Political deadlock over Australia’s clean energy future is prompting companies such as Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Acciona SA to increasingly turn to rival markets for growth.

Australia’s largest electricity producer committed to close its coal-fired power plants within 35 years as part of an effort to cut the nation’s dependence on the fossil fuel.

A $2 trillion push in the U.S. to blend renewable energy into the power supply and fortify transmission lines against extreme weather means that Americans must act more like Europeans to keep their power costs down.

Scientists and economists including BP Plc’s former chief executive officer, John Browne, are inviting governments to join a $150 billion program that aims to make clean energy cheaper than coal.

Squashed between a highway overpass and a towering suburban shopping center east of Paris, a drilling rig is completing the second of two geothermal wells aimed at capturing the earth’s natural heat for homes and offices.

In West Virginia, where workers have harvested coal seams for centuries, Pope Francis’ new warning about the risks of fossil fuels will find skepticism even among the faithful.

RWE AG, the German utility whose coal-fired plants make it Europe’s largest carbon emitter, officially started the company’s largest renewables project on Thursday: a wind farm in Liverpool Bay off Britain’s coast.

Renewable energy will draw almost two-thirds of the spending on new power plants over the next 25 years, dwarfing spending on fossil fuels, as plunging costs make solar the first choice for consumers and the poorest nations.

Stanford, Oxford and Georgetown universities have won praise for promising to purge their endowments of direct investments in coal, embracing the fight against climate change.

Long-frustrated wind and solar developers in Australia can now get to work on more than A$14 billion ($11 billion) in projects after a new renewable energy target passed parliament.

The secretary general of the United Nations is frustrated with the pace of negotiations for what’s intended to be a crucial agreement limiting global warming.

Climate change pledges submitted so far from the world’s leading economies won’t be enough to keep the planet from warming dangerously, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday in New York.

Proposals to reduce heat-trapping emissions need to be “a floor, not a ceiling,” he said.

The global increase in temperatures will exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) under the national pledges already submitted to UN, Ban said. That’s the goal scientists and the UN have set to avoid the worst effects due to global warming.

The proposals submitted to date “will not be enough to place us on a 2-degree pathway,” Ban said.

Without any changes to global emissions, the world is on track to warm by 4 degrees Celsius or more, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change Janos Pasztor said earlier this month.

World leaders have five months to go before a meeting of almost 200 nations in Paris that’s intended to seal a new global pact to cut planet-warming carbon emissions. If successful, the agreement would be the first ever to require both developed nations like the US and growing economies like China to address climate change.

“The pace of UN negotiations are far too slow,” Ban said. “It’s like a snail’s pace.”

The U.S., the world’s biggest historic source of greenhouse gases, pledged earlier this year to cut its emissions by as much as 28 percent by 2025. The European Union has promised a 40 percent cut by 2030. Several other major economies, including Australia and Japan, have yet to submit climate plans to the UN.

Publicly, the United Nations climate-change talks look mired in disputes over everything from money to the length of the proposed agreement.

Papua New Guinea recently became the first country to formally submit the final version of its national climate action plan (called a “Nationally Determined Contribution,” or NDC) under the Paris Agreement. The small Pacific nation’s plan to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 is no longer just an “intended” nationally determined contribution (INDC) — it is now the country’s official climate plan.

The G20 meeting in Hangzhou, China, this September brings together leaders of the world’s largest economies for the first such gathering since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate. G20 Leaders Summits traditionally focus on economic growth and financial stability, but since more than 190 countries collectively agreed to greatly enhance mitigation of the causes and impacts of climate change, the need to tackle a changing climate and foster clean energy has become a clear economic and business reality.

By the time this column is published, oral arguments in the legal challenge to the Clean Power Plan will have already been made. The en banc panel of 10 appeals court judges is not likely to render its decision before the New Year.  No matter the opinion, it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

IT Services Giant Offers Update During Quarterly Financial Results Call
Cognizant estimates that the April ransomware attack that affected its internal network will cost the IT services firm between $50 and $70 million in losses, according to the company's latest financial results. Cognizant has said that the Maze ransomware gang is behind the attack.

The Lebanese Ministry of Information reported Tuesday the security situation in the northern city of Tripoli has deteriorated dramatically.

Rival parties to the conflict in South Sudan are putting military gains ahead of political settlement, a top U.N. official told the Security Council.

Elections can only be representative if all members of society, including women, play a role, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

The European Parliament said Thursday it was considering a unilateral move to give Ukraine relief from customs duties.

Officers in Punjab's police department, Pakistan's largest, are seen as undertrained and inefficient, but help may be on the way.

A U.N. special envoy on Palestinian issues said Friday it was time for the International Court of Justice to assess what he said was Israeli colonialism.

The provincial government in Pakistan's Sindh province is planning a literacy program to reach women and girls in remote areas via cell phones.

In 2013 we had the long awaited decisions in the combined appeals brought in the cases of Eweida and others v The United Kingdom.  These comprised the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, applying the right to freedom of thought cons...

Employment Tribunal statistics for the period October to December 2013 have shown a sharp decline in the number of Employment Tribunal claims brought since the fees regime was introduced last Summer. The statistics: in summaryThe latest statistics s...

Is it necessarily unlawful for an employer to dismiss an employee for incapability if she fails to return to work following the end of maternity leave, where the reason for the absence is post-natal depression (or other pregnancy-connected illness)?...

Mental illness, culpability and gross misconduct A recent appeal case illustrates the difficulties that can arise when dealing with instances of apparent misconduct where a mental impairment could have affected an employee’s ability to control ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim of disability discrimination brought by a wheelchair user who was unable to travel on a bus because the designated wheelchair space was already occupied by a passenger with a child in a buggy. The Court of A...

A recent ruling from the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) suggests that it will be difficult for an individual with type 2 diabetes (or some other impairment) to show that the condition, in itself, constitutes a disability if he or she can eliminate...

Bonus schemes operated by employers will often make eligibility dependant on matters such as attendance. A recent case illustrates how such schemes can fall foul of disability discrimination law. Background The Land Registry operated a discretionary...

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