Liu Xiao spends her weeks visiting sludge and organic waste treatment plants across China. The travel can be tiring but as a technical and policy adviser on waste management she must help implement President
Pakistan's government plans to phase out politically-sensitive fuel subsidies during the new financial year that starts on Tuesday as it tries to bring a ballooning budget deficit under control, according to senior Pakistani officials. The government spent $2.4bn during the fiscal year that ended on Monday to subsidise domestic fuel prices and protect consumers from a sharp rise in global oil prices. But this has resulted in a sharp increase in the budget deficit, which is expected to reach about 6.5 per cent of gross domestic product, leading to a rethink by government ministers.
The waters are rarely calm for finance ministers attending Group of Eight meetings. As soon as the stewards of the global economy feel ready to take some pride in navigating through one squall, they get a better view of others looming ahead. At the G7 gatherings this year in Tokyo and Washington - Russia is only invited once a year - the prime concern was stabilising global financial markets as credit dried up, banks teetered and economic prospects dimmed.
Alcoa saw its shares fall 6.3 per cent yesterday after the US metals group said it would be unable to fulfil its alumina supply contracts and downgraded its second-quarter earnings estimates. This is one of the far-reaching consequences of last week's explosion at a key gas processing plant in Western Australia. Several other mining companies in the state, one of the world's most important minerals-producing regions, are also cutting targets for this year following the accident, which has reduced local gas supplies by 30 per cent.
France and Germany yesterday buried a disagreement over future European Union targets for car emissions, which had threatened a clash between the two partners just three weeks before Paris is to take over the EU's rotating presidency. Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy used a regular French-German cabinet meeting in Straubing, southern Germany, to announce the agreement on the measure - part of the EU's plan to cut CO 2 emissions by 20 per cent at least by 2020.
Japan will launch an experimental carbon trading scheme for industry this autumn, Yasuo Fukuda, prime minister, said yesterday as he announced a pledge to cut Japanese greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 per cent by 2050. In a speech laying out Japan's position on climate change ahead of a summit of the Group of Eight leading economies next month, Mr Fukuda, the meeting's host, said the world needed to "sever its reliance on fossil fuels" and "make a decisive turn toward a low-carbon society".
Vedanta Resources, the UK-listed mining group, is planning to invest $20bn in India in the next four years to expand its metals, mining and electricity generation operations in the country. The move by Vedanta, which controls Sterlite Industries, India's biggest producer of non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, copper and zinc, would follow recent acquisitions such as its $2.6bn takeover of US copper producer Asarco last month. Demand for copper in India was growing 8-10 per cent year-on-year, aluminium 10-12 per cent and zinc 13-14 per cent, Vedanta said.
British Energy, the nuclear generator, has rejected the bid approach from Electricit
Electricity consumption in Turkey is rising at between 8 and 10 per cent a year, and is expected to increase at much the same rate for at least the next two decades - creating a big headache for officials. Current estimates predict that, with demand rising faster than the pace at which power plants are being constructed, the country could face a power shortage.
The UK government has activated emergency planning with the oil industry ahead of a proposed four-day strike by tanker drivers, amid fears that filling stations across Britain could start running out of fuel from this weekend. John Hutton, business secretary, fears the strike could prompt much more extensive fuel shortages than those caused by the strike at a major refinery in Scotland in April, and has ordered officials to draw up contingency plans.
Hong Kong companies that reduce their carbon dioxide emissions in the city can now sell those cutbacks in a $12.9bn global carbon credit market created under the Kyoto protocol. The new arrangements, announced by the Hong Kong government yesterday, are a step towards rectifying an anomaly created by China's "one country, two systems" rule over its special administrative region. Under this rule, Hong Kong companies are treated no differently from foreign companies when doing business in China.
