into an agricultural powerhouse — some of its potato farmers supply In ‘N Out burger — but permanently altered an intricate water system that spans hundreds of miles from southern Oregon to Northern California.
In 1988, two species of sucker fish were listed as endangered under federal law, and less than a decade later, coho salmon that spawn downstream from the reclamation project, in the lower Klamath River, were listed as threatened.
The water necessary to sustain the coho salmon downstream comes from Upper Klamath Lake — the main holding tank for the farmers’ irrigation system. At the same time, the sucker fish in the same lake need at least 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimetres) of water covering the gravel beds that they use as spawning grounds.
In a year of extreme drought, there is not enough water to go around. This year, those on all sides of the issue predict a summer as bad — or worse — than 2001 as climate change takes hold.
Beyond the farmers' concerns, the Klamath Tribes sued the Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday to ensure minimum water levels in Upper Klamath Lake for the sucker fish and asked for a temporary restraining order from the court. That order, if granted, would mean less water flowing down the Klamath River for the coho salmon that are critical to the Yurok Tribe. The tribe is already documenting a proliferation of worms that carry a bacteria fatal to salmon in the lower river because of historically low water levels.
The Klamath Tribes said in a statement after filing their lawsuit that it was “beyond repugnant” that the mismanagement of the ecosystem in the basin forced them to court, potentially jeopardizing a fish key to another tribe's heritage.
“Our hearts break that we have been forced into this position,” Klamath Tribes council member Clay Dumont said. “We know how important the salmon are to our tribal brothers and sisters."
____
Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gfl
GREEN CAPITALI$M
Climate scientists swap fieldwork for finance
By Iain Withers, Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop
© Reuters/LAURA GARCIA VELEZ A handout image shows Laura Garcia Velez photographed in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in 2017
LONDON (Reuters) - Environmental scientist Laura Garcia Velez cut her teeth on projects to help Ethiopian farmers insure crops for drought and connect remote Colombian communities to the electricity grid before working for conservation campaigners WWF.
Now she's an analyst for Lombard Odier, charged with improving the $350 billion Swiss bank's green credentials.
"It's really important that finance recruits from science," said Velez, one of a growing number of campaigners and scientists who have switched to banking, which she hopes can play a role in "greening the polluting industries".
Activism and finance may seem an unlikely pairing of two implacable foes.
Yet banks, asset managers and private equity firms, faced with tough regulations to decarbonise portfolios and loan books, are competing to grab the people with the right green expertise, according to jobs data and Reuters interviews with finance firms, recruiters and universities.
"Working in sustainability, it used to feel like you were trying to knock down walls," said NatWest's head of climate change James Close, a former director of climate change at the World Bank.
"Now they are pulling us in from the streets through the front door."
Many environmentalists, for their part, say the only way to save the planet is to force big businesses to radically reduce their carbon emissions, and they see the finance world that funds them as one of the best levers.
Some charities and campaigners argue, though, that "greenwashing" is rife in the finance industry. Many new recruits, they say, are used as a marketing tool and often lack the power to drive real change.
DOUBLING PAY PACKETS
Nonetheless, the green rush is on.
The number of job ads for "sustainability" roles nearly doubled to more than 1,000 during the year to February, versus the previous 12 months, according to global finance recruitment specialist eFinancialCareers. Positions range from junior-level analysts to new director-level roles such as head of sustainability or climate change.
Green recruitment specialist Acre said its hires in finance had increased by more than a quarter year-on-year every year since 2017. The most senior posts now offer pay packages of well over 750,000 pounds ($1 million), up around three-fold over the period.
LinkedIn data shared with Reuters shows a steady increase in the number of finance jobs listed as requiring at least one "green skill", such as pollution prevention or ecosystem management, particularly in the United States.
"There is a race for talent right now, there's no doubt about it," said Elree Winnett Seelig, Citi's global head of ESG for markets, adding that demand was particularly strong in fixed income.
Indeed banks, asset managers and private equity firms have been ramping up their climate teams in the past year, pushing salaries up by 30-50%, said Jon Williams, partner in sustainability and climate change at PwC UK.
One of his team recently doubled their salary by jumping ship to an asset management firm, he added.
Environmental advocacy group workers who move to a bank are typically able to at least double their pay packets once bonuses are factored in, recruiters say. (Graphic: Finance firms ramp up search for green hires,
Climate scientists swap fieldwork for finance
By Iain Withers, Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop
4/14/2021
© Reuters/LAURA GARCIA VELEZ A handout image shows Laura Garcia Velez photographed in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in 2017
LONDON (Reuters) - Environmental scientist Laura Garcia Velez cut her teeth on projects to help Ethiopian farmers insure crops for drought and connect remote Colombian communities to the electricity grid before working for conservation campaigners WWF.
