The link between c02 and rising temperatures is well established and this year Global Temperatures got an extra boost thanks to el nino, which brings warmer water to the surface of parts of the tropical pacific. That explains why february was 1. 77 degrees warmer than preindustrial temperatures, and why global average temperatures hit a record 1. 55 degrees above preindustrial levels over the last 12 months. It means we have temporarily at least breached the 1. 5 degrees threshold the world agreed to try and limit temperature rise to, to avoid the worst impacts of Climate Change. February 2024 was the warmest february on record globally, with an average temperature of 13. 54 degrees, above the 1991 2020 temperature. While this is remarkable, because, for instance, it is a tenth of a degree warmer than the warmest previous february, which was 2016, its not really surprising, because this has been the el nino year, where temperatures tend to be warmer than usual, and more importantly, we
Us treasury secretary janet yellen called the downgrade arbitrary and said Economic Conditions had improved under the biden administration. The news of the downgrade came after the close of trade on wall street but in asia investors have been pulling out of equities in reaction. Lets look at markets now in asia. Japan is currently down by over 2 . Hong kong not that far behind. This was off the back of yesterday, and most of this week we have seen the sharemarket, certainly wall street and asia having a strong session but this is certainly spooked sentiment. Lets discuss this with tom stevenson, whos an Investment Director at fidelity. Good morning. Janet woody allen saying this is arbitrary. I have her statement janet yellen and she said she strongly disagrees and says it is based on outdated data. That is based on outdated data. That is riuht. Is based on outdated data. That is right it is based on outdated data. That is right. It seems is based on outdated data. That is right. It s
us, you are in time for the top business stories. we start in the us where, as you ve been hearing in the last few hours, meta, the owner of facebook, instagram and whatsapp, has launched its widely anticipated new conversation app, threads. it allows users to create posts of up to 500 characters and is being seen as a clear rival to twitter. threads is available to download in more than 100 countries around the world, including here in the uk, but not as yet in the european union because of concerns over privacy regulations. meta boss mark zuckerberg says 5 million users have already signed up to threads in the first four hours. and many tech industry watchers say it poses a very real threat to twitter. i think threads will pose a huge threat to twitter because it is coming from the matter and instagram family of apps. instagram has 2 million users compared to around 250 million of twitter so about ten times bigger already. of twitter so about ten times biggeralready. if of
food prices. the new border target operating model has three stages with the introduction of health certification on imports of goods seen as medium and high risk which includes meat and dairy products, as well as most plants will now require checks from health inspectors or vets before they can be transported. and there will be bigger changes coming from the end of april when these products will be physically checked at new border posts in the uk. then from the end of october, safety and security declarations for eu imports will come into force. it is a lot of new details that have importers worried. anna holligan went to meet one in the netherlands. this planter doesn t put two of the biggest diy stores, for some the rules are about to change. some the rules are about to chance. , , ., , some the rules are about to chance. , , . , change. this is what they call will be plans. change. this is what they call will be plans. because - change. this is what they call will b
on stock exchanges. the approval of the bitcoin exchange traded funds, or etfs, is seen by supporters as a watershed for crypto, giving it financial respectability and mainstream acceptance on wall street, after a string of controversies. erin delmore reports from new york. this decision was years in the making and now it will allow people and institutions to invest in bitcoin almost as easily as they buy stocks. the move could increase demand for bitcoin and legitimacy for the crypto currency industry, which has weathered scandal and scepticism. sec chair did not shy away from that in a statement saying, while we approve the listing and trading of certain ept spot bitcoin shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin. he said investors should remain caution about the risks associated with bitcoin and said the crypto currency is, primarily a speculative volatile asset. while investors and crypto watchers awaited the decision, a false tweet was posted on the sec official