August 2015 - BCSDH

Unilever announces new leader for Hungary and Adria region

Regina Kuzmina has been appointed to the position of Managing Director Unilever Hungary & Adria, effective 1st August 2015. She will become the member of Leadership Team managing the Central Eastern Europe region.

Kuzmina brings extensive experience to the Hungarian business. She joined Unilever in Russia in 1997 and grew through the ranks in the organisation holding different roles in Marketing and media communications including the post of Brand Building Vice President Home and Personal Care. Over the last 4 years she was leading the Customer Development Department in Russia/Ukraine/Belarus.

Kuzmina will assume responsibility to manage a region which consists of 4 countries: Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. „It is an honour for me to join and lead highly professional team here. The business results over the last years are speaking of themselves: great expertise, clear focus, determination, resilience, agility and entrepreneurship – this is what makes my new team a winning team. I would be delighted to add value by bringing fresh look, new perspectives, bolder ideas, to further challenging the team and business to the new heights. I do not come to fix the business; I come to make it shine even brighter… ” – the new Managing Director said.

Regina Kuzmina studied at the Chemical-Pharmaceutical University of Saint Petersburg and earned MBA at KU Leuven. She is married with two children. Kuzmina and her family will move to Budapest in August.

27.08.2015

In less than 8 Months, Humanity exhausts Earth’s budget for the year

News

Earth Overshoot Day 2015 lands on August 13.

Earth Overshoot Day is the annual marker of when we begin living beyond our means in a given year. While only a rough estimate of time and resource trends, Earth Overshoot Day is as close as science can be to measuring the gap between our demand for ecological resources and services, and how much the planet can provide.

The Cost of Ecological Overspending

Throughout most of history, humanity has used nature’s resources to build cities and roads, to provide food and create products, and to absorb our carbon dioxide at a rate that was well within Earth’s budget. But in the mid-1970s, we crossed a critical threshold: Human consumption began outstripping what the planet could reproduce.

According to Global Footprint Network’s calculations, our demand for renewable ecological resources and the services they provide is now equivalent to that of more than 1.5 Earths. The data shows us on track to require the resources of two planets well before mid-century.

The fact that we are using, or “spending,” our natural capital faster than it can replenish is similar to having expenditures that continuously exceed income. In planetary terms, the costs of our ecological overspending are becoming more evident by the day. Climate change—a result of greenhouse gases being emitted faster than they can be absorbed by forests and oceans—is the most obvious and arguably pressing result. But there are others—shrinking forests, species loss, fisheries collapse, higher commodity prices and civil unrest, to name a few. The environmental and economic crises we are experiencing are symptoms of looming catastrophe. Humanity is simply using more than what the planet can provide.

Source: Global Footprint Network

13.08.2015

Climate change: Obama unveils Clean Power Plan

News

US President Barack Obama has unveiled what he called “the biggest, most important step we have ever taken” in tackling climate change.

The aim of the revised Clean Power Plan is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from US power stations by nearly a third within 15 years. The measures will place significant emphasis on wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.

However, opponents in the energy industry have vowed to fight the plan. “I’m convinced no challenge provides a greater threat to the future of the planet,” Mr Obama said. “There is such a thing as being too late.”

Those opponents say Mr Obama has declared “a war on coal”. Power plants fired by coal provide more than a third of the US electricity supply. The revised plan will aim to cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 32% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

“We are the first generation to feel the impacts of climate change, and the last generation to be able to do something about it,” Mr Obama said. He likened the plan to taking 166 million cars off the road in terms of environmental impact. He called taking a stand against climate change a “moral obligation”.

Mr Obama brushed off the notion that the plan is a “War on Coal” that will kill jobs and said he is reinvesting in areas of the US known as “coal country”.

“Scaremonging” tactics will not work to stop the proposal, he said.

“If we don’t do it nobody will. America leads the way forward… that’s what this plan is about. This is our moment to get something right and get something right for our kids,” he said.

The deal at a glance

What does it do to combat climate change in the US?

The Clean Power Plan sets standards to reduce CO2 emissions by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030, which is 9% more than the proposed rules previously set forth by the Obama administration.

How?

It sets carbon pollution reduction goals for power plants and requires states to implement plans to meet goals. States have until September 2016 to submit plans, but must comply by 2022.

Why are some US states opposed?

Coal mining states such as Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky fear their economies would suffer and people would be laid off.

Is President Obama trying to set an example?

The Administration believes the plan will boost a major climate summit in Paris in December and encourage other countries to submit their own plans.

Source: www.bbc.com

More information:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33753067

https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change

06.08.2015