By Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, coined the Brics acronym

In an FT.com Op-Ed

The visit by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma to China this week with a large entourage of businesspeople and officials has understandably drawn a lot of comment. He is no doubt keen to promote close ties with Beijing, which just last year rose to become his country’s largest trading partner. It is against this background, with a number of African nations appearing to have escaped the hang-over from the global credit crisis, that increasingly I am asked whether the “s” in Brics may be worthy of becoming an “s” for South Africa – and whether Africa collectively should be thought of as having the same bright future as the Brazilians, Russians, Indians and Chinese in that group?

After South Africa’s successful hosting of the football World Cup more and more people are focusing on the opportunities of Africa. The continent’s combined current gross domestic product is reasonably similar to that of Brazil and Russia, and slightly above that of India. Moreover, of the “next 11” countries – as my colleagues and I have dubbed the group of populous emerging countries after the Brics with the most promising outlooks – two are in Africa: Egypt and Nigeria. In this context, and as South African officials talk enthusiastically about their aspirations for a quasi-Bric status, I have been giving further thought to Africa’s potential to become a Bric-like economy.

If you were to think about Africa collectively, and consider it in the same framework that informs our 2050 scenarios for the Bric, next 11 and other major economies, you would see an economy as big as some of the Brics. If you then look at the potential of the 11 largest African economies for the next 40 years (by studying their likely demographics, the resulting changes in their working population and their productivity) their combined GDP by 2050 would reach more than $13,000bn, making them bigger than either Brazil or Russia, although not China or India.

Interestingly, nearly half of this GDP would originate from Egypt and Nigeria, so the progress of those two nations is crucial to the continent’s potential. Among the other 11, South Africa has a critical role to play as it is more developed than the others, and also somewhat of a gateway to southern Africa. South Africa itself however does not have enough people – just 45m – to be a Bric in itself. But Nigeria, at 180m or more, is not far off 20 per cent of Africa’s population. It could, if it got everything right, be bigger than any of Canada, Italy or South Korea by 2050.

If Africa wants to be thought of as a Bric it should not be as hard as it is often made out. We maintain an index of 13 different variables that are critical for sustainable growth and productivity. We call this our Growth Environment Score (GES), and estimate the data annually for nearly 180 countries around the world. The scores can range from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating higher productivity or sustainable growth. Of the next 11 countries, South Korea has a score of 7.4, the highest, a level consistent with the best of the developed world. Nigeria has a score of 3.5, the second lowest.

This might seem bad, but for the four Bric economies the score is only 4.9. For the 11 African countries, the average score is 3.5. So to achieve their 2050 potential, the African countries have to raise their scores significantly. Stable macroeconomic policies focused on low inflation and avoiding excessive government and external debt are perhaps the easiest targets. Among the micro components, we identify the stability of government, improving the rule of law, improving the most basic levels of education, spreading the use of mobile telephone and internet – there have already been impressive developments here – and perhaps most importantly eradicating the chronic corruption seen throughout many African nations.

South Africa demonstrated it was a worthy host for the 2010 World Cup. Now it is up to Africa’s major countries and their leaders to build on this. Let us hope an idea such as muzzling media coverage; a current proposal of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, does not become law. This would be a step very much in the wrong direction. Transparency and helping to foster an environment conducive to business are what Mr. Zuma and other African leaders should be concentrating on. Otherwise the dream of an African Bric will remain just that – a dream.

Google’s philanthropy, dubbed DotOrg, launched in 2004 with bold ambitions and almost $1 billion in seed funding. But the corporate culture built by engineers proved challenging for the development experts brought in to run DotOrg. Six years later, the philanthropy’s leadership has been replaced and its ambitions have shrunk.

Before the dust settled from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti in January, the search was on for accurate information. Which buildings were still standing? Where should responders look for trapped victims? How could displaced family members hope to find each other in all the chaos?While humanitarian agencies airlifted crews and supplies to the devastated island, engineers launched programming marathons. Within days, Google released a new online gadget to assist on-the-ground efforts. Embedded on high-traffic Web sites, including the U.S. Department of State home page, Google’s Person Finder allowed anyone to submit information or search an online database for details about the missing. Other Google tools were harnessed to help. Google Map Maker helped aid workers in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, navigate ruined streets. The company created a new Google Crisis Response Web page for Haiti to steer the public toward charitable giving opportunities, seeding the pot with a more than $1 million donation of its own.Google was not the only technology company that rallied to help Haiti.>>Continue reading this Case Study 

Stanford Social Innovation Review

Reinventing the City to Combat Climate Change

Cities produce 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and that number will grow as more people in the developing world move to urban centers. How we develop urban infrastructure over the next 30 years will determine whether cities become a growing force for environmental destruction or primary sources for ecological rejuvenation.

 strategy-business.com

Amid declining financial support, nonprofit organization teams up with Ted Turner-funded U.N. Foundation.

