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Bayzat secures $5m for insurance and HR service
 Bayzat, a provider of insurance and HR solutions in the MENA region, announced it has secured an additional $5 million in funding led by Silicon Badia, a VC firm based in the MENA region and in the US, alongside existing investors BECO Capital and Hamed Kanoo Co LLC.

This additional funding brings Bayzat’s total funding in this Series A-1 round to over $8 million after the company received its initial funding tranche earlier this year from strategic investors.

Bayzat was founded by entrepreneurs Talal Bayaa and Brian Habibi and is currently headquartered Dubai. It has so far 18,000 lives insured through their site.

According to Bayaa, CEO, the desire to allocate more resources towards developing his firm’s HR software is a decision borne of experience. “The Middle East’s technology market is undeveloped, particularly in the form of SaaS. Companies are restricted to paper-driven archaic processes because they are not aware of any alternatives. Inefficient procedures like manual employee record management and payroll are a drain on businesses and their employees, and yet it continues to flourish here; one of the most forward-thinking countries on the planet! It’s a pain point we see across the region that desperately needs resolving.”

“Bayzat’s dual strategy and core focus on building unique technology for this market is what attracted us to this business initially,” said Namek Zu'bi, managing partner, Silicon Badia when discussing their investment.

Since its launch in 2015, Bayzat has experienced exceptional year-on-year growth (over 350 percent increase in revenue). Supplemented by the region’s switch to mandatory insurance and the mounting need for technology solutions for both insurance and business processes, the startup has succeeded in capturing a portion of a $30 billion premium market in the MENA region.

With a firm foothold on the current insurance landscape, Bayzat has started bolstering its efforts to refining its burgeoning HR automation platform —Bayzat Benefits.

Since Bayzat Benefit’s induction, the platform has introduced a host of different tools and automation prospects to alleviate mundane company administrative work. These include OCR technology, which gives users the ability to extract important information (from passports of Emirates IDs) directly from scanned images, and enables professionals from all departments to upload sensitive data quickly directly onto Bayzat’s platform.

Bayzat’s latest addition, payroll, looks to streamline a pivotal area for finance and HR management. Employees uploaded onto Bayzat Benefits’ will have their salary and commission information stored and configured automatically, allowing finance and HR professionals to allocate more time to nurturing their other responsibilities.

Output: Insurance and HR solutions provider Bayzat has raised an extra $5m funding for its services in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Dubai-based company already provides life insurance to 18,000 through its site, but wants to further develop its HR software offering. The additional funding was led by venture capitalist firm Silicon Badia, alongside existing investors BECO Capital and Hamed Kanoo, and takes the total raised in the round to more than $8m.


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Video-streaming channels in US cut spending on original shows
 The video bubble hasn’t burst quite yet, but it sure has deflated for video makers looking to sell short-form content to streaming platforms.

Over the past few months, several high-profile video streaming platforms have either shut down or scaled back their spending on original content. So far this fall, NBCUniversal closed the doors on Seeso, its $3.99-per-month comedy streaming service that offered everything from short- and long-form original series to full episodes of “Saturday Night Live.” Similarly, Fullscreen announced in November that it was shutting down its $4.99-per-month subscription streaming service, following Comcast, which put Watchable on life support, and Spotify pulling back on spending.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s Go90, another high-profile buyer of short- and mid-form video shows over the past few years, has cut spending as the company rethinks its original content strategy, according to multiple content partners. It’s all up in the air, as Verizon’s big Oath merger — during which Verizon’s top media executive, Marni Walden, left the company — has slowed the Go90 team. “The people over [at Go90] said that it’s all being worked out, but it takes time to integrate,” said one Go90 partner.

The tumult has created an uneasy environment for video producers, digital studios and publishers, all of which were able to make money from platforms willing to fund original content but now face a tenuous market where it’s not exactly clear who will buy digital video programming in 2018 and beyond. That’s a major problem for those banking on the scramble for digital video programming to make up for the dominance of Google and Facebook. In fact, the one player still cutting checks for content is a familiar face.

“The only company who is buying [short form] in bulk right now is Facebook,” said an executive at a digital studio that has content deals with Facebook and Go90.

“In terms of short-form content buyers, almost everyone we saw two years ago is gone from the market,” said Eric Korsh, president of Mashable Studios. “Red Bull, Comcast, Verizon and others are either going back to their roots or reimagining their role in short-form video — which currently amounts to the same thing.”

The platforms want to go longer

As one digital studio executive put it, a wide majority of the original digital video programming market today — at least in the U.S. — is covered by Facebook, YouTube Red and Go90. The remaining buyers are smaller and niche video players that might buy some shows here and there, he said, but if you’re looking to consistently sell what people have traditionally called “web series,” Facebook, YouTube Red and Go90 are it.

But all three of those platforms are also moving in the direction of longer-form content. In Facebook’s latest wave of funding for Watch, it’s pushing content partners to make their shows longer. YouTube is spending between $500,000 and $1 million — and in some cases even more — per episode on TV-quality original projects, sources have previously told Digiday. And in August, Verizon hired longtime CBS executive Chris Castallo as head of development for Go90, a move that points to Go90 potentially moving in the direction of acquiring longer-form shows, one Go90 partner said.

For many digital media companies, a decision by Go90 to venture into more TV-sized original fare would be a big blow. Verizon has spent a ton on the belief that there’s an audience for a streaming platform that offers well-produced programming from top digital talent. Audiences haven’t exactly agreed.

“We’re seeing a flight to quality and investments in longer-form storytelling from companies from Facebook and YouTube Red to Comedy Central, IFC, NBC and Turner,” said Marc Hustvedt, CEO of digital studio Above Average. “These and other buyers recognize the audience value of hit programming with strong characters that are given room to breathe and develop, which is frankly refreshing.”

The money is still in (streaming) TV

The market for short-form originals might be thinning, but that’s not the case for original video programming in general. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, Facebook and YouTube are all considered big buyers of content — it’s just that the content these companies want is more premium TV fare than what’s typically found on web video platforms.

Netflix plans to spend $8 billion on content in 2018. Amazon, meanwhile, reportedly spent close to $250 million just to buy the rights to “The Lord of the Rings” and plans to make a high-profile drama series from the deal, which would cost additional hundreds of millions of dollars over multiple seasons. Hulu is spending more on premium cable TV-quality shows, spurred on by its landmark Emmy-winning hit “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Apple, which is one of the newest buyers in this area, has a budget of $1 billion and two TV executives at the helm to fulfill its own content ambitions. And as mentioned earlier, Facebook and YouTube are increasingly looking for TV-quality projects with TV-level budgets.

“Those guys are not digital, really; they’re TV,” said one longtime TV and digital video producer. “When you talk to Netflix these days, they don’t give a shit that you can produce something cheaper than anybody else. They’re competing with ‘Game of Thrones’; they’re OK with spending $15 million per episode if they need to.”

While this can be an exciting opportunity for video producers to create breakthrough shows, the simple truth is that most digital media companies do not have the necessary background and skill sets required to package and produce TV shows. It’s something top publishers including BuzzFeed, Bleacher Report and Refinery29 are working toward, especially by creating studio and entertainment divisions focused on longer-form content.

“[TV] is what everyone is trying to get into,” said a second digital studio executive. “This cycle is less digital buyers and more TV buyers, and everyone is trying to swim toward that. But there’s a certain pedigree you need to have to go to [the streaming and TV] players that many digital shops do not have. That plays itself out in how someone talks about a project, how it’s packaged, what kind of stars are attached and how many scripts you have written. These seem like small things, but it takes time to build that muscle.”

The hope for a rebound

While there are fewer buyers of short-form video today, not everyone is convinced this will remain the case. Multiple sources said this is just a phase, and the market will pick back up eventually.

Verizon, for instance, remains ambitious about video. Maybe Go90 does not exist in its current form down the road, but Verizon is still expected to be a buyer of video. Facebook’s experiment with Watch could also work out, convincing the company to spend more on both short-form and long-form original programs beyond 2018.

“We are in an adjustment period about what works and what doesn’t. But premium, high-quality, short-form originals are certainly not going away,” said Peter Csathy, founder of media advisory firm Creatv Media, who pointed to niche OTT buyers such as Crypt TV and Vrv as companies that are still interested in commissioning such content. “And with greater competition in the OTT video world, suppliers of premium short-form content will play an increasingly critical role.”

Still, it’s a fraught time for many digital video makers. More buyers could enter the marketplace but could just as easily leave if their video efforts don’t pan out the way they haven’t for Seeso, Watchable and others.

“This is ultimately very healthy for the marketplace,” said Hustvedt. “When you’re in the business of supplying original programming to platforms, you would rather see fewer buyers that you know can support multiple seasons in success, rather than a gaggle of upstarts overpaying today but that might not be around next year.”

Output: Video-streaming platforms have started to scale back on original short-form content, creating an uneasy environment for producers. NBCUniversal recently shut down Seeso, its $3.99 a month comedy streaming service that offered both short and long-form content, alongside full episodes of series such as Saturday Night Live. In addition Full Screen closed its $4.99 a month streaming service. Spotify has reduced spending while Comcast's Watchable has pulled out of funding original content. This has created difficult market conditions for content producers, digital studios and publishers; however, Facebook remains a big spender, especially for long-form content.


