1 Climate change: 2015 to be hottest year ever
(Arthur Neslen in The Guardian) Climate change made 2011-2015 the warmest
five-year period on record, according to the World Meteorological
Organisation’s (WMO) state of the global climate report. This year is set to be
the single hottest ever registered, with planetary temperatures passing the
symbolic milestone of 1C above pre-industrial levels.
The WMO’s stock-take attributes the sweltering
conditions to a cocktail of man-made global warming and the effects of the El
Niño oceanic phenomenon. “The state of the global climate in 2015 will make
history as for a number of reasons,” the WMO’s secretary-general, Michel
Jarraud said. “2015 is likely to be the hottest year on record, with ocean
surface temperatures at the highest level since measurements began. It is
probable that the 1C Celsius threshold will be crossed. This is all bad news
for the planet.”
Extreme weather events such as heatwaves can now be
attributed to anthropogenic climate change with greater confidence, Jarraud
said. Last summer, 2,500 people died in India during a heatwave blamed on
climate change, while Pakistan recorded another 2,000 fatalities as
temperatures soared as high as 49C.
China experienced its warmest ever year on record in
2015 in the period to October, while the continent of Africa is currently
undergoing its second warmest. Other increasingly severe weather events such as
floods, droughts and tropical storms were developing in line with the WMO’s
expectations, based on climate models.
Prof Sir Brian Hoskins, chair of the Grantham
Institute at Imperial College London, said: “Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
is at record levels and so are global temperatures. These are indicators of the
big climate problem we are creating for ourselves.”
2 Saudi builder to cut 15,000 jobs (Gulf News) Construction
company Saudi Binladin Group plans to cut about 15,000 staff, people with
knowledge of the matter said, in a sign of the pressure on the industry as the
Saudi government trims spending in response to low oil prices.
The possible layoffs at Binladin, one of Saudi
Arabia’s biggest firms and among the Middle East’s largest builders, would
represent a small fraction of the group’s total workforce, which is around
200,000, according to its LinkedIn page.
But the planned cutbacks are an example of the
choices which companies are having to make as Saudi Arabia’s economic boom
loses steam.
3 South Africa economy 'can only get worse' (Johannesburg Times) Manufactures might have saved South Africa from slipping
into a recession, but it is merely the gloss on a tanking economy dragged down
by poor government policies and falling commodity prices.
StatsSA has announced that the gross domestic
product had increased 0.7% quarter on quarter in the three months to September.
In the previous quarter it had shrunk 1.3%. "The growth is so marginal you
need a magnifying glass to see it," said consulting economist Cees
Bruggemans. "Remember the growth of 0.7% is for the period, before the
worst of the drought."
Economists say consumers are in for a rough ride
next year. "The stress of consumers is about to be compounded, with no
let-up likely in the near future, especially with looming electricity hikes and
difficulty in saving and settling debt," said political economy analyst
Daniel Silke.
Any shocks from currency declines, rating
downgrades, future labour unrest, continuing power-supply constraints, the
drought and food-price inflation would keep the economy on the cusp of a
recession, he said.
A 9.8% plunge in mining was one of the main reasons
for the worse-than-expected growth rate in the quarter, according to Michael
Manamela, executive manager for national accounts at StatsSA. Though
manufacturing expanded for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2014,
three sectors are now in recession: agriculture, mining and electricity. Farming
output plunged an annualised 12.6% in the third quarter as drought cut crops.
Kevin Lings, Stanlib chief economist, said, "During
2014 as a whole the economy grew by a weak 1.5%, down from 2.2% in both 2013
and 2012. For 2015 as a whole, we still expect growth of only 1.4%, slowing to
1.1% in 2016." Other economists are less optimistic. Bruggemans predicted
no growth and 50,000 job losses next year.
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