The United Nations Association of the United States of America stayed true to its mission to foster American support for the United Nations even when the U.N.’s own actions seemed to undercut American values. And today U.S. support for the U.N. is as strong as it’s ever been. Not so for UNA-USA.

The association, located a block west of the iconic U.N. headquarters, has run out of money. Its donor base is old, and its membership is flagging.

Last week, the association’s 40-member board of directors voted unanimously to end its existence as an independent organization and to form a strategic alliance with the United Nations Foundation, launched a dozen years ago with a $1 billion pledge from Ted Turner. UNA-USA plans to retain its nonprofit status but will be folded into the foundation. It will align itself with the foundation’s sister organization, the Better World Campaign, whose mission is also to strengthen U.S.-U.N. ties.

Ironically, the similarities of mission but greater public recognition of the United Nations Foundation, was the ultimate undoing of UN-USA.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100816/FREE/100819869#

New Checking Account Overdraft Rules Now in Effect

Your real options are explained here by Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com and author of The Credit Card Guidebook.

“Some Americans may be surprised by new changes in their checking accounts.Overdraft protection is no longer available for checking account customers unless they “opted in” for this service. The new Federal Reserve rules started yesterday.

Before these new Federal Reserve rules took effect, most banks automatically added courtesy overdraft protection to checking accounts, providing the detailsand fees in the fine print. Some customers didn’t realize the high price of thefee until they incurred the charge.

An overdraft occurs when one does not have enough money in a checkingaccount to pay for a transaction, but it is paid by the bank anyway.

This service is a loan from the bank and it isn’t free. Banks charge anon-sufficient funds paid item fee (NSF) that is typically $30-$40. A fee is charged for each transaction paid in this manner.

If you did not opt in, your bank’s standard overdraft practices no longer apply to your everyday debit card and ATM transactions. These transactions typically will be declined when you don’t have enough money in your account,but you will not be charged overdraft fees.  The new rules don’t lock you to your choice forever; you can still make changes to your account. You can choose to opt in or out of overdraft protection at any time.

The rules are good for consumers, but will reduce revenue for banks.

Some banks will try to persuade customers to choose the “benefits” of overdraft protection since banks are anxious to hold on to as much fee income as they can.

“This is a good time to sign up for free online alerts offered by most issuers. You can get a daily text or email that tells you the balance inyour account. Knowing the amount of money in your checking account can help you avoid the embarrassment of a declined purchase,” says Bill Hardekopf,CEO of LowCards.com and author of The Credit Card Guidebook.

The new rules do not cover checks or automatic bill payments–banks can stillauthorize and pay overdrafts for these transactions at their discretion andcharge a fee. If you do not want your bank’s standard overdraft practices inthese instances, talk to your bank; they may give you the option to cancel. Statistics on how many people have opted for overdraft protection are notyet available.

A July poll conducted on the National Foundation for CreditCounseling website found that that 26% of 2,089 respondents intended toopt in for overdraft protection.If you are interested in the overdraft protection, be sure to carefully readthe fine print to understand its costs and limitations.

The cost of an overdraft may not end with the NSF paid-item fee. If your account remains overdrawn, you might incur additional fees.

Secondly, transactionsare not necessarily processed in the order they occur so banks can chargethe items to your account in any order they choose.

Finally, even if youchoose to opt-in, the payment of an item is discretionary. Banks willchoose which transactions to cover so a consumer can’t always can’tcount on having overdraft protection when you need it.

Your bank may offer less expensive alternatives to overdraft protection.  Some banks allow you to create a link to your credit card, savings accountor line of credit that will fund overdrawn transactions. There is a fee foreach transaction, but it is typically $5-$10, much less than the overdraft protection.You must contact your bank to set up this alternative service, since it is not part of the opt in selection.”LowCards.com ( http://www.lowcards.com ) simplifies the confusion of shopping for credit cards. It is a free, independent website that helps consumers easily compare credit cards in a variety of categoriessuch as lowest rates, rewards, rebates, balance transfers and lowestintroductory rates. It also gives an unbiased ranking and review fore ach card.

The LowCards.com Complete Credit Card Index( http://www.lowcards.com/CreditCardIndex.aspx ) is the most objective and comprehensive resource on the Internet which allows consumers tocompare rates for over 1000 credit cards offered in this country.Created by Hampton & Associates, the company has been analyzing thecredit card industry and supplying objective websites on variousconsumer expenses for ten years.

For more information, contact Bill Hardekopf at 1-800-388-1910 orbillh@LowCards.com.