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Ad buyers look beyond YouTube because of brand safety concerns
 The end of the year is regularly a good time for those selling quality video. It’s even better this year, thanks to concerns about brand safety brought on by YouTube’s continued controversies and a desire by brands to stay away from political news.

According to ad buyers, that’s meant adding spending on outlets like Hulu and ESPN. Conversations with four media agencies executives show that not every client is halting advertising on YouTube and hard news sites, but in general, programmatic video CPMs at nonpolitical publishers and connected TV providers like Apple TV and Amazon Fire have been increasing, which could partially be ascribed to clients’ growing demand for brand-safe content, according to agency executives.

“I think video CPMs on Hulu have increased around 20 percent year over year, even more expensive than prime-time TV sometimes,” said a media head from a Chicago-based agency. “Generally speaking, open exchange video CPMs are up 5 to 8 percent year over year.”

The agency executive said two financial services clients have stopped programmatic ads from politics news on any site since around a year ago — and the two brands haven’t gone back to advertising on hard news sites today — while most clients that target millennials and younger audiences now feel comfortable with advertising on YouTube.

“We haven’t started to do a big shift into premium programmatic video yet, largely because that is typically a large holding-company level private marketplace deal tactic,” said this person. “For certain luxury clients like automotive, it may make sense to cherry-pick premium video inventory, but largely we don’t see the economy of scale in [PMPs].”

Brand-safety concerns have changed where ad buyers spent their video budgets this year. Standard Media Index surveyed 14 video networks and platforms — including YouTube, Snapchat, Roku, Facebook, Viacom and Hulu — and found that in terms of direct buys, YouTube — while the largest by video ad spend volume — is the only company where brands’ video ad spend declined, by 9 percent year over year, from when brand-safety discussions started in April to October. In comparison, during the same period, brands’ video ad spend on Roku, Snapchat and Hulu increased by 154 percent, 50 percent and 19 percent year over year, respectively.

Standard Media Index said the above numbers are based on media-buying invoices, and its survey pool represents approximately 70 percent of all U.S. ad agency spend. But the company doesn’t distribute dollar figures for its digital data because it doesn’t cover the complete digital market.

Rory O’Flaherty, vp of performance media for agency Huge, said every client’s brand-safety tolerance is different: Some brands take an audience-first approach so they are more lenient, while others don’t want to be adjacent to news content at all. But a bigger trend is more programmatic ad spend is going into video on demand or connected TV, which is relatively brand-safe and the actual creative is great, he said.

“Generally speaking, we haven’t seen much increase in programmatic video CPMs, but more ad demand definitely goes to certain publishers based on brand safety and high viewability,” said O’Flaherty. “But remember, if you pull ads from YouTube and news sites altogether, you are losing lots of benefits in reaching your audience.”

Output: Brand safety concerns about YouTube have led to increased spending on video outlets such as ESPN and Hulu, as well as Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Open exchange video CPMs have increased 5% to 8% year on year, according to agency executives, with agencies seeking non-political sites to avoid controversy. Research from Standard Media Index on 14 video networks and platforms, such as YouTube, Snapchat, Roku, Facebook, Viacom and Hulu, found that YouTube was the only platform where video ad spend declined year on year, in its case by 9%.


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Dubai's SellAnyHome.com claims it can sell a home in 30 minutes
 Wanna sell your house in 30 minutes in Dubai?

Omar Chihane aims to make SellAnyHome.com a stock exchange for properties.

dubai - SellAnyHome.com is an online marketplace for property buyers and sellers

by Deepthi Nair Published: Tue 5 Dec 2017, 6:27 PM Last updated: Tue 5 Dec 2017, 6:48 PM

Output: Dubai start-up SellAnyHome.com is offering to sell residential property within 30 minutes of listing it. Sellers receive an approximate estimate followed by a visit from a consultant to value the property. The start-up is targeting only high-net-worth individuals and professional investors who are looking to add properties to their portfolios using an accelerated buying process. The start-up charges 1% commission to the buyer for each completed transaction. SellAnyHome.com likens itself to a stock exchange as it brings "real-time market coordination between buyers and sellers". It is aiming to raise $10m by early next year.


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Delhi cricket match disrupted by excessive pollution
 A Sri Lankan player vomited on the field and was escorted off the ground as heavily polluted air continued to plague an international cricket test match in Delhi.

The fast bowler Suranga Lakmal was seen doubled over and retching on Tuesday afternoon as levels of the most harmful pollutants hovered at about 300 micrograms per cubic metre in parts of the Indian capital – 12 times the World Health Organisation safe limit.

Lakmal was one of the players to be badly affected on Sunday when air pollution forced a break in play in the test between India and Sri Lanka, the first such interruption in international cricket history. He and another bowler, Lahiru Gamage, were forced to abandon bowling duties mid-over for a spell in the changing rooms where the coach, Nic Pothas, said Lakmal was “continuously vomiting”.

Lakmal was helped off the ground on Tuesday by a Sri Lankan team physiotherapist after his team-mates – mostly playing in pollution masks – rushed to his aid. Later the Indian pacer Mohammed Shami also vomited. Groundsmen scattered sawdust.

The scenes at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium have fuelled a debate in India over whether Delhi should be permitted to hold sporting events during winter when year-round pollution in the city reaches severe levels.

The Indian cricket board said on Monday that in future it would consider amending its schedules based on pollution forecasts.

“Scheduling of matches in Delhi during this time of the year will be considered,” said Amitabh Chaudhary, the acting secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The acting president of the board, CK Khanna, had earlier dismissed concerns, saying: “If 20,000 people in the stands did not have problems and the Indian team did not face any issue ... the Sri Lankan team made a big fuss?”

Javier Ceppi, the director of the Fifa under-17 World Cup held in India in October, wrote on Twitter after Sunday’s incidents that Delhi could not host sporting events from Diwali until the end of February “at least”.

You can't host sport events in Delhi from Diwali till end of Feb, at least. It is a fact. We had to accommodate our whole schedule to avoid it and others should also think about athletes health first #DelhiSmog — Javier Ceppi (@JavierCeppi) December 3, 2017

The Indian Medical Association also condemned the decision to let the Delhi test go ahead. “You have fast bowlers, batsmen and fielders out there exposed to these very harmful pollutants over five days at a stretch. It takes a serious toll on your health in the long run,” said the association’s president, KK Aggarwal.

Indian players and the match umpires have almost all eschewed masks throughout the test and some fans accused the Sri Lankans of grandstanding, pointing out that India’s captain, Virat Kohli, posted a record double-century despite the conditions.

The atmosphere in Delhi is dense with carcinogenic chemicals fine enough to lodge deep in the lungs and breach the blood-brain barrier. Multiple studies have linked the pollution to higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory conditions in the long-term, while immediate exposure can trigger asthma attacks and cause discomfort to the eyes and throat.

Indian environmental authorities said pollution levels last year exceeded those recorded during the 1952 great smog of London, considered one of Britain’s worst environmental disasters.

Contributors to the poor air in the city include road dust, open fires, vehicle exhaust fumes, industrial emissions and the burning of crop waste in neighbouring states, all of which worsen in winter when winds slow and air is trapped closer to the ground.

Delhi and surrounding states have implemented separate action plans that are unevenly enforced. A lasting solution would require national coordination while simultaneously tackling the myriad sources of poor air, a challenging task in a country with generally limited law enforcement.

Output: Sri Lankan cricket player Suranga Lakmal vomited during an international cricket Test match in Delhi because of heavy pollution. The incident followed play being stopped because of pollution on 3 December. Debates are continuing about whether Delhi, where pollution is 12 times over the safe limit, should be allowed to hold sporting events during the winter, when the problem is at its worst. As we highlighted, Delhi's poor air quality has led to flight cancellations and it was declared a public health emergency, comparable to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. About 2.5 million Indians die from pollution annually.


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News Corp attempts to capitalise on YouTube brand safety issues
 ‘Do you know where your ads are’ – News Corp puts brand safety at the forefront of their latest campaign.

News Corp has launched a two-week national trade advertising campaign that asks marketers if they know where they ads are today, following more brand safety sagas.

Amid renewed controversy surrounding digital advertising safety for brands within tech-platforms, this campaign reinforces advertisers that News’ products offer brands trusted and transparent digital environments.

Executive general manager of network sales Lou Barrett said: “We are launching the next iteration of our brand safety campaign to proactively reassure our customers that it is our priority to protect and enhance their brands. We invest heavily in premium generated content, third party audience measurement and are continually working towards creating safe environments for our customers.

“Advertisers should feel confident that they get what they pay for and that they can genuinely trust News to deliver on that. We are committed to providing greater transparency to ensure our advertisers have a clear and accurate picture of where their budget is going and where their advertisements are being placed as well as receiving a true and verified measure of audience engagement.”

News Corp boasted its brand safety earlier this year with a similar campaign.

The campaign was created by Big Red and News Corp Australia’s creative services team and will appear in trade media nationwide.

Output: News Corp Australia’s creative services team has collaborated with ad agency Big Red to launch a campaign asking marketers if they know where their ads are being displayed. The move aims to capitalise on the uncertainty surrounding content placement on sites such as YouTube. News Corp executive general manager of network sales Lou Barrett said "advertisers should feel confident they get what they pay for" and said News Corp gave advertisers "a true and verified measure of audience engagement".


