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Bloomberg The White House reiterated President Joe Biden’s opposition to indexing the gasoline tax to inflation to help pay for an infrastructure plan, raising new questions about the viability of a bipartisan compromise emerging in the Senate. “After the extraordinarily hard times that ordinary Americans endured in 2020 — job losses, shrinking incomes, squeezed budgets — he is simply not ...

Bloomberg Germany is lobbying the European Commission to set stricter climate protection targets for the region’s car and aviation industries, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. In a position paper sent to the European Union (EU) executive, the government urged “ambitious fleet limits” for emissions from new cars in Europe by 2030, the newspaper reported. CO2 limits for automakers are a “decisive ...

Bloomberg As many as 7% of French firms could be in financial trouble when the government rolls back the blanket support it has provided during the pandemic, according to research by Bank of France economists. The estimate is based on an analysis of over 200,000 balance sheets received as part of the central bank’s annual ratings exercise. It identified firms ...

Bloomberg PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) is investing $12 billion across its global business in an overhaul targeting better audits, digitisation of services and greener operations. The professional-services provider will hire 100,000 employees and develop the skills of existing staff over the next five years as it seeks to respond to the post-pandemic operating environment, it said in an emailed statement. “We will ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Masdar City, the sustainable urban development in the UAE, is set to play a key role in the global green recovery from Covid-19 as it continues to add sustainability-focused innovation and technology companies. The number of companies in the city’s free zone increased 26 percent in 2020, indicating the important role of the city and its ...

NEW YORK / WAM At the UN General Assembly’s High-level dialogue on desertification, land degradation and drought, the UAE has underlined that protecting the environment must be a priority for the international community. “We only have one home, one shelter – Earth,” said Dr Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, through a video message. “Therefore, we all ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Committee has approved a pilot test of new scanners to identify potential Covid-19 cases at select locations in the emirate as part of efforts to further enhance the protection of public health and safety by using the most advanced technology. The state-of-the-art scanners add to existing precautionary measures, with ...

Dubai / WAM flydubai, the Dubai-based airline, has partnered with Alhosn, becoming the first airline to collaborate with the official UAE app for contact tracing and health testing related to Covid-19, to provide passengers with digital verification of Covid-19 medical records while travelling from the UAE. All flydubai passengers can now use the Alhosn app at check-in without having to ...

Bloomberg Seven of the European Union’s leading energy producers called on policymakers to agree to an ambitious and fast reform of the world’s largest carbon market in a bid to help investors in the transition to climate neutrality. Companies including Electricite de France SA, Statkraft AS and Fortum Oyj — which have big nuclear and hydropower fleets — want a ...

Bloomberg Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin concluded their first summit in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday after about 2.5 hours of meetings, seeking to dial back tensions between the two former Cold War adversaries that have reached the highest level in years. The summit was substantially shorter than aides had predicted. US officials said they expected the ...