Group items tagged

"Banks said CalPERS' massive investments in China were estimated in 2018 to be $3.1 billion in at least 172 Chinese firms. He also noted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently told a meeting of the nation's governors that included Newsom that CalPERS "is invested in companies that supply the People's Liberation Army (PLA) that put our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines at risk.""

When we modeled what the next two decades would look like if we continued current underinvestment trends, we found that no industry is immune to water disruptions. The most water-reliant businesses will spend $250 billion in 2039 on costs related to water service disruptions. Less reliable water service would make industries less efficient and profitable, and the consequences would ripple across the entire economy, leading to more than $4.5 trillion in lost business sales, a $2.9 trillion decline in the gross domestic product (GDP), and 636,000 fewer jobs. Individual households and communities would also endure the consequences of underinvestment as more frequent and extreme weather inflict shutdowns, and street flooding deteriorating and rupturing water infrastructure. Without proper infrastructure investment, there will be greater costs to US households. At the current rate, costs will be seven times higher in 20 years than they are today, totaling $14 billion in 2039.

- By 2050 nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss and at least 700 will require hearing rehabilitation. - Over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. - An annual additional investment of less than US$ 1.40 per person is needed to scale up ear and hearing care services globally. - Over a 10-year period, this promises a return of nearly US$ 16 for every US dollar invested.

"Innovations in digital technology and the use of alternative data sources have decreased the cost and increased the speed of data collection and use. Harnessing this potential requires increased investment by donors and governments and a more effective approach that strengthens foundational data systems and governance frameworks, and supports local knowledge and capacity development. "

FORD is stepping up their game making $F LEAPs for 2023 a great investment! "Based on Ford's 1978 F-100 pickup, the all-electric all-wheel drive F-100 Eluminator has 480 horsepower and features Ford Performance Parts' Eluminator electric crate motor."

Would you eat meat grown in a lab to save the world? The $10 million award will enable the creation of the first-ever U.S. government-funded cultivated protein research center of excellence and represents U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s first investment in cultivated meat to date. USDA awarded the grant as a part of a $146 million investment in sustainable agricultural research projects announced by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack on October 6.

An executive summary for the plan for the Port of Virginia for 2065. Talks about increased capacity, need for better throughput and needed investments. Interestingly it doesn't touch on climate change issues per se.

Summary of the year for the Port of Virginia. They did not see the severe backlogs noted by some of the west coast ports. It also mentions their investment into automation.

Article centers on trade relations and its effects on different ports. It mentions west coast ports dominating US ports in volume, but other ports are continuing to grow. Talk of investment now for the future. This article is pre COVID, so it's interesting to see the ideas before the effects of the pandemic were realized.

The Aging Water Infrastructure (AWI) research program is part of EPA's larger effort called the Sustainable Water Infrastructure (SI) initiative. The SI initiative brings together drinking water and wastewater utility managers; trade associations; local watershed protection organizations; and federal, state, and local officials to ensure that all components of our nation's water infrastructure….drinking water treatment plants, drinking water distribution lines, sewer lines, and storage facilities….meet future needs. The AWI research program supports the four priority areas of the SI initiative's strategy: (1) Better Management - moving beyond compliance to sustainability and improved performance, (2) Full-cost Pricing - helping utilities to recognize the full cost of providing service over the long term, (3) Water Efficiency - promoting water efficiency in the residential and commercial sectors, (4) Watershed Approach - integrating watershed management principles and tools into utility planning and management practices. The driving force behind the SI initiative and the AWI research program is the "Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap Analysis." In this report, EPA estimated that if operation, maintenance, and capital investment remain at current levels, the potential funding shortage for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure could exceed $500 billion by 2020.

According to the new report released last week by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Value of Water Campaign, the United States is underinvesting in its drinking water and wastewater systems, putting American households and the economy at risk. The report, "The Economic Benefits of Investing in Water Infrastructure: How a Failure to Act Would Affect the U.S. Economy Recovery," finds that as water infrastructure deteriorates and service disruptions increase, annual costs to American households due to water and wastewater failures will be seven times higher in 20 years than they are today -from $2 billion in 2019 to $14 billion by 2039.