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Chinese firms focus on automation not moving factories to Africa
 The promise of Chinese manufacturing moving to Africa increasingly seems like a real possibility. Chinese car factories assemble in South Africa. Mainland footwear companies have expanded into Ethiopia. Chinese entrepreneurs have opened textile plants in Rwanda and other operations across the continent.

But it may be too soon to proclaim Africa the world’s next factory. According to a new study (pdf) by researchers at Peking University’s Center for New Structural Economics and the Supporting Economic Transformation program at the Overseas Development Institute in London, few Chinese manufacturing firms are relocating as a result of rising wages in China. And if they are relocating overseas, Southeast Asia, rather than Africa is their preferred destination.

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The survey, released this month, “suggests a need for realism on the potential for jobs transfer to low-income host countries,” according to the authors Jiajun Xu, Stephen Gelb, Jiewei Li and Zuoxiang Zhao.

The researchers surveyed 640 Chinese firms producing home appliances, garments, footwear, and toys, and employing about 16 million workers. Rising wage costs—wages grew between 9% to 11% between 2005 and 2014 at the factories—were the most cited challenge.

The most common response to rising wages, however, was not relocating to countries with cheaper labor but turning to automation. Almost a third of firms said upgrading technology was their first strategy and more than half said it was among their top three responses. Chinese manufacturers are expected to have the world’s largest number of installed industrial robots (p. 29), about 600,000, by 2018, according to the Industrial Robot Statistics.

Only 6% of firms said relocation of production was their most likely response, and only half of those said they would relocate to areas outside of China. Among 62 firms that had invested abroad or planned to, only two named Africa as a preferred destination. Southeast Asia was a far more likely destination.

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Others have also pointed out the obstacles to manufacturing moving from China to Africa. Indermit Gill, director of the Duke Center for International Development at Duke University, points out in a recent blog post for Brookings that the global share of manufacturing value in 2015 was still split evenly between high-income and developing countries, with China accounting for more than half of the contribution of developing countries. Between 1994 and 2015, China’s share continued to grow while Africa’s has barely budged.

Another commonly stated reason for manufacturing’s move to places with cheaper labor like Africa is China’s aging population. But China’s workforce is still sizable: in 2025 the population of Chinese between the ages of 15 and 64 will be a billion, and will still be almost that amount in 2050, Gill points out. “Don’t bet on China giving back manufacturing jobs any time soon,” he concludes.

Output: Fewer than expected Chinese firms are trying to cut their wage bill by relocating their factories to Africa, a survey has found. Researchers at Peking University surveyed 640 Chinese businesses that had a total of about 16 million workers producing home appliances, clothes, shoes and other goods, and revealed only 6% were planning to respond to higher wages by moving factories abroad. Among 62 companies that have invested overseas, or plan to, only two named Africa as a preferred destination, with southeast Asia proving much more popular. The most common response to wage growth was relying more heavily on automation.


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Japanese asset manager Sparx sets up $17.95m renewable fund
 Subsidiary Sparx Asset Trust & Management has launched the Renewable Energy Brown Field Fund as part of the group’s new investment strategy for renewable energy. Initial investors include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing, Ricoh Leasing, Taiyo Life Insurance and Tochigi Bank, according to an online statement. The fund will continue to accept capital contributions and aims to eventually raise JPY 50 billion.

Sparx, which is listed on the JASDAQ Securities Exchange, says the new fund will help to stabilize its long-term cash flows, as it will avoid risks associated with project development by solely investing in operational assets. Sparx plans to run the brownfield fund for a period of 20 years, but will only make new investments in operational projects until October 31, 2020.

Its Green Field Fund, which invests in solar, wind and biomass projects from the development phase, currently owns 344 MW of renewables capacity. Its portfolio in Japan was valued at roughly JPY 147.8 billion at the end of September. The fund owns 24 projects throughout the country, of which 21 are solar.

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The Sparx group recently posted a net profit of JPY 1.57 billion for the second quarter of the current Japanese fiscal year. In July, its Sparx Green Energy and Technology unit finished building a 12.8 MW solar array in Chiba prefecture, eastern Japan.

Output: A unit of Tokyo-based asset manager Sparx has set up a JPY20bn ($17.95m) fund to invest in operational renewable energy projects throughout Japan. Initial investors in the Sparx Asset Trust & Management has launched the Renewable Energy Brown Field Fund include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing, Ricoh Leasing, Taiyo Life Insurance and Tochigi Bank. The fund will continue to accept capital contributions and aims to eventually raise JPY50bn.


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American Eagle Outfitters uses Messenger bots to reach customers
 An interactive gift guide is the latest innovation in American Eagle Outfitters’ Facebook Messenger campaign to use bots to engage customers via social media.

American Eagle’s first bots, for the main brand and Aerie, were launched on Facebook Messenger on Black Friday last year. Between November 2016 and June 2017, four million messages were exchanged, and there was a 25 percent clickthrough rate from Messenger to American Eagle Outfitters’ website. Seventy-five percent of people using the bots were new to the brand.

“Messaging, specifically in social, is where our consumer is spending their time, says Kristen D’Arcy, vice president of performance and digital marketing, American Eagle Outfitters. “We’re always looking for the right way, at the right time, to connect with consumers to drive preference and loyalty for our brands. To utilize messaging for connection with a brand feels intimate—it’s a one-on-one conversation in a familiar medium.”

The casual clothing retailer operates more than 1,000 retail stores in North America and Asia, and ships to 81 countries via its website. The Aerie bot was promoted via email and social, as well as paid media on Facebook. Users could opt-in to subscription messaging from the bot.

The retailer worked with bot platform partner Pandorabots to create the bots, first identifying what customers were most interested in, and how they were engaging with the site. The bots for Messenger offered varied content, such as customer service, fit and care, branded content and shopping. American Eagle Outfitters used an API to integrate its product catalog into the bots so that customers could easily browse products within Messenger. Customers can also view product thumbnails and save items they are thinking about buying

“Our goal is to give consumers an experience online as close to personalized as our sales associates do in store everyday by looking at clues that help us recommend which style to explore, which items to buy, and what gifts might be perfect for a recipient,” says D’Arcy. “Our bot quizzes and gift guides help us try and replicate that experience online and personalize our suggestions accordingly.”

Related Articles:

Coke’s New Mobile Bots Communicate With Vending Machines

Putting Chatbots in the Marketing & AI Conversation

Output: US clothing brand American Eagle Outfitters said its Facebook Messenger chatbot helped achieve a 25% click-through rate between November 2016 and June 2017, according to Kristen D’Arcy, its vice-president of performance and digital marketing. She said the service received four million messages, while three-quarters of customers using the bot, which centred on the main brand and Aerie and offered help with issues such as branded content and fit and care, were first-time shoppers with the brand.


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ADB agrees to finance 20 MW solar facility in Afghanistan
 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to finance a large-scale PV power project in Afghanistan to the tune of US$44.7 million. The loan will be used to finance the construction of a 20 MW grid-connected solar facility in Naghlu, Surobi district, close to the country’s capital Kabul. The solar park, ADB said in a statement, will initially fill the demand-supply gap, and improve sustainability of the northeast grid covering Kabul, Nangarhar, and the Laghman provinces.

The project will also prepare the site and substation for another 10 MW of large-scale PV. The projects, in fact, may be expanded up to 40 MW, “if additional financing from other development partners or the private sector is realized.”

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water, and government-owned energy utility Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat will provide support for the project in the form of plant design, technical evaluation, grid integration, and operation and maintenance. The project, on the other hand, will provide power transformer and support facilities, upgrade the capacity of the existing substation, and operation and maintenance services for three years.

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“The new on-grid solar power generation project, which is the largest of its kind in Afghanistan, will not only provide access to a clean and reliable power supply, but also demonstrate the viability of future renewable energy investments through public-private partnerships,” said ADB’s Country Director for Afghanistan, Samuel Tumiwa.

In late March, Afghanistan’s High Economic Council approved a plan to deploy 100 MW of renewable energy generation capacity, which included 65 MW of hybrid solar. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water aims to install 500 MW of PV plants by 2020. The country’s renewable energy policy is targeting 4 GW to 5 GW of new renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Output: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to provide $44.7m of financing for a 20 MW grid-connected solar facility near Kabul in Afghanistan. Should the project be successful, the plant could be expanded to 40 MW. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water is to offer infrastructural support, technical evaluation, grid integration, and operation and maintenance of the project.


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China's Chalco to raise $1.9bn by selling stakes in subsidiaries
 HONG KONG (Nikkei Markets) -- Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) said it entered agreements to raise a total 12.60 billion yuan ($1.90 billion) by selling stakes in four subsidiaries to investors including China Life Insurance, in a move aimed at reducing the Chinese state-owned aluminum producer's debt-equity ratio.

Chalco will sell 30.8% of Chalco Shandong for 1.79 billion yuan, a 36.9% stake in Zhongzhou Aluminum for 2.40 billion yuan, 25.67% in Baotou Aluminum for 2.64 billion yuan and 81.14% of Chalo Mining for 5.77 billion yuan, it informed the stock exchange late Monday.

