On 5 October the climate convention (UNFCCC) secretariat states that the threshold for entry into force of the Paris Agreement was achieved. This follows receipt of instruments of ratification of the EU and Canada. The Paris Agreement consequently enters into force a month later on 4 November. The speed at which countries ratified the agreement was unprecedented in international treaty-making history. To … more
On 6 September the Financial Times reports that most banks today deliver a return on equity (RoE) of only 5% – 10%. This is far from the high point in bank returns during years before the financial crisis of 2008 onwards. A decade earlier for example HSBC made a RoE of 17% and Goldman Sachs 25% – 30%. Non-Nordic European … more
From 5-21 August 2016 Rio de Janeiro hosts the Summer Olympic Games. The costs of hosting the Games include sports-related costs and broader infrastructure-related costs. The sports-related costs of Rio 2016 was estimated to be US$ 4.6 billion, some 51% over budget. With broader costs added, the overall cost was estimated at US$ 12 billion – of which the greater … more
Discretion vs transparency in banks reporting: time to raise the bar November 2016 User View by Liad Ortar, Head of The Corporate Social Responsibility Institute, College of Law and Business, Ramat Gan – Tel Aviv, Israel ONE would expect leading financial institutions to make a strong effort to uphold high standards of external reporting, while at the same time maintaining … more