DRIVER-FUNDING-INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING INFRASTRUCTURE: The nationwide need for investment in water and wastewater infrastructure continues to far outpace the amount of funding that is available at all levels of government and the United States has an estimated need between $400 and $600 billion over the next 20 years for safe drinking water and wastewater treatment infrastructure. One of the primary sources of federal funding for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure are the highly successful, but chronically underfunded, Safe Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) programs. Modernizing and replacing aging water infrastructure may be the single largest public works endeavor in our nation's history. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap Analysis found a $540 billion gap between current spending and projected needs for water and wastewater infrastructure (combined) over 20 years. Other public studies conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and a private study produced by AGC partner, the Water Infrastructure Network, have similarly estimated the nation?s water infrastructure needs to range between $400 and $600 billion over a 20-year period.

This is a chapter excerpt from a very popular book on Nano Biopesticides. "Today's global population has reached 7 billion, and is projected to reach 9.2 billion by 2050, an increase of 30% (70 million per annum). This explosive increase of the global population is expected to increase the demand for food production by 70%, notably due to changes in dietary habits in developing countries toward high-quality food." There is public demand for an alternative to chemical pesticides as well as the financial incentives "biological pesticides require 3-6 years and an investment of around $15-20 million for development and registration compared to synthetic pesticides, which require 10 years and $200 million for their development." The article is longer than many but a broad spectrum introduction to the technology.

More than 80 percent of Gen Z and Millenials are using a money transfer app - compared to 50 percent of baby boomers More than 80 percent of respondents have not used a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and nearly 75 percent avoid credit card debt generally or entirely MX, Finn AI, Q2 and Rival Technologies' white paper explores the use of financial products and services by baby boomers, millennials, and Gen Z

Yes, don't forget the Retail Trading boom with the increase in investment app usage. The 0% commissions a trade started by RobinHood disrupted major Brokers to compete. Think Or Swim and China's Webull are also big ones.

Mobile money has grown quickly in Africa and other countries with large unbanked populations. The activity and market share is attracting international and US investment and could herald a change in US options and activity for the unbanked or underbanked.

"The defining characteristic of this new version of the creative class may not be where it lives, but its ability to live anywhere it wants. Put differently, people move to certain cities in search of better-paying jobs, but it's now possible to earn high (if not the highest) salaries from almost anywhere. That has been true in certain smaller cities in recent years (Austin and Denver in the United States, for example, and Manchester and Leeds in Britain). To a lesser extent, it has also been true for people who chose not to live in cities at all." Workers hold the power and they need to be able to live and work where they want when they want. We're very reliant on humans, we need to make them valued and show that we are investing in the things they care about.

Treasury's just-released Climate Action Plan establishes five priority actions to strengthen and build upon Treasury's climate resilience and adaptive capabilities: (1) rebuilding programs and capabilities that may have atrophied or stagnated in recent years; (2) addressing climate change impacts and vulnerabilities across the range of Departmental operations, including administrative, manufacturing, and law enforcement activities; (3) ensuring a climate-focused approach to managing Treasury's real property portfolio footprint; (4) enabling procurement management to fully consider climate change realities; and (5) providing, measuring, and accounting for a financial investment approach appropriate to the Department's climate objectives.

The growth of the shipping industry and its corresponding carbon emissions. If he shipping industry were its own country, it would be th 6th largest producer of carbon emissions. It calls on investments from private sector to governments for the maritime industry to meet its 2050 net 0 carbon emission target

Fully electric trucks, often referred to as commercial battery electric trucks, are reaching wider-scale consideration as truck, engine, and other component makers are developing the systems that will support such vehicles. Battery and power-electronic development has progressed to make these trucks viable in certain applications. These trucks will have many benefits (more renewable energy, simpler design, etc.), but come with challenges (need for new infrastructure, development investments, etc.).

The rapid uptake of mobile money in recent years has generated new data needs and growing interest in understanding its impact on broad money. This paper reviews mobile money trends using mobile money data from the Financial Access Survey (FAS) and examines the statistical treatment of mobile money under the IMF's Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) framework. MFS guidance is straightforward in most cases, as many jurisdictions have adopted regulations which ensure that mobile money is captured in the banking system and thus in the calculation of broad money. However, in cases where mobile network operators (MNOs) act as niche financial intermediaries outside the banking regulatory perimeter and are allowed to invest their customer funds in sovereign securities and other permitted assets, mobile money liabilities may remain outside the banking system as well as monetary statistics. In that case, information on mobile money liabilities need to be collected directly from MNOs to account for mobile money as part of broad money.