Output: State-owned Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) is raising CNY12.6bn ($1.9bn) by selling stakes in four of its subsidiaries, as it seeks to reduce its debt-to-equity ratio. It is offloading 30.8% of Chalco Shandong, a 36.9% stake in Zhongzhou Aluminium, 25.7% in Baotou Aluminium and 81.1% in Chalco Mining. The move comes amid a push by the Chinese government to reduce corporate debt.


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MBSB to fund 50 MW Malaysian solar plant
 PV developer Solar Management (Seremban) will design, build and operate the array in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. It is scheduled for completion by the end of November 2018.

The deal marks the first time MBSB has provided financing for a solar project. Solar Management (Seremban) will mainly use the funds to pay for EPC services and the commissioning of the project.

“The Islamic financing facility consists of 19 million ringgit of Performance Guarantee-i under the Kafalah concept and 228 million ringgit of term financing with the sub limit of 137 million ringgit under the Tawarruq and Kafalah concept respectively,” MBSB said in an online statement.

Tee Cheng Hua, director of Solar Management (Seremban), praised the Malaysian government’s feed-in-tariff (FiT) scheme, the Net Energy Metering (NEM) mechanism and its support for the development of large-scale PV plants.

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Separately, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported this week that China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC) will supply PV equipment to Mattan Engineering, the EPC services provider that is working on the 50 MW array in Rembau. Under the terms of the 137 million ringgit contract, CMEC — a unit of China National Machinery Industry Corp. — will mainly provide PV modules and racks, Xinhua said.

MBSB’s financing package is the second Islamic financing facility to be announced for a PV project in Malaysia in recent weeks. In mid-November, Malaysian engineering firm Mudajaya revealed plans to raise up to 245 million ringgit by issuing sukuk Islamic bonds, to back the construction of a 49 MW solar array in the town of Sungai Siput, Kuala Kangsar, Perak.

Output: Malaysia Building Society Berhad (MBSB) will provide $60.4m to Solar Management to develop a 50 MW solar project in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. Solar Management (Seremban) will maintain and operate the facility after it is completed by November 2018.


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IMEEI to buy a 98.87% stake in two Chinese solar companies
 As China has begun to close the technology gap, opportunities for Taiwanese manufacturers may lie closer to home, offering conditions that could perfectly suit the high efficiency technology.

IM No. 3 Power Co., a wholly owned unit of Hohhot-based energy infrastructure specialist IMEEI, will buy a 98.87% stake in Wulate Qianqi Photovoltaics from the 48th Research Institute for CNY 139.3 million.

It will also purchase a 100% equity stake in Alashan Youqi New Energy for CNY 24.3 million from the same company, which develops PV projects and produces energy storage materials, integrated circuits, LED products, magnetic materials and sensors. As part of the transaction, IM No. 3 Power will also settle the debts of the two acquisition targets, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Solar developer Wulate Qianqi Photovoltaics owns a 50 MW solar project at an undisclosed location in China. The array was connected to the grid in late 2014. PV investor Alashan Youqi New Energy, meanwhile, owns a 10 MW solar installation at another unspecified location in China. It was connected to the grid in March 2015.

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IMEEI launched its PV investment business in 2015. By the end of May 2016, it filed for the rights to build 4.3 GW of solar capacity, according to a statement on its website. The group — which also develops solar thermal, wind and coal-fired power projects — recorded a net profit of CNY 243.6 million in the first half of 2017.

Its construction contracting business posted a gross profit of CNY 117.5 million, up 31.7% year on year. The company said its PV business helped to raise its gross profit margin considerably in the first six months of the year. It has not revealed how much operational solar capacity it owns.

Output: IM No. 3 Power Co., part of infrastructure company Inner Mongolia Energy Engineering (IMEEI), is to buy a 98.87% stake in Wulate Qianqi Photovoltaics for $73.25m. The company will also buy a 100% equity stake in Alashan Youqi New Energy, which develops solar materials and energy storage materials.


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Major Starbucks opens in China to serve growing taste for coffee
 Starbucks is going venti in China.

The Seattle-based coffee company opened a 30,000-square-foot store in Shanghai on Tuesday. It's the first Starbucks Reserve Roastery -- the company's new retail offering -- outside the U.S.

It's also the largest Starbucks in the world, spanning an area nearly twice as large as the next biggest, a Roastery in Seattle that opened three years ago.

Executive Chairman Howard Schultz said the store would blend the company's 46-year history in the coffee shop business with "China's rich, diverse culture."

China is a vital market for Starbucks (SBUX), according to John Gordon, a restaurant analyst at Pacific Management Consulting.

The company's latest quarterly earnings were pretty gloomy, showing disappointing sales growth in a tough retail environment.

The one bright spot was China, which stood out as Starbucks' fastest growing market. Sales there were up 8% compared with the same quarter last year.

The company is riding that wave and expanding aggressively in China, opening a new Starbucks store every 15 hours on average.

Related: China will get 2,000 more McDonald's restaurants in the next few years

Even though Chinese are traditionally tea guzzlers and less hooked on coffee than Americans, the country's growing ranks of upwardly mobile consumers still view Starbucks as an attractive, aspirational brand.

The company is playing to that perception with its new Shanghai shop.

"This is a show store," Gordon said. "The point is to be in a highly, highly visible, touristy [area] where there's foot traffic, offices and urban housing in order to promote the brand."

Related: Starbucks bets big on China

The store features massive copper casks for storing coffee beans, although the actual roasting will take place elsewhere on the premises. There is also a special emphasis on tea, with a dedicated bar offering items like nitrogen cold brew tea.

In a sign of the times, Starbucks partnered with Chinese tech giant Alibaba (BABA) to aggressively promote the Shanghai store opening online. Customers can book coffee tasting experiences on Alibaba's e-commerce site and also buy special Starbucks Reserve coffee and related products tied to the store's launch.

But the Shanghai roastery won't hold the title of largest Starbucks for too long. The company has already inked a deal for an enormous 43,000-square-foot Reserve Roastery in Chicago that's set to open in 2019.

Output: Starbucks has opened its first Starbucks Reserve Roastery outside the US in Shanghai, which is also its largest store in the world. China is vital to the US coffee company, as it is its fastest-growing market and Starbucks is finding sales growth difficult to achieve elsewhere. Starbucks is planning to have 10,000 stores in China within a decade, with sales up 8% quarter on quarter. The opening was promoted with the help of Alibaba's e-commerce site, where Chinese customers were able to book tastings and buy coffee and other products.


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Surge in defective product recalls raises financial risk
 SINGAPORE - Defective productsor work-related incidents have caused insured losses in excess of US$2 billion over the past five years, making them the largest generator of liability losses, insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) said in a report released on Tuesday (Dec 5).

This means that defective products not only "pose a serious safety threat to the public, but can also cause significant financial damage to the companies responsible", AGCS said.

In particular, with manufacturing activity shifting to Asia, "Asia continues to account for a disproportionate number of recalls in the US and Europe, due to historically weaker quality controls in some countries", AGCS said.

In the US, Chinese manufactured products accounted for over three times as many recall cases as US-made products. Citing Samsung's recall of its Galaxy Note 7 phones and Takata's defective airbags, the report also noted that three out of the eight largest recalls costing more than a billion dollars in recent times originated in Asia, specifically Japan and South Korea.

Concurrently, a rise in recalls may be attributed to tougher regulation, more complex global supply chains, growing consumer awareness and materials being provided from fewer suppliers.

According to AGCS, the average cost of a significant recall stands at US$12 million, with "ripple effect" events costing up to billions. Based on its research, the car industry has been most impacted by product recalls, followed by the food and beverage sector.

In the case of Japanese manufacturer Takata, 60 to 70 million units across at least 19 manufacturers were being recalled globally, amounting to an estimated cost of US$25 billion, which led to Takata's bankruptcy this year. "Given the use of many common components, a single recall can impact a whole industry," AGCS said.

Additionally, the report also identified emerging recall triggers that will drive future risks and claims, largely stemming from new technologies. These include: cyber recalls from security vulnerabilities or hackers manipulating products, social media and recalls for ethical reasons.

Allianz suggests that pre-event preparation can have a huge impact on the size of a recall and the financial and reputational damage sustained. It added that specialised product recall insurance can help businesses recover faster by covering the costs of a recall, including business interruption.

Said head of global crisis management at AGCS, Christof Bentele: "There is now much more attention on how companies deal with defective or contaminated products, how responsive they are and how resilient their safety systems are. More than ever consumers are also part of the agenda and are driving company behaviour by making their choices subject to how companies deal with crises."

"A company that embraces crisis management, and makes it part of its DNA, is far less likely to suffer a major incidence," he added.

Output: A surge in defective products, resulting in recalls, has led to insured losses of over $2bn in the past five years. This now makes it the biggest liability loss, according to insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality, which warned that defective products not only "pose a serious safety threat to the public, but can also cause significant financial damage to the companies responsible". The rise has much to do with the shift of manufacturing to Asia, which accounts for a disproportionate amount of recalls in Europe and the US due to less stringent quality controls.


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Input:
WeWork India takes 170,000 sq ft in two deals across Mumbai
 Trump Faces Daunting Task in Classified Docs Case: Experts Donald Trump faces a formidable task defending against charges that he illegally kept top-secret documents upon leaving the White House in 2021, according to legal experts, who said neither the law nor the facts appear to be on his side.

