Panorama: Emirates Labour Minister promises action

Saqr Gobash, the United Arab Emirates Minister for Labour, has promised to review and act upon the labor rights allegations made in a BBC documentary.

 

The documentary, "Slumdogs and Millionaires", produced by the BBC's Panorama current affairs program, investigated living conditions experienced by Asian construction workers in Dubai.

 

Gobash has promised to check the veracity of the claims made in the program against Arabtec and United Engineering Construction, a subcontractor of First Group, and to sanction any company found to have breached the country's labor laws and international labor commitments.

 

Separately, the ministry has announced a range of initiatives to improve worker conditions in the country, including the issue of a booklet informing workers of their rights under Emirates law.

• 0 Comments

The Disobedience Commences

You have to admire the survivor spirit and ingenuity.

 

The injustices of failing complex systems face the reaction of survivors. Survivors have the courage to deal with mangled values without violence.

 

The enforcement of the failed system naturally falls apart at its limits. Nice to see the limit and birth of the pendulum's return.

• 0 Comments

Sustainability training for mid-career execs

Some companies are taking seriously the challenge of bringing their employees up-to-date with tools for operating in a sustainability-focused economy.

 

This article from BusinessGreen mentions the Sustainability University launched by Jones Lang LaSalle and the Sustainability Leadership Certification Program at the University of California at Irvine.

• 0 Comments

The Empire State Building to lead on energy efficiency

$100 million in energy efficiency spending is to be added to a retrofit project due to start this summer, owners Wien & Malkin have announced.

 

The project is expected to save around $4.4 million per annum in energy costs. Some 54% of these savings will be achieved with the implementation of the first five stages of the project, which should be complete within 18 months at a cost of $20m.

 

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Rocky Mountain Institute have acted in advisory roles on the project, which its owners say aims to provide a model of eco-efficient retrofitting of city buildings.

 

Elements of the plan include window upgrades, insulation, a new air conditioning system that adjusts to demand and produces cool water, and energy efficient lighting.

 

According to the Reuters report, commercial buildings in New York City account for 79% of the city's carbon emissions.

• 0 Comments

Climate change: And now for the good news

While the climate change science being updated at the Copenhagen summit is depressing, simple energy efficiency measures could have a big effect.

So far, the conference has been big on expressing how much worse thigns are than previously thought. Sea levels are now expected to rise by around one metre by 2100, versus previous estimates of 18 - 59 centimetres.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, however:

"conference participant and Australian National University (ANU) academic Will Steffen says there is a glimmer of hope.

Experts are reporting the success of energy efficiency measures, which are slashing greenhouse gas emissions "at absolutely no impact on lifestyles or economies".

"There's actually a lot of good news in terms of a really broad range of things that we can do now," Professor Steffen told AAP from Copenhagen.

"That's a bit of an upper, a lot of people are quite impressed."

The conference was told that some regions had cut their emissions by a whopping 20 per cent through energy efficiency programs."

Energy efficiency measures include building or retrofitting homes and businesses with smarter designs, solar panels, insulation, and extending the benefit of efficiency gains through implementation of smart grid technologies so that surplus business or household renewable electricity generated can be uploaded to the grid.

• 0 Comments

Markets not providing a solution to climate change

Einstein would be nodding sagely; cap-and-trade based carbon markets are not leading to reductions in CO2 emissions.

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them", noted Einstein. A new report from BusinessWeek lends weight to his observation.

The European cap-and-trade system was designed to create a market in carbon emission permits and so put a price on carbon. The problem is that although a carbon market is taking shape, it is doing nothing to reduce carbon emissions.

The findings echo those of a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report last December.

So just as market economics has failed to take into account the externalized cost of carbon emissions, market economics is struggling to provide a solution.

The German Green party is starting to push for greater efficiency improvements in buildings as a quicker route to cutting carbon.

• 0 Comments

Virtual Alabama: Geospatial Model for Common Good

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has developed a geospational tool based on Google Earth to create and leverage a common operating picture.

Large volumes of GIS data are integrated to develop firewall-internet based tools for graphics that bridge communications across agencies serving both providers and users, especially response teams.

Google Earth and ALDHS continue to develop the platform for the needs of situational awareness through the integration of the even more information sources.

This is a forward-looking framework for security, environmental protection, emergency response, asset tracking, risk assessment and more.

It suggests a science fiction narrative that has come to life. Check out the YouTube link.

• 1 Comment