Now she's an analyst for Lombard Odier, charged with improving the $350 billion Swiss bank's green credentials.
"It's really important that finance recruits from science," said Velez, one of a growing number of campaigners and scientists who have switched to banking, which she hopes can play a role in "greening the polluting industries".
Activism and finance may seem an unlikely pairing of two implacable foes.
Yet banks, asset managers and private equity firms, faced with tough regulations to decarbonise portfolios and loan books, are competing to grab the people with the right green expertise, according to jobs data and Reuters interviews with finance firms, recruiters and universities.
"Working in sustainability, it used to feel like you were trying to knock down walls," said NatWest's head of climate change James Close, a former director of climate change at the World Bank.
"Now they are pulling us in from the streets through the front door."
Many environmentalists, for their part, say the only way to save the planet is to force big businesses to radically reduce their carbon emissions, and they see the finance world that funds them as one of the best levers.
Some charities and campaigners argue, though, that "greenwashing" is rife in the finance industry. Many new recruits, they say, are used as a marketing tool and often lack the power to drive real change.
DOUBLING PAY PACKETS
Nonetheless, the green rush is on.
The number of job ads for "sustainability" roles nearly doubled to more than 1,000 during the year to February, versus the previous 12 months, according to global finance recruitment specialist eFinancialCareers. Positions range from junior-level analysts to new director-level roles such as head of sustainability or climate change.
GRAPHIC: https://tmsnrt.rs/2PAFaLH
Green recruitment specialist Acre said its hires in finance had increased by more than a quarter year-on-year every year since 2017. The most senior posts now offer pay packages of well over 750,000 pounds ($1 million), up around three-fold over the period.
LinkedIn data shared with Reuters shows a steady increase in the number of finance jobs listed as requiring at least one "green skill", such as pollution prevention or ecosystem management, particularly in the United States.
GRAPHIC: https://tmsnrt.rs/2OtubTF
"There is a race for talent right now, there's no doubt about it," said Elree Winnett Seelig, Citi's global head of ESG for markets, adding that demand was particularly strong in fixed income.
Indeed banks, asset managers and private equity firms have been ramping up their climate teams in the past year, pushing salaries up by 30-50%, said Jon Williams, partner in sustainability and climate change at PwC UK.
One of his team recently doubled their salary by jumping ship to an asset management firm, he added.
Environmental advocacy group workers who move to a bank are typically able to at least double their pay packets once bonuses are factored in, recruiters say. (Graphic: Finance firms ramp up search for green hires,
https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATE-CHANGE/azgvoxwarpd/chart.png
'A DIFFERENT BREED'
Leading universities with specialist centres that combine climate science and finance say they have seen companies beat a path to their door to recruit graduates.
Charles Donovan, executive director of Imperial College London's Centre for Climate Finance and Investment, which is jointly run by climate science hub the Grantham Institute, said there had been an "unbelievable" rise in interest in its students from finance sector employers in the past 18 months.
Banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered are seeking prospective hires through climate-research partnerships, while some firms are offering scholarships, he added.
While the London financial district may be pulling some talent away from government and advocacy roles, Donovan was unconcerned, saying many who targeted the financial sector were "a different breed of students" who recognised the value of expertise in areas like climate change to differentiate themselves from other graduates looking for jobs in finance.
'A DIFFERENT BREED'
Leading universities with specialist centres that combine climate science and finance say they have seen companies beat a path to their door to recruit graduates.
Charles Donovan, executive director of Imperial College London's Centre for Climate Finance and Investment, which is jointly run by climate science hub the Grantham Institute, said there had been an "unbelievable" rise in interest in its students from finance sector employers in the past 18 months.
Banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered are seeking prospective hires through climate-research partnerships, while some firms are offering scholarships, he added.
While the London financial district may be pulling some talent away from government and advocacy roles, Donovan was unconcerned, saying many who targeted the financial sector were "a different breed of students" who recognised the value of expertise in areas like climate change to differentiate themselves from other graduates looking for jobs in finance.
Graphic: 'Green' skills growing across most industries
https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATE-CHANGE/FINANCE-TALENT/rlgpdzmkxpo/chart.png
CHASING HURRICANES
Some of the more established environmental experts who have moved across to finance say the rewards are not just financial.
Rob Bailey, director of climate resilience at consulting firm Marsh & McLennan's research unit, previously worked for Oxfam and international affairs think-tank Chatham House.
"I can deploy the knowledge in a different way and working with different stakeholders is quite invigorating," he said.
Some specialists are also drawn by the challenging and often highly technical nature of the work.
For example quantitative analyst Velez, who moved to Lombard Odier last year, is building a tool that links assets to near real-time environmental and geospatial data tracking hurricane risk and pollution.