FY23 Growth May Beat Current 7.2% Estimate: CEA India’s FY23 growth could be higher than the current estimate of 7.2% when the numbers for the fiscal are finalised in early 2026, chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Saturday.

Output: WeWork India has signed two separate deals totalling 170,000 sq ft across two suburbs of Mumbai. Of the deals, nearly 100,000 sq ft is based in the Blackstone Group's 247 Park in the Vikhroli suburb. The second deal is for a 70,000 sq ft office building in Andheri. Both leases will run for 20 years, with rental reset clauses every three years. This adds to the existing 330,000 sq ft of leased WeWork deals concluded earlier in the year.


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Lendlease to cover costs of replacing combustible cladding
 Lendlease will cover the cost of replacing combustible cladding on Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital, in what Victoria's top health property official says will be the first of 20 hospitals that need to be rectified.

The contractor – or its insurers – will foot the bill for rectifying the 10 per cent of external cladding that does not comply with the building code and is the first of eight hospital buildings that the state government says has cladding that will be removed and replaced.

Twelve more hospitals are undergoing extensive tests to determine whether their cladding meets building code requirements.

Lendlease will replace cladding on Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital. Daniel Pockett

"There's a level of compliance where they actually didn't deliver the building in the way we asked for the building to be built, so therefore they accept that they have to rectify it," said Robert Fiske, the chief executive of the Victorian Health and Human Services Building Authority.

Lendlease's liability for the work – a consequence of its acquisition of the hospital's original builder Baulderstone Hornibrook – has previously been reported. The disclosure on Friday of the list of up to 20 hospitals, however, makes it clear that the costs of non-compliant cladding is now hitting the wider construction industry.

Output: Lendlease, or its insurer, will pay for the replacement of external cladding that failed building-code fire standards on Melbourne's Royal Hospital. It's one of 20 medical centres that Victoria state health officials say are clad in materials that pose a fire hazard and need retrofitting.


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Europe's largest solar plant to be built in Spain
 The government of the Spanish region of Aragón announced it will fast-track the development of a 549 MW PV project that Spain’s industrial conglomerate ACS hopes to build in an area located between the municipalities of Escatrón and Chiprana.

The Government Council has decided to classify the investment “of public interest for the region”, in order to halve the usual administrative procedures for the project’s authorization.

The €330 million plant will consist of 12 sub-stations. They will be owned by special purpose vehicles under the control of Cobras Concesiones SL, a unit of Cobra, which is itself the renewable energy arm of the group ACS. The company has already submitted approval requests to the relevant environmental authorities of the region for all the project’s units, the local government said.

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When completed, Cobra’s project will be Europe’s largest solar power plant. Currently, the Old Continent’s biggest solar park is a 300 MW solar plant located in Cestas, in France’s Bordeaux region.

The project was selected by Spain’s Ministry of Ministry of Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda in this year’s second renewable energy auction held in July, in which 3.9 GW of solar capacity was allocated. In the auction, the ACS group had the largest share of solar projects with around 1.55 GW of assigned capacity. The PV projects selected in the contest must start delivering power in 2020.

Output: Spanish industrial group ACS is to construct Europe's largest solar facility in the Spanish region of Aragón. The 549 MW plant will include 12 substations and will cost €330m ($390m) to construct. Currently, Europe's largest solar facility is a 300 MW installation near Bordeaux in France.


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Fortum to buy 35 MW of solar facilities in Russia
 Finnish power utility Fortum has continued the expansion of its solar energy business by acquiring 35 MW of solar plants in Russia.

Fortum said the seller was Russian solar module maker and project developer Hevel Solar, without providing details on the financial terms of the deal.

Two of the plants, the Pleshanovskaya and Grachevskaya solar power plants (both with a capacity of 10 MW each), are located in the Orenburg region, while the third facility, the 15 MW Bugulchanskaya solar plant, was installed in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

All of the projects were commissioned between 2016 and 2017 and currently receive guaranteed capacity payments for a period of 15 years under the Russian Government's capacity supply agreement (CSA), after commissioning at an average CSA price corresponding to approximately €430/MWh, Fortum added.

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The Finnish power provider currently owns eight power plants in the Chelyabinsk and Tyumen regions, mainly comprising gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) capacity. To date, the company has built over 2 GW production capacity that receives guaranteed capacity payments, currently for a period of 10 years under the Russian Government's CSA scheme. In 2016, Fortum's Russian operations represented around a quarter of its sales and about a third of the comparable operating profit.

Fortum is targeting a GW-scale wind and solar portfolio. The company aims to invest between €200 million and €400 million in large-scale solar projects in India. In early April, Fortum completed its third solar park in India: a 70 MW PV plant located at the Bhadla solar park in Rajasthan, northwestern India. The company is also planning to build a solar park in Luunja Municipality, near Tartu in northeastern Estonia.

Output: Finnish power utility Fortum has agreed to acquire 35 MW of solar plants in Russia. The deal includes three facilities; the Pleshanovskaya and Grachevskaya solar power plants each have a capacity of 10 MW, while the Bugulchanskaya solar plant has a capacity of 15 MW. Fortum plans to invest significant sums in Indian solar plants.


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UK government expected to break promise on worker representation
 Companies would not be forced to appoint workers to their boards and instead be allowed to choose how they intend to heed the views of employees, according to proposals to overhaul boardroom rules.

The proposals, to be published on Tuesday, appear to confirm that Theresa May’s pledge to put workers on boards – made during her campaign last year to become Conservative party leader – has been abandoned.

Within three months she had started to water down the pledge, while in August the government offered three potential options to give employees a voice in the boardroom. The government said it would ask the Financial Reporting Council – the accountancy regulator that oversees the corporate governance code for all listed stock market companies – to consult on the three options.

A consultation published by the FRC includes all three options – to assign a non-executive director to represent employees, to create an employee advisory council or to nominate a director from the workforce. While it does not list other options, it means that the City corporate code will include a provision for employees’ voices to be heard in the boardroom.

The City corporate code will include a provision for employees’ voices to be heard in the boardroom. Photograph: Getty Images

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said it was “good that the code recognises the key role workers’ voices play within businesses”.

“The next step is for the corporate governance code to recognise the important role that unions play in the long-term success of companies,” she added.

The code operates across stock market listed companies and operates on a “comply or explain” basis so that companies which ignore its provisions must provide an explanation.

The consultation – open until February – also includes plans that would require firms to publish their gender balance, building upon recommendations in the review by Sir Philip Hampton and Dame Helen Alexander, who died in August, in to boardroom diversity.

The FRC is proposing that these figures include the first layer of management below the board – and their direct reports – and goes further than suggested by including all companies and not just the 350 biggest listings on the stock market.

It does not propose similar disclosure on ethnicity but asks for views on whether it should encourage the release of more information on this issue.

The FRC’s latest proposals would also mean that companies which have a 20% vote against their remuneration report would have to explain how they intend to discuss the dissent with shareholders.

Sir Win Bischoff, chair of the FRC, said: “At this crucial time and as the country approaches Brexit, a revised code will be essential to restoring trust in business, attracting investment and ensuring the long-term success of companies for ... wider society.”

Output: The UK government is expected to abandon promises to put workers on company boards. Instead, the UK Financial Reporting Council will give firms options on how to consult employees. The proposed changes to the City corporate code would require firms to disclose their gender and diversity balance, and to discuss dissent with shareholders in the event of a 20% vote against remuneration reports.


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Masdar to build world's largest floating solar farm in Indonesia
 Upon completion, the project will be the biggest floating PV installation in the world. It will cover 225 hectares of surface area on the Cirata Reservoir in West Java province. Masdar will moor 700,000 floats to the bottom of the 6,000-hectare reservoir, which already provides power for a 1 GW hydroelectric plant. It did not reveal additional details about the project, which will include an onshore high-voltage substation.

Masdar’s deal with PT Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali follows a memorandum of understanding they signed in July. The two sides aim to collaborate on energy projects on the islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra, according to an online statement.

“We believe this project development agreement is a milestone in the development of other floating PV solar power plants,” said Iwan Agung Firstantara, president director of PT Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali.

Masdar claimed that a key advantage of floating PV in tropical countries is that can provide energy in forested areas that would otherwise be unsuitable for solar development. It said an additional 60 reservoirs throughout Indonesia could be developed to host floating solar plants.

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Masdar has invested $2.7 billion in renewable energy projects throughout the world since 2006. Its bigger projects include the Hywind Scotland and London Array offshore wind farms, as well as a 200 MW solar plant in Jordan.

Last year, it won the rights to build the 800 MW third phase of the Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, in collaboration with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures and Spain’s GranSolar. The consortium will build the project for $0.0299/kWh, among the world’s lowest winning bids for a solar power installation.

Output: Abu Dhabi-based clean energy group Masdar plans to build the world's largest floating solar farm with a unit of Indonesian state utility PT PLN. The 200 MW installation will cover 225 hectares of the 6,000-hectare Cirata Reservoir in West Java province, which already provides power for a 1 GW hydroelectric plant. Masdar will moor 700,000 floats to the bottom of the reservoir.


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NREL develops perovskite solar window with 11.3% efficiency
 Relying on perovskites and single-walled carbon nanotubes, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a smart window, which converts sunlight into electricity while going from transparent to tinted in order to minimize heat coming into the structure.

