Agreed records of the annual consultations held to discuss the management of Atlanto-Scandian blue whiting, herring and mackerel in the North-East Atlantic.
News story
The UK and Brazil made agreements on financial services, taxation, sustainable growth and Green Finance, helping to boost jobs and investments for UK companies.
The fourth Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) between the UK and Brazil on 10 December 2020 saw the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, meeting to build further economic ties between the two countries. They were joined by central bank Governors and heads of financial sector regulators.
The UK and Brazil have a strong economic relationship, with over 800 British companies currently operating in Brazil. Total trade between the UK and Brazil, including imports and exports as well as goods and services, currently stands at £6 billion in 2020.
The Chancellor and the Economy Minister discussed the importance of continuing to work together to increase market access and cooperating on clean growth and green finance to help tackle climate change and environmental issues ahead of COP26.
Agreements reached include:
Ministers also underlined the two countries’ international leadership on greening the financial system. Following the Chancellor’s recent announcement on making climate-related financial disclosures mandatory by 2025, the UK implemented a roadmap to that timeline aligned with TCFD recommendations. The Brazilian Central Bank, which committed to implementation for financial institutions by the end of 2022, has agreed to close collaboration on implementation of mandatory financial disclosures, and in addition to its membership of the Network for Greening the Financial System, commits to perform stress testing. Both countries committed to working together multilaterally on sustainability issues, including on creating international carbon markets, and the UK warmly encouraged Brazil to join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.
Published 11 December 2020
News story
More than 100,000 security and resilience specialists and colleagues in crowded places now have access to the Action Counters Terrorism application for business.
ACT app reaches 100,000 Users
That means more than 100,000 people across almost 8,000 UK organisations are now receiving expert advice and guidance directly from Counter Terrorism Policing straight to their smart phone or tablet device – Will you join them?
With the coronavirus pandemic changing all of our day to day routines, we understand that the threat from terrorism isn’t necessarily front of mind for businesses. But the threat of terrorism sadly has not gone away. The recent terror attacks in Europe and the change in the UK’s terrorism threat level to SEVERE – meaning an attack is highly likely – are reminders of how important it is to remain vigilant and for businesses to be prepared and able to protect their colleagues and customers.
By downloading the ACT App, organisations have access to the latest CT Policing information & guidance to help them:
New upgrades have been integrated in to the App meaning the above it available in 50+ languages with improved dynamic search functionality allowing users to find the content they need faster and finally a new document library has been introduced making it easier than ever to find the guidance documents need to improve your organisational resilience.
Find out more by watching this video
There are two ways to access the ACT App for your organisation
Large Enterprise: Sign Up & Deploy to all colleagues within your Organisation – If you are a large organisation with company managed devices, our enterprise roll out solution is for you. This solution will allow you to deploy the ACT App to all company devices in your organisation. Working with your internal IT team the ACT App Team will provide them with the relevant files which will allow the app to be internally pushed to all colleagues devices. The app will show as an ACT App tile and users will not need to sign in to access the app or remember a specific username & password. For more information on how to do this, please contact ct@highfieldelearning.com.
Smaller organisations: Sign Up for a Username & Password – If you are a smaller organisation without company managed devices, the best way to access the ACT App is via the Google Play or Apple App Store. After downloading email ct@highfieldelearning.com to request a user name and password. You can also use our supporting poster to promote this through your organisation.
Please note access is for business/professional use only.
Published 11 December 2020
Estimates of the areas of crops grown in England and the UK for bioenergy.
The Coal Authority has helped to demonstrate a novel way to use ochre from treated mine water by using the product in fine art paints.
This is one of a number of ways we are looking at recycling ochre that is removed from mine water during our treatment process.
The limited edition line of wall paint and artists’ oil paints were made by Onya McCausland, an artist with Slade School of Fine Art at UCL (University College London), when she was studying for her doctorate.
The Coal Authority manages 82 mine water treatment schemes across Britain, handling and treating more than 122 billion litres of mine water every year. The schemes prevent up to 4,000 tonnes of iron solids from entering watercourses. If the water is left untreated, it could pollute and stain the riverbed turning it orange.
Jon Aumonier, the Coal Authority’s Innovation Project Manager, said:
Onya’s use of ochre from our mine water treatment schemes in this project is just one of the rewards of the hard work and financial commitment made by the Coal Authority in the recovery, process and testing of ochre samples.
We have worked very hard to get the ochre to this point and seeing it turned into pigments is fantastic.
Bohdan Iwanskyj, the Coal Authority’s Principal Innovation Manager, added:
Through this project we were able to reuse a byproduct and ensured that our material stream could be used as an input for other processes.
It demonstrates the possibility of utilising ochre for a variety of uses and opens up other opportunities for the Coal Authority.
Onya, pictured above, visited former coal mine sites dotted throughout Britain – from Scotland, Lancashire and Yorkshire to South Wales – where she collected samples of ochre for further study.
It was through her paintings that she discovered striking differences between the pigments depending on their geographic location and she said:
This highlights how mine water treatment schemes are the vital link between the colour, the material and the place.
They reflect an important part of Britain’s cultural, social and industrial history and legacy.
Six Bells Red, the first limited edition of the new line of pigments, was launched (online and with a physical presence) on Friday 11 December at the Six Bells mine water treatment scheme in South Wales.
The highlight of the launch was the unveiling of a commemorative plaque by Alun Davies, Member of the Senedd for Blaenau Gwent, to officially recognise the Coal Authority site as the source of the paint.
Six Bells Red contains more than 50 per cent of iron and is a deep reddish hue.
To mark the occasion, 1,000 tubes of artists’ oil paint, named Six Bells Burnt Ochre, each with its own serial number, were made available.
In addition, a special limited edition of 100 one-litre tins have been produced and up to 50 tins will be given to people and organisations across Gwent to enable members of the community to participate in a collective multi-part public artwork.
This will involve painting buildings, houses, doors, gates and walls in the area to create a display that visitors can see and engage with.