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20.04.2021 (609 Clicks)

Strabag awarded major Motorway Contract in Poland

• 18.75 km section of the A2 between Siedlce West and Malinowiec
• Contract value: €153 million
• Completion: end of 2024

20.04.2021 (415 Clicks)

Overcoming Obstacles to find Opportunities in Climate Change

Climate change is one of the world’s toughest problems. On one side is how the drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions – whether they’re policy changes, technological advancements, or shifting access to capital – will affect our economic performance. The second is that, if these drivers aren’t successful in delivering the required level of emission reductions, we’re going to have increasingly erratic weather, which can also negatively affect the economy.

19.04.2021 (433 Clicks)

LKAB: Tests for heavier Transports on the Ore Railway

Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration), together with LKAB and Bane Nor, is conducting tests on the Swedish and Norwegian sections of the Ore Railway to enable heavier transports in future. Therefore, the axle load for ore cars is being increased from 30 tonnes to 31 tonnes.

19.04.2021 (604 Clicks)

Petropavlovsk announces the Appointment of Mr. Mikhail Irzhevsky as a Director

The board of directors of Petropavlovsk PLC announces the appointment of Mr. Mikhail Irzhevsky as an independent non-executive director with effect from 16 April 2021.

16.04.2021 (651 Clicks)

H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders develops new Technology to recycle Cobalt

Innovation project subsidized by the German state of Lower Saxony

16.04.2021 (406 Clicks)

Fugro’s Vulnerability Assessment informs Port of San Francisco’s safe and sustainable Future

Fugro has completed a geotechnical site characterisation, earthquake hazard and geotechnical vulnerability assessment for the Port of San Francisco’s multi-year, multi-billion dollar Waterfront Resilience Program. The work was conducted over a period of 3 years as part of a multi-hazard risk assessment (MHRA) to identify immediate and long-term hazards, such as those associated with earthquakes, flooding and sea-level rise. As the port’s lead geotechnical engineer for future programme phases, Fugro will use the MHRA inputs to develop and design optimal retrofit solutions for the port’s ageing seawall.

15.04.2021 (374 Clicks)

How can the EU ensure its Green Deal is a Real Deal for Nature and People?

As the EU looks forward to the recovery from Covid 19, so too must it look to ensuring full alignment of all policies with the European Green Deal. But it is not all down to the EU Commission, the Member States must rise to the challenge to achieve a truly green recovery.

Our economic system desperately needs a transformation and the European Green Deal might just be the ticket to success. It underlines that all aspects of our lives are dependent on healthy ecosystems and recognises how narrow sectorial approaches have been unable to address the current planetary emergency.

EU Commission President von der Leyen sent a strong message about the importance of intensified holistic action to preserve nature at the World Economic Forum, where she called for an ambitious Paris-style agreement for biodiversity. The EU must be a leader in this and ensure a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in line with the vision of the European Green Deal and vice versa.

Nonetheless, for the Green Deal to become a true game-changer, its ownership, solid implementing regulations, sufficient and targeted resource mobilisation for nature-based solutions and a strong assessment of the possible undesired effects outside of the EU need to be ensured.

The various sectors of society need to assume ownership of the Green Deal and understand the benefits of being part of it – this will be key to reaching ‘a just transition for all’, one of the headline objectives. Convening stakeholders and creating a space for dialogue, something that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) systematically ensures in the context of its work, is critical to meeting this need. Discussions should be supported by science-based knowledge which IUCN provides, in particular through its renowned European Red Lists of Species, reports on various key environmental issues, and recently, the IUCN Global Standard on Nature-based Solutions (NbS).

Legislative powers must be given to the Green Deal to ensure proper implementation with the full support from the EU Member States – fundamental instruments of implementation. Without their backing, the Green Deal risks becoming the umpteenth paper tiger of environmental policy. There are signs that Europe is moving in the right direction through the EU Nature Restoration Plan encompassed in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the call by MEPs for binding 2030 targets for materials use and consumption footprint.

Although developing agreed and legally-binding national targets for the protection and restoration of nature is key, legislative processes take time. EU Member States can and should already pledge at national level to move beyond ‘business as usual’ in order to rise up to the promises in the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, the Leaders Pledge for Nature and the #UnitedforBiodiversity coalition promoted by the EU and signed up to by a majority of EU countries.

National pledges must be clear and include four key cornerstones: increase well-managed protected areas, restore degraded ecosystems, move species off the Red List and invest more resources in nature recovery. So far, we have not seen many pledges for nature or a real ambition through a coalition of willing Member States, as we have seen with climate change. However, this is still possible in the run-up to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September and the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15) in October. The Bonn Challenge – to restore 350mn hectares of degraded ecosystems by 2030 – also has an important role to bring about action in the short term, but not a single Member State has provided a pledge here yet. 

As always, the buck stops where the money stops. The EU will have to increase the mobilisation of private and public funding for NbS considerably, while the new sustainable finance regulation should fully embrace the investments in nature and immediately halt biodiversity-harming subsidies. Bringing the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in line with the Green Deal is a clear credibility test for the EU and we still need to see this happen. Moreover, natural capital accounting practices must be mainstreamed in the financial sector and the Commission has taken a good first step by its foreseen proposal to include a new module on natural capital accounting in EU legislation, fully consistent with the recently launched UN framework. The IUCN Global Standard on NbS offers great opportunities to create a level playing field for investing in and scaling up the necessary protection and restoration of nature, while providing social and economic benefits to society. NbS in Europe should be implemented according to this standard. 

Finally, the Green Deal will not be credible if the EU doesn’t sufficiently consider its impact beyond its borders. The export of nature destruction goes against the very principles on which the green transition is built. Trade agreements need to reflect this; the ecological footprint of Europeans, which impacts nature in third countries, needs to be reduced drastically. To assure a global just transition, the EU will also have to multiply its support to developing countries to allow a fair share of natural capital to all. 

The dramatic events of 2020 have caused the unleashing of an unprecedented amount of funding to rebuild our societies. It is our duty towards this and future generations to put nature at the core of all sustainable finance efforts.

Source: Luc Bas, Regional Director for Europe, IUCN

                     

15.04.2021 (827 Clicks)

L.A. Metro Board awards Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners

• Bechtel innovative pre-development contract to create rail transit solution for one of the Nation’s most congested freeway corridors
• $69.9 million contract to advance high-speed, high-capacity rail proposal to connect San Fernando Valley to West Los Angeles & relieve I-405

14.04.2021 (478 Clicks)

Eiffage and Kier receive Notice to proceed for HS2, with their new partners, Ferrovial Agroman and BAM Nuttall

Eiffage and Kier receive Notice to Proceed for HS2, with their new partners, Ferrovial Agroman and BAM Nuttall

The Eiffage Kier joint venture, recently joined by two new partners Ferrovial Agroman and BAM Nuttall, is pleased that, it has received Notice to Proceed (NTP) from HS2 Limited, enabling it to commence the full detailed design and construction of 80km of Phase 1 of the HS2 railway (the route from London – Birmingham).

13.04.2021 (482 Clicks)

China Huaneng Group and Glencore sign MOU on CCUS Project

On 10 April at the 6th China International Conference on CO2 Capture Utilization and Storage, China Huaneng Group Clean Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd. and Carbon Capture Transport and Storage Company of Glencore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the cooperation on carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology, commencing with the CTSCo Project in Millmerran power station in Australia.