The color change comes from molecules (methylamine), which are driven out of the window device when exposed to sunlight (less than 3% visible transmittance), and reversibly absorbed into the device, returning the absorber layer —composed of a metal halide perovskite-methylamine complex— to the transparent state (68% visible transmittance) as the device cools back down.

The prototypes tested showed a solar power conversion efficiency of 11.3%.

“There is a fundamental trade-off between a good window and a good solar cell. This technology bypasses that. We have a good solar cell when there’s lots of sunshine and we have a good window when there’s not,” said Lance Wheeler, the lead author of the paper, Switchable Photovoltaic Windows Enabled by Reversible Photothermal Complex Dissociation from Methylammonium Lead Iodide, published in Nature Communications.

Although, according to Wheeler, the new technology holds the potential to be integrated into vehicles, buildings and beyond, cycle stability, however, still needs improvement. In testing under 1-sun illumination, the 1-square-centimeter demonstration device cycled through repeated transparent-tinted cycles, but the performance declined over the course of 20 cycles due to restructuring of the switchable layer chemical issues, thus leading to degradation.

Meanwhile, the findings from University of Cambridge scientists, currently based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, have shed more light on the little known molecular mechanisms between the electrodes and electrolyte that combine to determine how a dye-sensitized solar cell operates.

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“Most previous studies have modeled the molecular function of these working electrodes without considering the electrolyte ingredients,” said Jacqui Cole, research team lead. “Our work shows that these chemical ingredients can clearly influence the performance of solar cells, so we can now use this knowledge to tune the ions to increase photovoltaic efficiency.”

The research findings, published in Nanoscale, indicate how a thin-film electrode containing titanium dioxide, a naturally occurring compound found in paint, sunscreen and food coloring, can have a huge impact on solar cell efficiency.

“Prior research considered the working electrodes outside the device, so there has been no path to determine how the different device components interact,” Cole said. “Our work signifies a huge leap forward as it’s the world's first example of applying in situ neutron reflectometry to dye-sensitized solar cells.”

The cells recently broke a world record with a power conversion efficiency of 14.3% using a dye-sensitized electrode featuring two co-sensitized metal-free organic dyes. These dyes “promise cheaper, more environmentally friendly synthetic routes and greater molecular design flexibility than their metal-containing counterparts,” according to the paper.

“We just need a modest boost in performance to make these solar cells competitive,” Cole said, “since price-to-performance governs the economics of the solar cell industry. And manufacturing dye-sensitized solar cells is very cheap relative to other solar cell technologies.”

Output: Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have presented a perovskite-based solar window that gets darker the sunnier it is and has a conversion efficiency of 11.3%. The window drives out methylamine molecules when it is exposed to sunlight, darkening the glass, and absorbs them as it cools back down.


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Finland's Wärtsilä to build 75 MW solar PV plant in Nigeria
 Helsinki-based manufacturer for energy solutions, Wärtsilä signed a contract to build a 75 MW (AC) PV power plant in Nigeria with Pan Africa Solar Ltd.

The company said in a press release said that this will be its first grid-connected utility-scale PV project and Nigeria’s largest PV plant, when completed. The solar park will be built at an unspecified location in in Katsina State, in northern Nigeria.

“Our contract bid was successful because we were able to bring added value to the project in various areas, including local support and technical advisory services. Pan Africa Solar and Wärtsilä are currently finalising the EPC contract and in the meantime, this letter of Award is a major milestone,” said the president of Wärtsilä Energy Solutions, Javier Cavada.

Wärtsilä specified that the project is one of the 14 solar projects that were proposed by IPPs and were selected by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET), part of Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Power, in July 2016.

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At the time, NBET signed power purchase agreements for as much as 975 MW of solar. The first to be signed was for the above-mentioned Pan Africa Solar’s project. Other companies that signed PPAs with NBET include, among others, Nigeria Solar Capital Partners for a 135 MW solar farm in Ganjuwa, and AfriNigeria who will develop a 50 MW project in Nasarawa state.

In Nigeria, solar IPPs usually negotiate and execute a put and call option agreement (PCOA) with the Federal Ministry of Finance after executing a PPA. The PCOA agreement transfers the payment risk from the state-owned company Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) directly to the ministry. The Put Call Option Agreement (PCOA) is a guarantee mechanism recently adopted by the Nigerian government.

Nigeria aims to cover 30% of total energy capacity through renewables by 2030.

Output: Finnish technology company Wärtsilä is to deploy 75 MW of solar power in Nigeria, after being awarded a contract by Pan Africa Solar Ltd to build the facility in the north of the country. Nigeria plans for renewable energy to account for 30% of power production by 2030.


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Solar in developing nations jumped 54% in 2016: BNEF
 Despite a decrease in total new clean energy investment, new solar-powered generating capacity in non-OECD countries grew 54% YoY in 2016 and tripled over three years fueled by low-price equipment and innovative new applications.

According to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance's (BNEF's) Climatescope report, which assesses 71 countries in emerging markets on their progress made towards the clean energy transition, and reports on clean energy investment in those countries, the total solar PV capacity scaled up from 22 GW added in 2015, and a mere 3 GW in 2011, to 34 GW in 2016, which alone would meet the total annual electricity demands of 45 million homes in India, or of every home in Peru or Nigeria.

Figure 1: Solar new-build in Climatescope nations (gigawatts)

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Taking on the mantle of leader among the developing nations, China accounted for 27 GW, followed by India with 4.2 GW. Meanwhile, Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Mexico Pakistan, and nine other nations saw installed photovoltaic capacity double or more.

“The massive drop in photovoltaic module prices we’ve seen over the last several years continues to reverberate through developing countries,” said Ethan Zindler, Head of Americas for BNEF. “It's creating opportunities ranging from multi-million dollar projects that serve the grid, to small-scale installations that enable farmers to boost their yields through better irrigation and to connect to the Internet.”

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In renewable capacity deployment, new applications such as photovoltaics in micro-grids, pay-as-you-go battery/lantern systems, water pumps, and even mobile phone towers are driving the deployment hike, with start-ups often taking the lead, securing financing from private sources, and forging partnerships with large corporations such as telecom providers. For instance, more than 1.5 million households in Africa now use solar home systems that were bought on a mobile-money enabled financing plan, up from just 600,000 at the end of 2015, finds BNEF.

Overall, solar accounted for 19% of all new generating capacity added in Climatescope countries last year, up from 10.6% in 2015, and 2% in 2011.

Total new clean energy investment in non-OECD countries fell by $40.2 billion to $111.4 billion in 2016, from $151.6 billion in 2015. While China accounted for three quarters of the decline, new clean energy investment in all other non-OECD countries also fell 25% from 2015 levels, the report finds.

Meanwhile, in terms of policy, 76% of the nations have established domestic CO2 containment goals, demonstrating the brisk pace at which developing countries are shifting to renewables. This was also indicated by the World Bank’s RISE (Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy) scorecard, which assessed the energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energy policies of 111 countries earlier this year, and found that developing nations, such as Mexico, China, India and Brazil, are increasingly taking the lead in delivering supportive policies for clean energy adoption.

However, there is still room for improvement, as according to BNEF, only two thirds (67%) have introduced feed-in tariffs, or auctions to support clean energy projects, and just 18% have set domestic greenhouse gas emissions reduction policies.

Output: A total of 34 GW of new solar power generating capacity came online in 2016 in 71 emerging market countries, an increase of 54%, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance's Climatescope report. China accounted for 27 GW, followed by India with 4.2 GW. technologies including photovoltaics in micro-grids, pay-as-you-go battery/lantern systems, water pumps, and mobile phone towers are driving take-up in emerging markets, BNEF said.


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Burkina Faso turns on 33 MW solar PV plant
 The president of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, and the French president Emmanuel Macron, have today officially commissioned what they call Westen Africa's largest PV plant.

According the country’s Minister of Energy, the PV 33 MW plant is located in the Zagtouli village near the capital Ouagadougou. The project was financed by France’s Development Agency (AFD) to the tune of €22.5 million and by the European Union with €25 million. The facility is supplying 5% – about 55 GWh per year – of the country’s total electricity consumption.

According to AFD, the plant will sell power to local utility Sonabel at 35 CFA (around $0.06) per kWh, while producing energy cost the energy provider an average of 133 CFA per kWh in 2016. It was built by Cegelec, a unit of French developer Vinci Energies, with 129,600 solar modules with an output of 26o W.

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Although Burkina Faso is a landlocked country with very limited access energy resources, it has an annual solar radiation of 19.8 MJ/ m2 per day and the direct sunshine is over 3,000 hours per year. The governmemt’s recent energy strategy is seeking to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and gradually shift the country’s production mix to clean energy and electricity imports at an affordable cost.

The World Bank approved a $80 million credit to Burkina Faso for the Electricity Sector Support Project (PASEL) in June of this year. The funds are being used to incorporate low-cost solar resources into Burkina Faso’s energy mix and improve its distribution network, the financial institution said at the time. Later in October, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has announced that it will provide an undisclosed sum to co-finance Burkina Faso’s plans to electrify several rural areas in the period 2017-2021.

Output: France’s Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union has financed Burkina Faso's largest PV plant. The 33 MW solar facility is located near the capital Ouagadougou and will supply 5% of the country’s total electricity consumption. It will sell power to local utility company Sonabel at $0.06 per kWh.


