scholarly journals Disaster, uncertainty, opportunity or risk? Key messages from the television coverage of the IPCC’s 2013/2014 reports

Author(s):  
James Painter

This article examines the television coverage of the three 2013 and 2014 reports by the Working Groups of the IPCC in five European countries: Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The presence, salience and dominance of four frames (disaster, uncertainty, explicit risk and opportunity) were examined in each of the bulletins monitored. The «disaster» frame was the strongest of all the frames, measured by all three metrics. «Opportunity» was the next most present, followed by «uncertainty». Although the IPCC put considerable emphasis on a risk management approach to tackling climate change in its communication of the WG2 report, the «explicit risk» frame was hardly present. The UK stood out for including some coverage of sceptical viewpoints.

Author(s):  
Thomas Klammer ◽  
Neil Wilner ◽  
Jan Smolarski

Capital expenditures can be crucial to firms long-term success, especially in a complex global environment. As companies increasingly compete in the global market place, it is important to study project evaluation processes from an international perspective. Capital investments involve substantial monetary commitments and risks that affect long-term firm profitability and influence capital allocation decisions in the future. Survey research in the area of capital expenditure analysis has been extensively done in both the United States [US] and the United Kingdom [UK]. This research is the first comparative survey of practices in both countries that we are aware of. A direct comparison of the use of project evaluation, management science, and risk management techniques in the two countries is made. The survey instrument used is an adaptation of the Klammer [1970] instrument that has been used repeatedly in surveys of American firms. This is the first time that it has been applied to British firms. The use of a common instrument allows for more meaningful comparisons. The samples consisted of 127 American and 59 British firms with sales of at least $100 million and capital expenditures of at least $10 million. Preliminary results indicate a continued extensive use of discounted cash flow techniques by US firms. Techniques such as payback or urgency continue to be used, but to a lesser degree than discounting. Firms in the UK also make extensive use of discounting but do so to a lesser degree than their American counterparts. Payback is widely used in the UK. Risk management techniques are widely used in both countries, with sensitivity analysis being the most popular technique in both countries. Extensive use of technical and administrative procedures, such as detailed budgets, standardized forms and post-audits, are evidenced in both countries. The paper offers reasons that have to do with organizational structure and form, as well as market differences, to explain our results.


Author(s):  
Emma JS Ferranti ◽  
Joanna Ho Yan Wong ◽  
Surindar Dhesi

AbstractAs leaders of civil society, governments have a prime responsibility to communicate climate change information in order to motivate their citizens to mitigate and adapt. This study compares the approaches of the United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong (HK) governments. Although different in size and population, the UK and HK have similar climate change agendas to communicate to similarly educated and prosperous populations. The study finds that whilst both governments use similar means: policy, education, campaigns, internet and social media, these have different characteristics, with different emphases in their climate change message. The UK’s top-down approach is more prominent in its legally binding policy and well-defined programmes for adaptation and risk assessment. HK has more effectively embedded climate change education across the school curricula, and has a more centralized and consistently branded campaign, with widespread use of visual language to connect the public to the problem. HK frames climate change as a science-society problem, and has a greater focus on self-responsibility and bottom-up behavioral change. Thus, the UK and HK governments have polarized approaches to motivating their citizens into climate action. Moving forwards, both governments should consider best practice elements of the other to develop their communication of climate change.


Subject China's climate change policy. Significance The Trump administration’s planned withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the UK government’s preoccupation with Brexit have allowed China to present itself as a global leader on climate change. Ahead of the COP26 summit in the United Kingdom next November, countries and negotiating blocs such as the EU will focus on China as a major emitter that needs to increase its pledges to avoid a business-as-usual trajectory. Impacts Germany, holding the EU presidency for July-December 2020, will be key to new China-EU diplomatic arrangements on climate change. An EU-China summit in Leipzig during the German presidency will put climate change high on the agenda. At COP26, the United Kingdom is likely to emphasise finance, nature-based solutions, adaptation and resilience, and the Green economy. The UK government may also emphasise long-term ‘net zero’ commitments, as it has made to 2050. Inadequate national targets and slow progress in UN talks will fuel grassroots activism and calls for radical approaches.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Zavatta

This paper provides an overview of territorial patterns of COVID-19 deaths in four European countries severely affected by the pandemic, Spain, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The analysis focuses on cumulated COVID-19 mortality at the sub-regional level, following the territorial subdivision of countries adopted by the European Union. The paper builds upon a dataset with highly granular information on COVID-19 deaths assembled from various sources. The analysis shows remarkable differences in territorial patterns of COVID-19 mortality, both within and across the four countries reviewed. Results somewhat differ depending on the aspect considered (concentration of deaths or mortality rates) but, in general, Italy, France and Spain display significant territorial disparities, with selected sub-regions being disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Instead, the picture is more uniform in the UK, with comparatively lower differences across the various sub-regions. These findings suggest that analyses of COVID-19 mortality at the national level (and, sometimes, even at the regional level) may conceal major differences and therefore be of limited use, both analytically and from an operational viewpoint.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loh Teng-Hern Tan ◽  
Vengadesh Letchumanan ◽  
Hooi-Leng Ser ◽  
Jodi Woan-Fei Law ◽  
Nurul-Syakima Ab Mutalib ◽  
...  

