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by Daniel ARONSSOHN Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The European Commission on Wednesday defied angry dissent from EU governments and protests from green campaigners to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power. Austria warned it will go to court to try to halt the measure, while Germany — which backed the inclusion of gas — called extending the labelling to nuclear “unacceptable”. Critics of nuclear energy point to […]
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – Austria will challenge a European Commission decision to give a sustainable finance label to investments in nuclear power, the environment minister said Wednesday. The European Commission defied protests from green campaigners and dissent in its own ranks to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power on Wednesday. The EU argues that both have a role to play as cleaner power sources during the transition to […]
by Alex PIGMAN Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The EU will face the fury of opponents to nuclear and gas energy on Wednesday when it proposes new criteria for a “green label” for investment projects intended to help fight climate change. The fight over the European Union’s classification of power sources is the latest dust-up in discussions between the 27 member states on how to achieve a net zero-carbon economy by 2050. Brussels had […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Finance minister Rishi Sunak is to announce plans to make Britain the world’s first net zero financial services centre by 2050, the Treasury said Tuesday. The chancellor of the exchequer will set out the plans on carbon emissions in a speech at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow on Wednesday morning. Sunak will unveil proposals for financial institutions and listed companies that operate primarily in Britain to be required […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) – New Zealand pledged Monday to quadruple foreign aid spending on climate change, addressing its “woefully inadequate” response to the challenge in recent decades. As representatives from around the world prepare for a landmark UN summit on global warming, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wellington would lift its climate aid budget to $930 million over four years. Ardern said at least half the money would go to Pacific island nations, many […]
More than a dozen heads of state and government, from Jordan to Azerbaijan, Kenya and the Czech Republic, have used offshore tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a far-reaching new investigation by the ICIJ media consortium. The so-called “Pandora Papers” investigation — involving some 600 journalists from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The Guardian — is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents […]
BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — DR Congo’s health authorities have failed to explain where millions of dollars meant for building hospitals and other treatment centres have gone, a public accountability group said on Monday. The Congolese arm of the Publish What You Pay global network — primarily concerned with transparency in the resources sector — said it looked into 35 of 77 projects funded in the 2019 budget to the tune of 9.6 billion CFA francs […]
Haiti, Malta, Philippines and South Sudan were placed Friday on a “grey list” of countries under increased monitoring to counter money laundering and terrorist financing. The Financial Action Task Force, an international organisation that coordinates global efforts to crack down on money laundering and terrorism financing, said nations on the list are working with it to correct deficiencies in their financial systems. The additions bring to 22 the number of countries currently under increased […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Philippine investigators have lodged criminal complaints against a former executive of collapsed German payments firm Wirecard and others for alleged bank fraud and cybercrime offences, the justice secretary said Monday. Wirecard was once a rising star in the fintech sector until it filed for bankruptcy last year after admitting that 1.9 billion euros ($2.3 billion) was missing from its accounts. The money was supposedly held in trust in two Philippine lenders […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of ecommerce giant Aibaba, is going to step down as president of the elite business school he founded after having been caught in a Beijing clampdown on tech titans, the Financial Times reported Monday. Ma, formerly one of China’s most flambouyant entrepreneurs, has largely disappeared from public view since Alibaba’s fintech arm was investigated and fined by regulators for alleged monopolistic practices. The Financial Times report […]
by Sebastien Ricci with Joseph Sotinel in London NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Bitcoin’s value plunged on Wednesday after China signaled a new crackdown on the cryptocurrency, but its losses were cushioned after Tesla head Elon Musk spoke up on Twitter. The virtual currency fell to almost $30,000 — less than half the record value it reached last month — before climbing back over $39,500 around 2000 GMT. It was still above its level […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada’s finance minister Bill Morneau announced his resignation Monday, on the heels of an ethics scandal and amid a reported split with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over pandemic spending. Morneau, who has held the post since 2015, told a news conference that he met with Trudeau to inform him that he would not run in the next election, and that a new finance minister with a long-term outlook was needed. “As […]