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David Attenborough warns of threat to oceans
 The world’s oceans are under the greatest threat in history, according to Sir David Attenborough. The seas are a vital part of the global ecosystem, leaving the future of all life on Earth dependent on humanity’s actions, he says.

Attenborough will issue the warning in the final episode of the Blue Planet 2 series, which details the damage being wreaked in seas around the globe by climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and even noise.

Previous BBC nature series presented by Attenborough have sometimes been criticised for treading too lightly around humanity’s damage to the planet. But the final episode of the latest series is entirely dedicated to the issue.

“For years we thought the oceans were so vast and the inhabitants so infinitely numerous that nothing we could do could have an effect upon them. But now we know that was wrong,” says Attenborough. “It is now clear our actions are having a significant impact on the world’s oceans. [They] are under threat now as never before in human history. Many people believe the oceans have reached a crisis point.”

Attenborough says: “Surely we have a responsibility to care for our blue planet. The future of humanity, and indeed all life on Earth, now depends on us.”

BBC executives were reportedly concerned about the series appearing to become politicised and ordered a fact-check, which it passed. The series producer, Mark Brownlow, said it was impossible to overlook the harm being caused in the oceans: “We just couldn’t ignore it – it wouldn’t be a truthful portrayal of the world’s oceans. We are not out there to campaign. We are just showing it as it is and it is quite shocking.”

A bleached section of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Photograph: BBC NHU

Brownlow said much of the footage shot of albatross chicks being killed by the plastic they mistake for food were too upsetting to broadcast. The programme also filmed on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, witnessing the worst bleaching event in its history.

Climate change is causing ocean temperatures to rise, bleaching the corals vital as nurseries for ocean life, and waters are warming rapidly in Antarctica too. Jon Copley, from the University of Southampton and one of many scientists appearing in the final episode, says. “What shocks me about what all the data shows is how fast things are changing here [in Antarctica]. We’re headed into uncharted territory”

Carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning also dissolves in seawater, making it more acidic. Prof Chris Langdon, at the University of Miami, says it is “beyond question” that the problem is manmade. “The shells and the reefs really, truly are dissolving. The reefs could be gone by the end of the century.”

The noise from shipping, tourism, and fossil fuel exploration is also revealed as harming sea life. Steve Simpson, at the University of Exeter, who works on coral reefs in southeast Asia, says: “There is a whole language underwater that we are only just getting a handle on. They use sound to attract a mate, to scare away a predator. You hear pops and grunts and gurgles and snaps.” He shows the noise of motorboats distracting saddleback clownfishes from warning against a predator attack.

The Blue Planet 2 team found plastic everywhere they filmed, even in the most remote locations such as South Georgia island, an important breeding site for wandering albatrosses. There, Lucy Quinn from the British Antarctic Survey says many chicks are killed by plastic fed to them by their parents, including one young bird whose stomach was punctured by a plastic toothpick.

Overfishing, which remains prevalent around the world, is also addressed. “Every night thousands of miles of fishing lines laden with hooks are set – there is enough, it is said, to wrap twice around the world,” says Attenborough. But the programme also highlights some success stories, such as the revival of sperm whales off Sri Lanka and herring stocks off Norway after bans or restrictions were put in place.

Strict management of the herring fishery in Norway has saved it from collapse. Herring now draw in humpback whales and orca. Photograph: Audun Rikardsen

Attenborough also visits Trinidad, where the conservationist Len Peters has transformed the prospects of the giant leatherback turtles who come to the island to lay their eggs and whose numbers have fallen catastrophically in recent decades. “I grew up in a house where turtle meat was normal,” says Peters. But his work to end turtle hunting and encourage tourism has seen numbers rise from 30-40 to more than 500.

Quinn says the oceans are of vital importance for the whole world: “The oceans provide us with oxygen, they regulate temperature, they provide us with food and energy supplies. It is unthinkable to have a world without a healthy ocean.”

Daniel Pauly, who leads the Sea Around Us programme at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and was not involved in Blue Planet 2, endorsed its stark conclusion. He said vast, subsidised fishing fleets were scraping the bottom of the barrel and that ocean acidification could be terminal for many species.

Pauly also warned of the dangers of plastic attracting toxic chemicals and then being eaten: “They become poison pills.” Pauly said the question facing humanity now was simple: “Are we going to fight for the oceans or not?”

The final episode of Blue Planet 2 is at 8pm on BBC1 on 10 December in the UK. The full series will then be available online via the iPlayer, including in ultra HD and high dynamic range, the first time the BBC has provided such content.

Output: Oceans face their greatest ever threat, according to naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who will use the final episode of his Blue Planet 2 series to warn that the future of life on earth is now dependent on humanity taking action against climate change, overfishing, noise and plastic pollution. The final episode of the series, which also highlights the dangers posed to the Great Barrier Reef by coral bleaching, will be devoted entirely to the threats faced by the oceans. The series passed a fact check ordered by BBC executives concerned that it would be accused of being too political.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Google hiring thousands of moderators to counter YouTube abuse
 Mr. Ducard said that while YouTube Kids may highlight some content, like Halloween videos in October, “it isn’t a curated experience.” Instead, “parents are in the driver’s seat,” he said, pointing to the ability to block channels, set usage timers and disable search results.

Parents are also encouraged to report inappropriate videos, which someone at YouTube then manually reviews, he said. He noted that in the past 30 days, “less than .005 percent” of the millions of videos viewed in the app were removed for being inappropriate.

“We strive,” he added, “to make that fraction even lower.”

Holly Hart of Gray, Tenn., said she was recently reading while her 3-year-old daughter was in the room when she noticed that Disney Junior characters in the video her daughter was watching started “turning into monsters and trying to feed each other to alligators.” An image previewing a recommended video showed the characters in a provocative pose.

“It was an eye-opener for me,” said Ms. Hart, who had downloaded the app because it was being used at the local elementary school.

Not all of the inappropriate videos feature cartoons. Alisa Clark Wilcken of Vernal, Utah, said her 4-year-old son had recently seen a video of a family playing roughly with a young girl, including a scene in which her forehead is shaved, causing her to wail and appear to bleed.

Output: Google will hire thousands of additional moderators next year following criticism that the company allowed offensive material, including hate speech and child abuse, to appear on its video-sharing website, YouTube. The move, which will take the company’s total moderating workforce to over 10,000, was announced by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who said that the company would also continue to develop machine-learning technology designed to automatically highlight content for removal. Last month, the New York Times reported that YouTube Kids was hosting violent and sexual material, sometimes featuring nursery rhymes and familiar characters.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Google hiring thousands of moderators to counter YouTube abuse
 Google is hiring thousands of new moderators after facing widespread criticism for allowing child abuse videos and other violent and offensive content to flourish on YouTube.

YouTube’s owner announced on Monday that next year it would expand its total workforce to more than 10,000 people responsible for reviewing content that could violate its policies. The news from YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, followed a steady stream of negative press surrounding the site’s role in spreading harassing videos, misinformation, hate speech and content that is harmful to children.

Wojcicki said that in addition to an increase in human moderators, YouTube is continuing to develop advanced machine-learning technology to automatically flag problematic content for removal. The company said its new efforts to protect children from dangerous and abusive content and block hate speech on the site were modeled after the company’s ongoing work to fight violent extremist content.

“Human reviewers remain essential to both removing content and training machine learning systems because human judgment is critical to making contextualized decisions on content,” the CEO wrote in a blogpost, saying that moderators have manually reviewed nearly 2m videos for violent extremist content since June, helping train machine-learning systems to identify similar footage in the future.

In recent weeks, YouTube has used machine learning technology to help human moderators find and shut down hundreds of accounts and hundreds of thousands of comments, according to Wojcicki.

YouTube faced heightened scrutiny last month in the wake of reports that it was allowing violent content to slip past the YouTube Kids filter, which is supposed to block any content that is not appropriate to young users. Some parents recently discovered that YouTube Kids was allowing children to see videos with familiar characters in violent or lewd scenarios, along with nursery rhymes mixed with disturbing imagery, according to the New York Times.

Other reports uncovered “verified” channels featuring child exploitation videos, including viral footage of screaming children being mock-tortured and webcams of young girls in revealing clothing.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said human moderators ‘remain essential to removing content’. Photograph: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic for YouTube

YouTube has also repeatedly sparked outrage for its role in perpetuating misinformation and harassing videos in the wake of mass shootings and other national tragedies. The Guardian found that survivors and the relatives of victims of numerous shootings have been subject to a wide range of online abuse and threats, some tied to popular conspiracy theory ideas featured prominently on YouTube.

Some parents of people killed in high-profile shootings have spent countless hours trying to report abusive videos about their deceased children and have repeatedly called on Google to hire more moderators and to better enforce its policies. It’s unclear, however, how the expansion of moderators announced on Monday might affect this kind of content, since YouTube said it was focused on hate speech and child safety.

Although the recent scandals have illustrated the current limits of the algorithms in detecting and removing violating content, Wojcicki made clear that YouTube would continue to heavily rely on machine learning, a necessary factor given the scale of the problem.

YouTube said machine learning was helping its human moderators remove nearly five times as many videos as they were previously, and that 98% of videos removed for violent extremism are now flagged by algorithms. Wojcicki claimed that advances in the technology allowed the site to take down nearly 70% of violent extremist content within eight hours of it being uploaded.