Swiss bank UBS, meanwhile, has recruited people for its Evidence Lab analyst team with experience across a range of disciplines including geomodelling and hydromodelling in recent years.
"We had to adopt new recruitment strategies and methods to find people with these skills who weren't looking for a job in financial services," said Barry Hurewitz, global head of UBS Evidence Lab Innovations.
Finance firms across the board told Reuters they were expanding scientific and sustainability teams.
Asset manager Schroders said it has more than 10 staff with scientific backgrounds in its insurance-linked securities team, including people with PhDs in climatology. Its sustainable investing team has grown by four people to 22 in the last year and is planning further expansion.
Britain's biggest domestic bank Lloyds has more than doubled the number of staff with core sustainability roles in a year, to over 40, while Zurich Insurance said it had expanded its team researching the modelling of wind, flood, cyber and climate risks, to seven from one in five years.
'PART OF THE MACHINE'
The demand for green expertise is partly being driven by tightening climate regulation on financial services firms in Britain, Europe and beyond.
Euro zone banks will be expected to take climate change into account when making loans or investing, for instance. Funds in the EU will have to disclose how sustainable their products are, while UK lenders could face tougher capital requirements for polluting assets held on their books.
Yet while companies say they are making progress, some charities say they are still playing catch-up.
"In my experience finance firms don't have a great depth of knowledge across the piste. Their skill sets are massively tilted towards the past," said Charlie Kronick, senior climate adviser at Greenpeace UK.
Better hiring must be matched by strategy changes at the top, according to the charities. While many large financial services firms have pledged to decarbonise their lending and portfolios in the coming years, most remain exposed to fossil fuels in some way, they say.
"If you just have a bunch of sustainability officers who are kind of shoved off to the side and are effectively there to help with greenwashing, that's not going to really change the results very much," said Ben Cushing, campaign manager for financial advocacy at U.S.-based environmental group Sierra Club.
And not everyone with an environmental background finds high finance fulfilling.
Ian Povey-Hall, a director at green recruiter Acre, said that while most had no regrets, some had become disillusioned.
"ESG becoming more of a commercial focus has changed things for some people who say their work has become productised as it's become more part of the machine," he said.
Lombard Odier's Velez says she's happy with her decision and satisfied she's not part of a greenwashing problem.
"We are working a lot on how companies will decrease their emissions," she adds. "Of course I want these changes to happen faster - I am a bit more realistic than optimistic."
($1 = 0.7279 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Pravin Char)
CHASING HURRICANES
Some of the more established environmental experts who have moved across to finance say the rewards are not just financial.
Rob Bailey, director of climate resilience at consulting firm Marsh & McLennan's research unit, previously worked for Oxfam and international affairs think-tank Chatham House.
"I can deploy the knowledge in a different way and working with different stakeholders is quite invigorating," he said.
Some specialists are also drawn by the challenging and often highly technical nature of the work.
For example quantitative analyst Velez, who moved to Lombard Odier last year, is building a tool that links assets to near real-time environmental and geospatial data tracking hurricane risk and pollution.
Swiss bank UBS, meanwhile, has recruited people for its Evidence Lab analyst team with experience across a range of disciplines including geomodelling and hydromodelling in recent years.
"We had to adopt new recruitment strategies and methods to find people with these skills who weren't looking for a job in financial services," said Barry Hurewitz, global head of UBS Evidence Lab Innovations.
Finance firms across the board told Reuters they were expanding scientific and sustainability teams.
Asset manager Schroders said it has more than 10 staff with scientific backgrounds in its insurance-linked securities team, including people with PhDs in climatology. Its sustainable investing team has grown by four people to 22 in the last year and is planning further expansion.
Britain's biggest domestic bank Lloyds has more than doubled the number of staff with core sustainability roles in a year, to over 40, while Zurich Insurance said it had expanded its team researching the modelling of wind, flood, cyber and climate risks, to seven from one in five years.
'PART OF THE MACHINE'
The demand for green expertise is partly being driven by tightening climate regulation on financial services firms in Britain, Europe and beyond.
Euro zone banks will be expected to take climate change into account when making loans or investing, for instance. Funds in the EU will have to disclose how sustainable their products are, while UK lenders could face tougher capital requirements for polluting assets held on their books.
Yet while companies say they are making progress, some charities say they are still playing catch-up.
"In my experience finance firms don't have a great depth of knowledge across the piste. Their skill sets are massively tilted towards the past," said Charlie Kronick, senior climate adviser at Greenpeace UK.
Better hiring must be matched by strategy changes at the top, according to the charities. While many large financial services firms have pledged to decarbonise their lending and portfolios in the coming years, most remain exposed to fossil fuels in some way, they say.