COVID-19 has greatly impacted the world and posed an enormous public health threat. The United Kingdom is hit harder by the COVID-19 crisis than any other European countries, besides Italy, Spain and France. The UK government has come under heavy criticism for its response to COVID-19, with lack of preparedness, shortages of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing. Despite the lockdown is in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, UK death toll continues to surge. As of 21st April 2020, more than 120,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 16,000 deaths had been recorded in UK.


Author(s):  
M. Ellis ◽  
P.J. Avery

Slaughter weights for pigs in the United Kingdom have traditionally been much lower than those in most other European countries and in North America. For example, in 1988 average carcass weights in the UK were around 64 kg compared to 72 kg in Denmark, 80 kg in Holland and over 105 kg in Italy. Currently, there is considerable interest within the BritisTi pig industry in heavier slaughter weights for pigs to exploit potential advantages in reducing fixed costs of production per unit of output. A research programme is currently being undertaken at this centre to investigate the potential for increasing slaughter weight and results from the first two studies undertaken are reported here.


10.36469/9802 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Laetitia Gerlier ◽  
Judith Hackett ◽  
Richard Lawson ◽  
Sofia Dos Santos Mendes ◽  
Martin Eichner

Objectives: To simulate the impact of a pediatric influenza vaccination programme using quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (QLAIV) in Europe by applying coverage rates achieved in the United Kingdom during the 2014–2015 season and to compare the model outcomes to the UK results. Methods: We used a deterministic, age-structured, dynamic transmission model adapted to the demography, contact patterns and influenza incidence of 13 European countries, with a 10-year horizon. The reference strategy was the unchanged country-specific coverage rate, using quadrivalent inactivated vaccine (assumed efficacy against infection from 45% in 1-year-old children to 60% in healthy adults). In the evaluated strategy, 56.8% of 5–10-year-old children were additionally vaccinated with QLAIV (assumed efficacy 80%), as was the case in 2014–2015 in the United Kingdom’s primary school pilot areas. Symptomatic influenza cases and associated medical resources (primary care consultations [PCC], hospitalization, intensive care unit [ICU] admissions) were calculated. The evaluated versus reference strategies were compared using odds ratios (ORs) for PCC in the target (aged 5–10-years) and non-target adult (aged >17 years) populations as well as number needed to vaccinate (NNV) with QLAIV to avert one PCC, hospitalization or ICU admission. Model outcomes, averaged over 10 seasons, were compared with published real-life data from the United Kingdom for the 2014–2015 season. Results: Over 13 countries and 10 years, the evaluated strategy prevented 32.8 million of symptomatic influenza cases (172.3 vs 205.2 million). The resulting range of ORs for PCC was 0.18–0.48 among children aged 5–10-years, and the published OR in the United Kingdom was 0.06 (95% confidence interval [0.01; 0.62]). In adults, the range of ORs for PCC was 0.60–0.91 (UK OR=0.41 [0.19; 0.86]). NNV ranges were 6–19 per averted PCC (UK NNV=16), 530–1524 per averted hospitalization (UK NNV=317) and 5298–15 241 per averted ICU admission (UK NNV=2205). Conclusions: Across a range of European countries, our model shows the beneficial direct and indirect impact of a paediatric vaccination programme using QLAIV in primary school-aged children, consistent with what was observed during a single season in the United Kingdom. Recommendations for the implementation of pediatric vaccination programmes are, therefore, supported in Europe.


2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Stuart ◽  
A Perrocheau

Practical guidelines on the management of meningococcal disease in universities have recently been published in the United Kingdom. Universities in the UK are increasingly aware that cases of meningococcal disease cause great distress and disturbance on campuses


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Lachlan-Cope ◽  
Alan Blyth ◽  
Steven Boeing ◽  
Philip Rosenberg ◽  
Paul Barrett ◽  
...  

<p>The EUREC4A project took place during January and February of 2020 and involved aircraft and ships from Germany, France, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The aim of the project is to advance the understanding of the interplay between clouds, convection and circulation and their role in climate change. The Twin Otter belonging to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has been used to take observations of clouds and aerosols to the East of Barbados in conjugation with the French ATR-42 and the German Halo aircraft. Here we report the preliminary results of the observations made by the British aircraft. These observations will include aerosols from 10nm to 10micron and numbers of cloud condensation nuclei as well as detailed in-situ measurements of clouds microphysical properties. The observations have been taken over a one month period and taken as a whole can be used to provide a statistical view of the aerosols and clouds observed during EUREC4A by the BAS Twin Otter Aircraft.</p>


Until 2019, TBE was considered only to be an imported disease to the United Kingdom. In that year, evidence became available that the TBEV is likely circulating in the country1,2 and a first “probable case” of TBE originating in the UK was reported.3 In addition to TBEV, louping ill virus (LIV), a member of the TBEV-serocomplex, is also endemic in parts of the UK. Reports of clinical disease caused by LIV in livestock are mainly from Scotland, parts of North and South West England and Wales.4


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