The statement also said YouTube was reforming its advertising policies, saying it would apply stricter criteria, conduct more manual curation and expand its team of ad reviewers. Last month, a number of high-profile brands suspended YouTube and Google advertising after reports revealed that they were placed alongside videos filled with exploitative and sexually explicit comments about children.

In March, a number of corporations also pulled their YouTube ads after learning that they were linked to videos with hate speech and extremist content.

Contact the author: sam.levin@theguardian.com

Output: Google will hire thousands of additional moderators next year following criticism that the company allowed offensive material, including hate speech and child abuse, to appear on its video-sharing website, YouTube. The move, which will take the company’s total moderating workforce to over 10,000, was announced by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who said that the company would also continue to develop machine-learning technology designed to automatically highlight content for removal. Last month, the New York Times reported that YouTube Kids was hosting violent and sexual material, sometimes featuring nursery rhymes and familiar characters.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
US supreme court weighs gay rights and free speech in cake case
 The supreme court justice Anthony Kennedy voiced competing concerns on Tuesday about respecting the religious beliefs of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, and the gay couple’s dignity.

Kennedy, the author of all the court’s major gay-rights decisions, worried early in a riveting argument at the high court that a ruling in favor of baker Jack Phillips might allow shop owners to put up signs saying: “We do not bake cakes for gay weddings.”

Later, though, Kennedy said the Colorado civil rights commission seemed “neither tolerant nor respectful of Mr Phillips’ religious beliefs” when it found his refusal to bake a cake for the gay couple violated a state anti-discrimination law.

Phillips was in the courtroom on Tuesday, as were the couple he refused, Charlie Craig and David Mullins. They listened to an argument that otherwise seemed to put the conservative justices squarely with Phillips and the liberals on the side of the couple.

The case pits Phillips’ first amendment claims of artistic freedom against the anti-discrimination arguments of the Colorado commission and the two men. The argument was the first involving gay rights since the supreme court ruled in 2015 that states could not prevent same-sex couples from marrying.

The Trump administration is supporting Phillips in his argument that he cannot be forced to create a cake that violates his religious beliefs. It appears to be the first time the federal government has asked the justices to carve out an exception from an anti-discrimination law.

Protesters on both sides filled the sidewalk in front of the court.

“We got Jack’s back,” Phillips’ supporters said.

Backers of Craig and Mullins countered: “Love wins.”

Inside the packed courtroom, the liberal justices peppered Kristen Waggoner, Phillips’ lawyer, and Noel Francisco, the US solicitor general, with questions about how to accommodate Phillips without eviscerating laws that require businesses that are open to the public to serve all customers. The case could affect photographers and florists who have voiced objections similar to those of Phillips.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan ticked off other categories of people who are involved in weddings to ask if they too might be able to refuse a same-sex couple. A graphic artist who designs menus and invitations? A jeweler? A hair stylist? A makeup artist?

Waggoner said the person who makes menus and invitations might be in the same position as Phillips, but not the others because what they do is “not speech”.

Kagan replied: “Some people might say that about cakes, you know?”

More generally, Stephen Breyer, in an exchange with Francisco, said his concern was that the court would have “no way of confining” a decision in favor of Phillips.

Kennedy’s comments in the first half of the 75-minute argument seemed firmly in line with the concerns for human dignity he expressed in his opinion in the 2015 gay marriage case and other gay-rights decisions over more than 20 years.

Kennedy expressed his doubts when Francisco tried to describe a narrow range of situations in which Phillips and similarly situated business owners might have a right to refuse service.

“The problem for you is so many examples do involve speech,” Kennedy said. “It basically means there is an ability to boycott.”

When Frederick Yarger, the Colorado solicitor general, and the American Civil Liberties Union’s David Cole stood up to defend the state commission ruling against Phillips, the conservative justices pounced.

Because same-sex marriage was not yet legal in Colorado in 2012, Samuel Alito noted that Craig and Mullins could not have obtained a marriage license where they lived or found a local official to marry them. Yet Phillips supposedly “committed a grave wrong” when he refused to make them a cake, Alito said. That struck him as unfair, he said.

Chief Justice John Roberts pressed Cole and Yarger on whether a Catholic legal services agency that provides help for free would have to take up a case involving a same-sex couple, despite the religious opposition to same-sex marriage. Yes, Cole said, “if they’ve provided the same services to couples who are straight”.

Neil Gorsuch, a Colorado native who joined the court in April, asked Cole whether a baker who made a cake shaped like a red cross to celebrate relief efforts would have to make the same cake for the Ku Klux Klan. Cole said no, because Colorado’s anti-discrimination law refers to race, sex and sexual orientation but does not protect KKK members.

Kennedy’s questions in this portion of the argument seemed to reflect the strong first amendment views in favor of free speech and religion that he has developed in nearly 30 years on the court.

Kennedy described comments made by one of the seven Colorado commissioners in the case as hostile to religion. “Did the commission ever disavow or disapprove” of those remarks? he asked. Not before today, Yarger said, disavowing them.

The exchange raised another possibility: that the court could return the case to the commission for reconsideration because its first decision was tainted by religious bias.

Colorado is among only 21 states with statewide laws barring discrimination against gays and lesbians in public accommodations.

The case will be decided by late June.

Output: A US legal case is pitting first amendment rights to artistic freedom against anti-discrimination laws as the result of a refusal by a Colorado baker to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Jack Phillips, backed by the Trump administration, argues that baking the cake would violate his religious beliefs. The case could have implications for photographers, florists and others who provide wedding services. Colorado is one of just 21 states which have statewide laws against anti-LGBT discrimination in public accommodations. A decision is expected in the case next June.


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Input:
Air pollution is ‘public health catastrophe’ for unborn babies
 Air pollution significantly increases the risk of low birth weight in babies, leading to lifelong damage to health, according to a large new study.

The research was conducted in London, UK, but its implications for many millions of women in cities around the world with far worse air pollution are “something approaching a public health catastrophe”, the doctors involved said.

Globally, two billion children – 90% of all children – are exposed to air pollution above World Health Organization guidelines. A Unicef study also published on Wednesday found that 17 million babies suffer air six times more toxic than the guidelines.

The team said that there are no reliable ways for women in cities to avoid chronic exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and called for urgent action from governments to cut pollution from vehicles and other sources.

“It is an unacceptable situation that there are factors a woman cannot control that adversely affect her unborn baby,” said Mireille Toledano, at Imperial College London, and who led the new research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The study analysed all live births in Greater London over four years – over 540,000 in total – and determined the link between the air pollution experienced by the mother and low birth weight, defined as less than 2.5kg (5.5lbs). The scientists found a 15% increase in risk of low birth weight for every additional 5 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) of fine particle pollution.

The average exposure of pregnant women in London to fine particle pollution is 15µg/m3, well below UK legal limits but 5µg/m3 higher than the WHO guideline. Cutting pollution to that guideline would prevent 300-350 babies a year being born with low weight, the researchers estimated. “The UK legal limit is not safe and is not protecting our pregnant women and their babies,” said Toledano.

“We know that low birthweight is absolutely crucial,” she said. “It not only increases the risk of the baby dying in infancy, but it predicts lifelong risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease etc. You are setting in stone the whole trajectory of lifelong chronic illness.”

The new research shows the impact of air pollution on babies in London is significant, but affects a relatively small number – only about 2.5% of all full-term babies are born with low weight. However, many cities around the world – such as Delhi in India – suffer far higher levels of toxic air, raising concerns of huge impacts on unborn babies.

“Though the new results from the UK are concerning, a global perspective reveals something approaching a public health catastrophe,” said Sarah Stock and Tom Clemens, from the University of Edinburgh, in a BMJ editorial. “The pregnancy effects of extreme exposure environments like Delhi are unmeasured, and there is an urgent need to turn attention to such environments where large numbers are at considerable risk of harm.”

Stock told the Guardian that outdoor air pollution is already causing millions of early deaths every year among adults and children: “And that is not taking into account deaths in utero or resulting from exposure in pregnancy, because we just don’t have the data yet.”

Unicef executive director Anthony Lake said: “Not only do pollutants harm babies’ developing lungs – they can permanently damage their developing brains – and, thus, their futures. No society can afford to ignore air pollution.”

The new BMJ study is based on observations and so cannot prove a causal link between air pollution and low birth weight, but the correlation is very strong, said Toledano: “The power of our study is incredible due to the sheer numbers.” The study is the largest to date in the UK and the link is strengthened by a series of previous studies from other regions that replicate the findings.

There are some uncertainties in the estimates of air pollution exposure and the level of smoking among the pregnant women. But Toledano said: “Could it be that we are slightly off in how much the increased risk is? Yes. Is it going to completely disappear? No.”

She said there are a number of serious public health problems around the world, such as the lack of clean water that kills over 500,000 infants every year, but said toxic air was one of them: “There is no question this is an extremely important public health risk. We have to do something and we can’t just say it is down to the individual mother. Every baby deserves to be born safely.”

Output: Air pollution significantly raises the risk of babies having a low birth weight, causing long-term risks of conditions including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to research carried out in London. The implications for women in cities with even worse air pollution than the UK capital were described by the researchers as “something approaching a public health catastrophe”. Across the world, 90% of all children, or two billion individuals, experience air pollution which breaches World Health Organization guidelines.