"If you just have a bunch of sustainability officers who are kind of shoved off to the side and are effectively there to help with greenwashing, that's not going to really change the results very much," said Ben Cushing, campaign manager for financial advocacy at U.S.-based environmental group Sierra Club.
And not everyone with an environmental background finds high finance fulfilling.
Ian Povey-Hall, a director at green recruiter Acre, said that while most had no regrets, some had become disillusioned.
"ESG becoming more of a commercial focus has changed things for some people who say their work has become productised as it's become more part of the machine," he said.
Lombard Odier's Velez says she's happy with her decision and satisfied she's not part of a greenwashing problem.
"We are working a lot on how companies will decrease their emissions," she adds. "Of course I want these changes to happen faster - I am a bit more realistic than optimistic."
($1 = 0.7279 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Pravin Char)
UNDERGROUND ECONOMY
Alberta carpenters' union says construction industry costing province billions by avoiding taxes
Lauren Boothby
Lauren Boothby
© Provided by Edmonton Journal The Alberta Regional Council of Carpenters and Allied Workers launched its second annual Tax Fraud Days of Action awareness campaign on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, saying the underground cash-based economy has been growing in the province in recent years.
Construction companies are robbing the province of billions of dollars in revenue by shifting the tax burden to unsuspecting workers, says an Alberta carpenters’ union.
The Alberta Regional Council of Carpenters and Allied Workers launched its second annual Tax Fraud Days of Action awareness campaign Wednesday, saying the underground cash-based economy has been growing in the province in recent years.
Executive secretary Derrick Schulte said the industry is hiring more and more workers as subcontractors rather than employees in order to drive costs down and outbid competitors on big projects, including for repair work on some bridges and roads in Edmonton like Anthony Henday Drive.
“There’s a number of contractors doing repair work on the bridges, and they are using similar formulas … to hire people who are listed as subcontractors rather than employees,” Schulte said.
This designation shifts responsibility for paying taxes, Canada Pension Plan contributions, and workers’ compensation on to individuals who don’t understand their rights and legal obligations, leading to legal trouble for these unprotected workers down the road, he said.
“Some of these folks are not construction business people, they’re tradespeople, and they do not understand that,” he said.
Director of organizing Paul Zarbatany says legitimate contractors are being undercut by companies who are cheating the system.
“It’s a system of a (race) to the bottom. It seems the majority of employers and contractors are involved in this. It’s some kind of modern type of serfdom, like in the Middle Ages.”
The union wants the provincial government to take a closer look at the industry, protect workers in these scenarios, and ensure companies pay their taxes to fund needed programs and services in local communities.
Alberta’s finance department declined an interview request and said all questions must be directed to the Canada Revenue Agency.
A Statistics Canada report released last October showed 1.8 per cent of Alberta’s GDP in 2018 was connected to the underground economy.
The same study found residential construction was responsible for 26 per cent of the underground economy across the country. Residential construction has been one of the largest industries involved since the study began in 1992.
Construction companies are robbing the province of billions of dollars in revenue by shifting the tax burden to unsuspecting workers, says an Alberta carpenters’ union.
The Alberta Regional Council of Carpenters and Allied Workers launched its second annual Tax Fraud Days of Action awareness campaign Wednesday, saying the underground cash-based economy has been growing in the province in recent years.
Executive secretary Derrick Schulte said the industry is hiring more and more workers as subcontractors rather than employees in order to drive costs down and outbid competitors on big projects, including for repair work on some bridges and roads in Edmonton like Anthony Henday Drive.
“There’s a number of contractors doing repair work on the bridges, and they are using similar formulas … to hire people who are listed as subcontractors rather than employees,” Schulte said.
This designation shifts responsibility for paying taxes, Canada Pension Plan contributions, and workers’ compensation on to individuals who don’t understand their rights and legal obligations, leading to legal trouble for these unprotected workers down the road, he said.
“Some of these folks are not construction business people, they’re tradespeople, and they do not understand that,” he said.
Director of organizing Paul Zarbatany says legitimate contractors are being undercut by companies who are cheating the system.
“It’s a system of a (race) to the bottom. It seems the majority of employers and contractors are involved in this. It’s some kind of modern type of serfdom, like in the Middle Ages.”
The union wants the provincial government to take a closer look at the industry, protect workers in these scenarios, and ensure companies pay their taxes to fund needed programs and services in local communities.
Alberta’s finance department declined an interview request and said all questions must be directed to the Canada Revenue Agency.
A Statistics Canada report released last October showed 1.8 per cent of Alberta’s GDP in 2018 was connected to the underground economy.
The same study found residential construction was responsible for 26 per cent of the underground economy across the country. Residential construction has been one of the largest industries involved since the study began in 1992.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)