First published on Wed 3 Mar 2021 11.54 EST
The chancellor has changed the remit of the Bank of England’s interest rate-setting monetary policy committee to include a duty to support the government’s net zero carbon ambition alongside its longstanding responsibility to keep inflation in check.
Rishi Sunak made the change to reflect the importance of environmental sustainability, he said.
Under the green upgrade, the Bank must support the government’s strategy to “level up opportunity in all parts of the UK” and to “transition to an environmentally sustainable and resilient net zero economy”, according to the Treasury.
The surprise extension of the remit formed part of an otherwise modest set of Treasury measures to help spur the UK’s burgeoning green economy including plans to issue a £15bn Green Gilt sovereign bond, a £22bn National Infrastructure Bank based in Leeds, and a string of small-scale development funding pledges.
Tony Blair, former British prime minister, wants governments to treat future pandemic preparedness as a national security issue. Credit: Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd
Governments must treat future pandemic preparedness as a “national security” issue, developing shared systems for identifying mutations and new viruses, former UK prime minister Tony Blair said last Friday.
While he acknowledged that governments – including his own – have struggled to address future risks, Blair said leaders should view the challenge much as they do defence.
“It’s right to look at it almost in national security terms – we prepare ourselves, and have the ability to defend ourselves, even though we don’t intend or want that we should have to do that,” Blair told an online event hosted by the London-based Institute for Government (IfG) think tank on Friday. “It’s likely that these types of pathogens will be present and can give rise to pandemics in a way that’s never happened bef
The World Economic Forum (WEF) faced a barrage of criticism before deleting a social media video which praised coronavirus lockdowns for "quietly improving cities around the world". In the video, the WEF said that as a result of people using less.
Third US COVID Vaccine on Verge of Approval Third US COVID Vaccine on Verge of Approval
The U.S. moved a step closer Friday to having another vaccine in its coronavirus arsenal, after an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously endorsed Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose COVID vaccine.
Formal authorization for the vaccine could come in the next few days. The one-dose vaccine would become the third coronavirus inoculation approved by the FDA after the two-dose vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus went on television Friday to encourage African Americans to receive the COVID-19 inoculations.