Courtesy : forbes.com
Coal emission IN U.K
In an announcement today, the country’s energy and climate change minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the move would “send a clear signal around the world that the U.K. is leading the way in consigning coal power to the history books.”
The announcement also reinforced the U.K.’s call for other countries to accelerate the end of coal power worldwide, saying the government would introduce new legislation to formalize the call “at the earliest opportunity.”
Britain will, however, continue to mine coal for export, and to use coal in other carbon-intensive processes such as steelmaking.
The move is an attempt by Boris Johnson’s government to re-establish an image of leadership ahead of the crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, after months of mixed signals on climate strategy. Last week, the government was taken to task by the country’s climate watchdog for failing to implement coherent plans to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or to take measures to prepare for the accelerating effects of climate change.
Yet the very same week it was announced that government ministers would approve a new oilfield in the North Sea, while a controversial new coal mine in the north of England is still under consideration.
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Cameron Hepburn, director of the Smith School at the University of Oxford, welcomed the move.
“Coal deserves a dignified death. It served us well but it is yesterday’s technology, dirty and uncompetitive compared to cheaper, new, higher-tech renewables,” Hepburn told me. “This would have happened anyway, soon enough, so the applause should be muted. The crazy thing is that in some countries, governments are subsidising coal to keep it running. Why waste taxpayer money on propping up an industry that still, every year, leads to more silent deaths than a major war?”
That criticism will be felt most acutely in countries like Australia, where prime minister Scott Morrison recently stated that coal had “10, 20, 30 years to run,” even as demand shrinks and other countries commit to ending support for the fuel. China, the world’s largest consumer of coal and Australia’s largest export market, is aiming for peak carbon emissions by 2030, which will necessitate a wholesale move away from the fuel.
The decline and fall of British coal has been in the making for decades, but has accelerated in recent years. Britain was home to the world’s first coal-fired power plant, built by Thomas Edison in London in 1882, and by 1950 coal was generating 97% of the country’s electricity. This fell gradually throughout the 20th century as fuels such as fossil gas came online, yet coal was still generating 40% of British electricity in 2012. But the U.K.’s 2008 Climate Change Act had sealed coal’s fate: with a legal commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, the government began introducing new regulations and carbon pricing to favor other sources of energy generation. In 2015, the government named 2025 as the last year coal would be used to generate electricityThese Four Plastic Items Make Up Almost Half Of All Ocean TrashBy David Vetter
Sam Fankhauser, professor of climate change economics and policy at the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford, said that the announcement was “a welcome milestone of big symbolic value and an important signal to other coal-dependent nations,” but that, “it is not a game-changer for UK climate policy. The phase out date merely formalises a development that has all but been secured already through a combination of market forces, renewable subsidies and climate and environmental policies.”
As part of the announcement, the U.K.’s COP26 president-designate, Alok Sharma, said he hoped the step would send “a clear signal to friends around the world that clean power is the way forward.” But Fankhauser suggested the government should place less emphasis on promises, and more on delivery, particularly when it comes to building new renewable energy capacity.
“From a purely domestic point of view, the government’s focus has to be on delivering the 40 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity it has promised and starting to bring down emissions outside the electricity sector,” he said. As the Committee on Climate Change has shown, that requires immediate action and major investments in decarbonizing buildings, transport, agriculture and infrastructure. But so far, such action has failed to materialize.
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My key interests are in decarbonization and the development of circular economies.
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INNOVATION
Travel Expense Reports Now Higher Than Pre-Pandemic: What This Means For Your Business
Richard Chatterton
We are entering an era where it is no longer appropriate for businesses to compare or analyse historical data to determine their current business performance. Case in point: Businesses are spending again as the average expense report value is now higher—up 17% compared to 2019— pre-pandemic. What does this mean for your business?
Taken from the SAP Concur Customer Summit in October, we analysed the aggregated transactional spend data of our ANZ customer base to find out more. Key highlights of the findings include:
Travel related expenses are on the way up: Airfare and accommodation as a percentage of spend is close to where it was in 2019 (at around 22% and 14% respectively). Meals, entertainment, and mileage stayed consistent across 2019 to 2022. Office and telecom expenditure more than doubled in 2020 and 2021 – as home offices and the claiming of related expenses became the norm. The ‘Other’ category – all other expense types aside from those mentioned above made up a whopping 40% of all expenditure in 2020 & 2021 – a huge increase from 19% in pre-pandemic times.
Average amount per supplier invoice is rising: The number of line items per invoice has increased, driving the average invoice value up to $11,259 in 2022, a 68% increase on 2019 values. The Payment Times Reporting scheme was introduced and took effect from 1 January 2021 which could see small business suppliers issuing more consolidated invoices on the basis that they have more confidence and visibility over the payment times of their customers. Duplicate invoices flagged has remained constant at 7-8% for the five years to 2022. Invoice values have almost doubled so this poses a more significant risk in 2022 than in previous years.
Recommendation for action
1) Review end-to-end processes, policies and procedures to ensure relevancy for the current and future business landscape.
“We are shifting away from credit card use and more towards cash reimbursement, so having that cycle time reduced so [employees] can get paid as quickly as possible is critical,” said Chris Lancefield, Group Procurement Senior Manager at Ventia.
2) Pro-actively monitoring data (bursting and push notifications) in real time with reporting and analytics is as important as ever. Invest in the tools and processes to re-evaluate the metrics that are being measured and don’t fall victim to data overload.
“Getting that information to make strategic decisions and bringing the insights back to the people rather than just the operational team and help them understand spend trends and patterns is critical,” said Alex Filip, Business Operations Senior Lead at Telstra. Alex highlighted the value of using his company data being captured by SAP Concur solutions.
3) It’s also important to have a strategy around risk mitigation, remove mundane processes and keep the employee experience top of mind. Jenny Vanderhoek, Finance Services Director at Lion, encourages her team to be critical thinkers.
“Looking at your end-to-end process, eliminate the work that you really shouldn’t need to do anymore, and then what’s remaining is really what you should be able to get a system to support you in,” said Vanderhoek. “We’re now able to audit 100% of our expenses, which is very minimal work for our team because the system actually does a lot of that automation itself.”
4) Now is the time to address critical gaps in employee onboarding and training. Only 40% of Australian employees say their organisations provide them the necessary training to keep up with changing regulations – a major oversight as compliance requirements continue to shift. Don’t forget your remote employees – how do they interact with your culture and processes and stay engaged.