Suchergebnisse

Tackling the whole-life emissions of the European built environment
World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has convened ten Europan Green Building Councils to galvanise climate action in the built environment through national and regional decarbonisation roadmaps – a Europe-wide project called #BuildingLife. It focuses not only on the operational emissions of buildings, but also the environmental impact of the manufacturing, transportation, construction, and end-of-life phases of built assets – often called embodied carbon. Now in its second year having been launched in 2021, the project aims to achieve the mix of private sector action and public policy change necessary to tackle the whole-life carbon impact of buildings.

SummaryA study is reported of physical growth of Jamaican schoolboys who had been admitted to hospital with severe malnutrition during infancy (index cases). Height, weight and head circumference of the index cases was compared with that of male siblings close in age (siblings), with unrelated classmates or neighbours matched for sex and age (comparisons) and with Jamaican or US growth standards. Index boys were significantly smaller in height and head circumference than comparisons and significantly smaller than sibs only in head circumference. Sibs were intermediate in stature to the index and comparison boys. When the boys were divided into three age groups there was evidence of complete catch-up in height and weight after 7 years of age, but catch-up was incomplete for head circumference in the oldest group. No significant differences in stature at follow-up of the index boys were found in relation to age when admitted to hospital.

Income inequality and redistribution have become popular subjects in both public and policy circles in the wake of concerns over apparent concentration of wealth. However, a reasonable discussion of this subject is often hampered by a lack of a clear conceptual framework and relevant facts.! First, income inequality is a relative concept that can only be measured relatively by statistical tools like the Gini coefficient; used alone, these do not provide context for the results. Second, there is no single agreed-upon goal for income redistribution; different approaches invariably involve value judgments based on ethical or political theories that can differ widely on the crucial questions of why and how much redistribution should be sought. Third, the importance of this issue requires that measurements of the scale and absolute amount of existing income redistribution be utilized to inform the discussion. This communiqué takes a sober look at facts relating to income inequality and redistribution in Canada and applies methodology to reveal that, while the scale of income redistribution has declined since 1994, growth in real income since then has done much to compensate in maintaining! levels of absolute income redistribution that are high by historical standards.

The U.S. is beset by weak economic growth, ballooning debt and stubbornly high unemployment but the collapse of the housing bubble that spurred the 2008-2009 global financial crisis was more a consequence than a cause of what is wrong. The real culprit was and remains poor policymaking in the areas of taxation, finance and economics, which helped bring on the crisis by encouraging Americans to engage in counterproductive behaviour. This paper warns that without meaningful fiscal reform, the U.S. risks joining the PIIGS — Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain — on the road to ruin through unsustainable debt, high spending and chronically low growth. The author acknowledges the heated partisan debate over whether the answer is higher taxes or lower spending and explains that neither course alone offers a practical way out. A balanced approach incorporating aspects of both, combined with detailed policy reform as set forth in this paper, is the best solution. U.S. politicians must put aside their differences and replace bad policies with sound ones or the American economy will face disaster.

There are both theoretical and practical tax policy considerations that favour a broad recognition for the value of corporate income tax losses-- including for businesses operated within corporate groups. Ideally, an equitable and economically efficient tax system could obviate the need for loss netting against income by providing for the tax value of losses from business to be refundable by tax authorities in cash to owners. This approach, however, involves many serious difficulties, including revenue cost to governments and potential for abuse by both domestic and foreign businesses. Accordingly, loss refundability tends to be provided for only sparingly, if at all; while many corporate income tax systems—such as in the U.S. the U.K., Japan and many other OECD countries--deal with loss netting within corporate groups through a formal system of tax loss transfer or tax consolidation.While Canadian policymakers have considered introduction of such a system over a long period of time, they have yet to come up with a satisfactory formal system for Canada. So, corporate groups in Canada have been left to make do with an informal self-help loss trading system that presents a number of problems compared to formal systems.As a federal country with substantial corporate taxation levied at the provincial level, Canada appears unusually constrained in what it can do to bring greater equity and efficiency to corporate group tax loss utilization. Moreover, the inefficiencies in the current system are small in aggregate terms, and the informal self-help system has a relatively generous threshold for access. Accordingly, while Canada's current informal self-help corporate group loss system is far from ideal, it appears to remain as a workable approach. Alternatives to the status quo should be considered cautiously, as they have the potential to do more harm than good.