FT.com / World - Germany in push to set G8 emissions target

FT.com / World - Germany in push to set G8 emissions target

Germany in push to set G8 emissions target
By Alan Beattie in London and Hugh Williamson in Berlin

Published: April 13 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 13 2007 03:00

Germany, this year's chair of the Group of Eight rich countries, has pushed the group to set a tough target for reducing carbon emissions, the first time it has been asked to commit to an explicit reduction.

But environmentalists said the World Bank, which the G8 has asked to finance the shift away from carbon use in the developing world, was continuing to ramp up lending for oil and gas.

A February draft of the final communiqué of the June heads of government meeting, obtained by the Financial Times, says: "Global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating . . . beyond a temperature increase of 2 degrees C, risks from climate change will be largely unmanageable."

The draft said the G8 would "contribute our fair share" to limit global warming by ensuring global greenhouse gas emissions peaked in the next 10-15 years and then cutting them 50 per cent by 2050 from 1990 levels.

The US has dismissed calls for limits as "rhetoric". People in Berlin familiar with the German position said the 2°C limit to global warming remained in more recent drafts of the communiqué, but was facing "extremely strong opposition" from Washington, which was fighting its inclusion in the final draft.

The Germans and the British "would like to retain this language, but it will be very difficult", one person said.

The G8 has in the past called on the World Bank to fund greener energy generation in the developing world. Analysis of the bank's data for its lending in 2006 by the Bank Information Center, a Washington-based campaign group, showed lending to the fossil fuel industry rose by 93 per cent in 2006, compared with an increase of only 46 per cent in lending for renewable energy and conservation projects.

"There is a disconnect between what the G8 keeps saying and what the World Bank is doing," said Graham Saul, director of international programmes at the BIC. "Funding the expansion of the oil industry is a role the bank has played since the 1970s and it has been a great cash cow for them."

Jamal Saghir, director of energy for the World Bank, said the upward trend in the share of the bank's lending for control of carbon emissions was clear.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects had risen to 37 per cent of the World Bank Group's energy portfolio from just 14 per cent in 1994. "The bank is a world leader in lending for renewable energy and energy efficiency," he said. It had matched and beaten the target it had been set of increasing such lending by 20 per cent a year, Mr Saghir said.

The bank group as a whole includes its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, which has funded several controversial oil and gas pipelines in the developing world.

The G8 heads of government meet in June to discuss climate change, the world economy, trade and foreign policy. The communiqué also contains a strongly worded attack on "investment protectionism", which it says is imperilling the continued integration of the global economy.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

FT.com / Companies / IT - Infosys quarterly profit jumps 70 per cent

FT.com / Companies / IT - Infosys quarterly profit jumps 70 per cent

Infosys quarterly profit jumps 70 per cent
By Reuters Apr 13 06:12:49

India’s second-largest software exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd., reported a forecast-beating 70 per cent rise in consolidated quarterly profit as outsourcing by foreign clients surged, but predicted more modest earnings growth for this fiscal year.

The company said per share earnings, before exceptionals, for the current fiscal year were expected to grow by 20-22 per cent to between 80.29 and 81.58 rupees, which traders said was muted by its standards.

That compared to a 53.5 per cent surge in per share earnings before exceptionals to 69.11 rupees for the fiscal year that ended on March 31.

”Our liquidity position continues to be strong with cash and cash equivalents reaching $1.4bn,” V. Balakrishnan, chief financial officer at Infosys said in a statement.

Nasdaq-listed Infosys, which develops applications, designs supply chains and offers back-office services, said on Friday its consolidated net profit was 11.44bn rupees ($267m) in the three months ended March, versus 6.73bn in the same period a year ago.

That compared with a mean net profit of 10.31bn rupees in a Reuters poll of 14 brokerages.

Analysts say the software and back-office services industry, which earns nearly 90 per cent of its revenue from overseas clients, will win more outsourcing jobs in the coming months from foreign firms that are looking to cut costs at home.

India’s large pool of English-speaking engineering workforce and cheaper wages of nearly one-fifth of Western salaries have helped to attract outsourcing. But the services firms’ ability to raise billing rates to offset higher wages and other costs may be limited because of the spectre of a U.S. economic slowdown, said analysts.

Top exporter Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and third-biggest Wipro Ltd. are expected to report their profits grew 47.8 and 29 per cent respectively, the Reuters poll showed. TCS is due to report on Monday and Wipro on April 20.

India’s software services exports are expected to have risen 33 per cent to $31.3bn in 2006/07, and are targeted to hit $60bn by 2010 as firms such as Infosys and TCS take advantage of low-cost labour to grab global outsourcing.

Shares in Infosys, which counts ABN AMRO and Goldman Sachs among its clients, fell around 10 per cent in the March quarter, compared to more than a 7 per cent decline in the IT sector index and 5 per cent dip in the main BSE index.

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FT.com / Companies / IT - EU blow to Microsoft on Windows

FT.com / Companies / IT - EU blow to Microsoft on Windows

Microsoft will be forced to hand over to rivals what the group claims is sensitive and valuable technical information about its Windows operating system for next to no compensation, according to a confidential document seen by the Financial Times.