Shipping contributes 3% of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, more than the UK and France combined. But despite that share, the industry has been moving slowly to decarbonize, in part because of the complexity of challenge: It requires coordination between all countries with a port and a highly fragmented private sector, where most companies own just a few ships.
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A.P. Moeller Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, announced an expansion of its air freight business this week, dipping into the record profits the company is earning during the pandemic-induced supply chain chaos. The deal included acquiring Senator, a German logistics company that runs 19 cargo flights a week around the world , for $644 million, two new Boeing 777F cargo planes that sell for about $350 million each in the open market, and leasing three more cargo planes.
When the Covid vaccine became available in Smrutiranjan Nanda’s home state of Odisha, in India, he took it, getting the first shot in March, and the second in April. It was a relief. India was in the midst of a brutal wave of the virus fueled by the Delta variant, and he had lost his mother to Covid. He did not want to be infected.
Scottish rail workers called off a planned strike during the COP26 climate meeting—they had used the global attention on Glasgow as leverage for ongoing negotiations over pay.
Nine global retailers, including Amazon, IKEA, Unilever, Patagonia, and Inditex, the fast fashion retailer that owns Zara, announced today (Oct. 19) that they will aim to progressively switch to zero-carbon vessels to ship their goods by 2040.
Last week, the Biden administration announced that the Port of Los Angeles, the country’s busiest container port, will operate on a 24/7 schedule to clear the backlog of ships jammed in the San Pedro Bay. The move is meant to loosen chokepoints as the US’s beleaguered supply chain limps toward the Christmas season.
It’s peak Christmas tree-buying season. That would normally be good news for companies like Balsam Hill, a California-based retailer of artificial trees.
“Some shippers are asking why now and why not go further?”
The Philippines is a democratic country enamored of political dynasties, and on Saturday, president Rodrigo Duterte named his heir—his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio—almost at the same time that he announced his retirement from politics.
Across China, lights are flickering off at homes and stoplights. Clothing manufacturers, aluminum smelters and factories turning out components for the likes of Apple and Tesla, are limiting production as provinces across China ration power.
China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies came to a head on Friday with an announcement that all crypto-related activities would now be illegal. The reasons for China’s increasingly severe bans on crypto range from its role as a vehicle for money laundering and smuggling, to environmental pollution and the intensive electricity used in mining for bitcoin.
In what was almost a throwaway line in his pre-recorded speech to the UN General Assembly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a new fossil fuels reduction pledge that many climate experts have been calling on China to make.
