<p>In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating
Chicago wheat prices rose by the most in more than five years, breaching $12 a bushel for the first time as investors poured money into agricultural commodities on signs that global crop production isn't keeping pace with demand. Global wheat stockpiles will probably fall to a 30-year low this year, while corn inventories are headed for the lowest since 1984, the US department of agriculture said on February 8. Almost $1.5 billion flowed into farm commodities in the week to February 19, investment bank UBS AG said in an e-mailed report on Monday. Wheat, soybeans, corn and palm oil are among commodities that touched records this month, stoking prices of bread, pasta and noodles worldwide. The gains have driven up costs for food Companies from Kellogg Co to Nissin Food Products Co and complicated efforts to curb prices in China, India and Malaysia. "Speculators keep jumping into the market as supplies are very tight globally, especially spring wheat,' Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst with Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co. Dry conditions in some wheat-producing areas in northern China and also lent support, he said. Wheat for May delivery rose by the daily limit of 90 cents, or 8%, to $12.145 a bushel in after-hours trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, the biggest one-day percentage gain since October 2002. Record prices, led by scarce high-protein varieties, have not deterred buyers. Export sales from the US, the world's largest shipper of the grain, are up 56% since June 1 compared with the same period a year earlier. Global wheat stockpiles may fall to 109.7 million metric tonne by May 31, while corn inventories may decline to 101.9 million tonne as of October 1, the US government estimated on February 8. US inventories of wheat will drop to 7.4 million tonne, the lowest for the end of the marketing year since 1948, according to the USDA. Hard-red spring varieties, traded in Minneapolis, are in short supply as dry weather curbed output last year in the US and Canada. On the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, wheat for May delivery advanced $1.35, or 7.9%, to $18.4325 a bushel. The March contract, which has no limit because it is the closest to delivery, rose as high as $24.26 a bushel, after Monday becoming the first US wheat contract to top $20 a bushel. On the Kansas City Board of Trade, hard-red winter wheat for May delivery also rose as much as the 90-cent limit, or 7.7%, to $12.65 a bushel. Q4 earnings at Kellogg Co, fell 3.3% as price increases failed to keep pace with the higher expense of making Eggos, Frosted Mini-Wheat cereal and cookies.
To its opponents, China's Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River is all the more tragic because it has a historical precedent. Built in the 1950s, the huge Sanmenxia
Japan's top three carmakers produced a record number of vehicles globally last month, highlighting the resilience of the Japanese car industry in the face of a higher yen, soaring oil prices and slowing economic activity in key markets. Toyota said January production for the group, which includes Daihatsu, the mini-vehicle maker, and Hino, the truckmaker, rose 8.2 per cent to a record 801,873. Japan's largest vehicle maker is experiencing strong demand in emerging markets, such as China, India and Russia, which has more than offset slight weaknesses in the US and Europe.
An Australian subsidiary of CLP Holdings Ltd, the larger of Hong Kong's two power utilities, has agreed with Melbourne-based Solar Systems to develop the world's largest solar power station. TRUenergy will contribute an initial A$7 million ($6.5 million) to develop a 2-megawatt heliostat concentrated photovoltaic pilot plant, subsequently investing up to A$285 million to build the remaining stages of the 154 megawatt project in northern Victoria, Australia, CLP said. The Australian and Victorian governments have also committed to fund development of the HK$2.9 billion ($371 million) project, which will be capable of powering 45,000 homes. Work will begin in 2009. CLP's shares were up 3.8 percent in mid-morning trade, outperforming a flat Hong Kong market. TRUenergy has taken a 20 percent stakeholding in Solar Systems, a private company that has been developing solar technology for 17 years. CLP also entered into a 10-year agreement with Solar Systems to deploy photovoltaic technology in the Asia Pacific region, including China. The Hong Kong-based firm has hit a target of generating 5 percent of its capacity from renewable energy by the end of 2007, three years ahead of schedule, it said. Its latest solar development agreements will make an important contribution to a new target of sourcing 20 percent of its power from non-carbon-emitting generation technologies by 2020, it added. (US$1=A$1.082=HK$7.8) (Reporting by Judy Hua; Editing by Edmund Klamann) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
NEARLY half of the world's 1.3 billion smokers live in China, India and Indonesia, the three largest consumers of tobacco products. In China alone, more people smoke than live in the United States. Those countries and others in the developing world represent promising frontiers for the big tobacco companies as they move to win over existing smokers and, according to a new report by the World Health Organization, convince teenagers and women to light up. Smoking has declined slowly in the West. But over the last four decades it has grown steadily in the developing world, in fact, during that time, the respective shares of global cigarette consumption between rich and poor nations flipped:Tobacco products already are responsible for about 5.4 million deaths a year from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, according to the W.H.O., an arm of the United Nations. If trends continue, that number will rise to more than eight million annually by 2030, the agency estimated, with 80 percent of those deaths in the developing world. The eventual toll from tobacco products could be a billion deaths in this centuff, the report said - 10 times the 100 million smoking-related deaths that occurred in the 20th century. The W.H.O. tracked the vigor of tobacco controls worldwide and found them especially weak in poorer nations. One reason is that many governments are in the tobacco business and rely on it for revenue. Case in point: the world's largest cigarette maker is the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation. BILL MARSH China Has 30 percent of the wodd's smokers. India Has 11 percent of the world's smokers. Indonesia Has 5 percent of the world s smokers Below are percentages of adult smokers in China, India and indonesia - defined by the United Nations as those 15 years and older - and nonsmokers who offer a potentially fucrative market for tobacco products
An Australian subsidiary of CLP Holdings Ltd, the larger of Hong Kong's two power utilities, has agreed with Melbourne-based Solar Systems to develop the world's largest solar power station. TRUenergy will contribute an initial A$7 million ($6.5 million) to develop a 2-megawatt heliostat concentrated photovoltaic pilot plant, subsequently investing up to A$285 million to build the remaining stages of the 154 megawatt project in northern Victoria, Australia, CLP said. The Australian and Victorian governments have also committed to fund development of the HK$2.9 billion ($371 million) project, which will be capable of powering 45,000 homes. Work will begin in 2009. CLP's shares were up 3.8 percent in mid-morning trade, outperforming a flat Hong Kong market. TRUenergy has taken a 20 percent stakeholding in Solar Systems, a private company that has been developing solar technology for 17 years. CLP also entered into a 10-year agreement with Solar Systems to deploy photovoltaic technology in the Asia Pacific region, including China. The Hong Kong-based firm has hit a target of generating 5 percent of its capacity from renewable energy by the end of 2007, three years ahead of schedule, it said. Its latest solar development agreements will make an important contribution to a new target of sourcing 20 percent of its power from non-carbon-emitting generation technologies by 2020, it added. (US$1=A$1.082=HK$7.8) (Reporting by Judy Hua; Editing by Edmund Klamann) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Energy security has to go hand in hand with economic development and environmental protection.
AFTER putting up a rather robust macroeconomic performance over the past five years, the Indian economy is now facing some challenges. One expects that the finance minister will address these challenges in a manner that the economy is able to sustain the 9% plus growth trajectory uninterrupted.
POLITICS and jittery equity indices are making the global carbon credit markets nervous. Carbon credit prices have plunged in the last few weeks. This could be troubling for major supplier India, which sold 20 million carbon credits in 2007, and has a larger number in the pipeline. The bad news is there is little likelihood of things settling down any time soon.
