Economics

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Fossil Fuels Receive $500 Billion A Year In Government Subsidies Worldwide

Tue, 2013-11-19 09:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Credit: Shutterstock

thinkgrogress.org - by Emily Atkin - November 7, 2013

Producers of oil, gas and coal received more than $500 billion in government subsidies around the world in 2011, with the richest nations collectively spending more than $70 billion every year to support fossil fuels.

Those are the findings of a recent report by the Overseas Development Institute, a think tank based in the United Kingdom.

“If their aim is to avoid dangerous climate change, governments are shooting themselves in both feet,” the report, headed by ODI research fellow Shelagh Whitley, said. “They are subsidizing the very activities that are pushing the world towards dangerous climate change, and creating barriers to investment in low-carbon development and subsidy incentives that encourage investment in carbon-intensive energy.”

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Al Gore: world is on brink of 'carbon bubble'

Sun, 2013-11-03 22:30 — Gina Angiola

Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent. theguardian.com, Thursday 31 October 2013 21.08 EDT

The world is on the brink of the "largest bubble ever" in finance, because of the undisclosed value of high-carbon assets on companies' balance sheets, and investment managers who fail to take account of the risks are failing in their fiduciary duty to shareholders and investors, Al Gore and his investment partner, David Blood, have said.

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Achieving Resiliency and Peace in Abyei

Sat, 2013-09-28 15:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Photo / AP

huffingtonpost.com - by Pam Omidyar - September 23, 2013

Historians have well documented the changing characteristics of war over the past century, from those fought across borders to, increasingly, those fought within borders. There is a general perception that portrays these civil conflicts as battles for power, fought by equals. Yet in the case of Sudan, war is most often fought between government supported soldiers and civilian populations. . .

. . . Recently, an outstanding research report, Stabilizing Abyei: Trauma and the Economic Challenges of Peace, was released, that highlights the relationship between traumatized people and their outlook and capacity for reconciliation and peace.

Research Report - Stabilizing Abyei: Trauma and the Economic Challenges of Peace

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Resilience

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2.5 Billion People Don't Have Access To A Toilet. Here's Why You Should Care. (INFOGRAPHIC)

Fri, 2013-09-13 17:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A woman and her child walk between shacks, past a communal toilet in Khayelitsha township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. South African President Jacob Zuma says mayors need to clean up corruption and stop political squabbling in the face of sometimes violent protests over lack of city services. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

huffingtonpost.com - by Jessica Prois - September 12, 2013

The infographic below highlights the fact that 2.5 billion people have to seek out other options in lieu of a loo -- and it's just not OK.

Funny euphemisms aside, the World Bank created this illustration to detail the fact that lack of access to sanitation costs the world $260 billion yearly in health and productivity.

Health costs include $51 million spent on medication, transportation and hospitalization.

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For The First Time Ever, Combined GDP Of Poor Countries Exceeds That Of Rich Ones (CHART)

Wed, 2013-08-28 21:07 — Kathy Gilbeaux

huffingtonpost.com - by David Yanofsky - August 28, 2013

For the first time ever, the combined gross domestic product of emerging and developing markets, adjusted for purchasing price parity, has eclipsed the combined measure of advanced economies. Purchasing price parity—or PPP for short—adjusts for the relative cost of comparable goods in different economic markets.

According to the International Monetary Fund—the supplier of this data—emerging and developing economies will have a purchasing price parity-adjusted GDP of $42.8 trillion in 2013, while that of emerging economies will be $44.4 trillion. In other words, emerging markets will create $1.6 trillion more value in goods and services than advanced markets this year.

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Arctic Methane Time Bomb Could Have Huge Economic Costs

Mon, 2013-07-29 11:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Increasing temperatures in the Arctic region are reducing sea ice cover and increasing the possibility of methane leaching from the sea bed

bbc.co.uk - by Matt McGrath - July 24, 2013

Scientists say that the release of large amounts of methane from thawing permafrost in the Arctic could have huge economic impacts for the world.

The researchers estimate that the climate effects of the release of this gas could cost $60 trillion (£39 trillion), roughly the size of the global economy in 2012.

The impacts are most likely to be felt in developing countries they say.

The research has been published in the journal Nature.

RESEARCH - NATURE - Climate science: Vast costs of Arctic change

Climate science: Vast costs of Arctic change (3 page .PDF file)

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Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2013

Mon, 2013-07-22 22:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

globalhumanitarianassistance.org - July 17, 2013

‘Year of perpetual crises’ exposes chronic poverty and vulnerability

Geneva: The Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report 2013, released today by Development Initiatives at the UN’s ECOSOC meeting, highlights the absence of any ‘mega-disasters’ [1] in 2012 but reveals the perpetual vulnerability of the poorest people in developing countries and their persistent exposure to crises.

The GHA report, the most comprehensive annual review of humanitarian financing, highlights the shocking death toll of the hunger crisis in Somalia, with 257,000 people (or 4.6% of the population) estimated to have died between 2010 and 2012.

Judith Randel, Executive Director of Development Initiatives, said:“The data shows that the response to slow-onset crises such as Somalia is often late, resulting in huge numbers of unnecessary deaths. By intervening earlier, as well as investing in mechanisms that reduce risk, donors could save more lives and protect more livelihoods - probably at lower cost.”

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Predicting the Next Financial Collapse

Sun, 2013-06-30 19:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux

J. Kyle Bass, a Dallas-based investor, forecasted the mortgage bubble and the European collapse. But what happens if his third prediction comes true?

texasmonthly.com - by Paul McDonnold - May 7, 2013

J. Kyle Bass has a knack for forecasting economic trouble. Back in 2006 the Dallas-based investor observed that there was a seemingly unstoppable market for sub-prime mortgages. But research convinced him the market was wildly overvalued, that it was a quasi-pyramid scheme built on low interest rates, inflated home prices and bundles of shaky loans made to people who couldn’t really afford the payments.

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Collapse

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Could Climate Bonds Become a Major Force in Green Finance?

Thu, 2013-06-27 13:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez

environmentalleader.com - June 3, 2013

So-called “green” or “climate” bonds, being issued by a number of financial institutions and state governments as a means of generating funding for sustainable development and clean energy technology, are becoming increasingly popular and could become a major new force in the green investment world, according to the Globe-Net.

The World Bank developed the Green Bond concept in 2007/2008 and simplicity is key to its popularity, according to Globe-Net blog post. The World Bank’s green bonds are triple-A rated and can be traded as easily as other “vanilla” investments, offering investors a high rate of liquidity.