(Article free for one week only!)

When people approach social value as subjective, malleable, and variable, they create better metrics to capture it.

Over the last few decades, many people have attempted to measure what is sometimes called social, public, or civic value—that is, the value that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), social enterprises, social ventures, and social programs create. The demand for these metrics has come from all sectors: Foundations want to direct their grants to the most effective programs; public officials, policymakers, and government budget offices have to account for their spending decisions; investors want hard data analogous to measures of profit; and nonprofits need to demonstrate their impact to funders, partners, and beneficiaries. Metrics to meet these needs have proliferated over the last 40 years, resulting in hundreds of competing methods for calculating social value. >>Continue reading this article

From Dr. Hazel Henderson:

The GREEN TRANSITION SCOREBOARD™ from ETHICAL MARKETS, the independent global multi-media company, tracks total private investment in companies growing the green economy since 2007.  The mid-2010 update shows a rise to $1,646,719,228,993 from $1.24 trillion at the end of December 2009.  The report was released today by founder-CEO HAZEL HENDERSON, D.Sc.Hon, FRSA , futurist and author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy (Chelsea Green, 2006).  Dr. Henderson has advised the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Engineering, tracking these technologies since the 1970s.

Dr. Henderson, creator of the GREEN TRANSITION SCOREBOARD™ (GTS), stressed its vision and purpose, “Our mission of fostering ethical markets and growing the green economy worldwide is shared by millions of entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, engineers, venture capitalists, investors, pension funds, as well as civic groups, academics, students and employees of incumbent industries in the fossilized sectors in many countries.  This requires the revolution in corporate and national accounts we have long advocated – now underway by the new International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) steered by 33 organizations, including the Global Reporting Initiative, the UN Principles of Responsible Investing and many other pension funds and accounting bodies worldwide, with the backing of the International and US Accounting Standards Boards.”

As Matthew Kiernan, founder of Innovest and founder-CEO of Inflection Point Capital Management, author of Investing in a Sustainable World, explains, “The GTS makes a uniquely useful contribution to the necessary macro-economic transition in at least two important respects: it adopts a much more comprehensive and therefore effective working definition of a green economy than is usually the case, and it also provides a robust and consistent framework for measuring our progress towards it.“ 

“The GTS is an important milestone in measuring the increasing economic viability of the CleanTech universe,” says Stuart Valentine, president of Iowa Progressive Asset Management, a leading US investment firm.  “Since 1987, we have guided our investors towards companies leading the growing green economy: the Sustainability Sector.”

Henderson adds, “The GREEN TRANSITION SCOREBOARD™ measures concrete progress as we traverse this great global transition from the Industrial Era to the information-rich, cleaner, healthier and greener Solar Age.”  Reports confirm this, such as the July 2010 study Solar and Nuclear Costs – the Historic Crossover by economist John O. Blackburn, former Duke University Chancellor, which finds that solar energy is now cheaper than nuclear.

Helen Rake, principal for Collins Capital Management, Inc., in Jacksonville agrees: “The Green Transition Scoreboard™ gives our ESG clients a true barometer of significant change going on in corporations around the globe.” 

Ethical Markets, its partners Mercado Etico, the World Business Academy and the thousands of groups linking to Ethical Markets see this Green Transition as inevitable, viable and achievable, by scaling up existing technologies and energy efficiency gains.  This website links to many studies, computer models and reports which indicate that investing $1 trillion every year until 2020 can ramp up material and energy efficiencies, reduce costs of wind, solar, geothermal, water, sustainable land-use and forestry, which together with smart infrastructure, transport, building and urban re-design, can accelerate the Green Transition worldwide. 

Timothy Nash, M.Sc., Ethical Markets’ Senior Advisor and Director of Sustainability Research, compiles and analyzes the Green Transition Scoreboard™.  “The mid-2010 total of over $1.6 trillion puts G-20 countries on track to reach our 2020 target of $10 trillion.  This $10 trillion goal is much less than the $23 trillion U.S. taxpayers are liable, including bailouts since 2008 (www.sigtarp.gov) and only represents 10% of global pension and institutional portfolio assets of some $120 trillion,” says Nash. “This figure has outpaced even the most optimistic expectations for investments in the green economy, providing tangible evidence that investors are shifting their assets and that momentum is building for a green economic transition.”

Henderson and Nash share the hope that this data and the shift to “triple bottom line,” ESG accounting standards will encourage pension funds to follow the lead of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) to shift more of their portfolios away from risky investments in the fossilized sectors and commodities speculation to more direct investments in growing the green sectors.

Nash adds, “Our new totals are broken down into five categories: Renewable Energy; Efficiency and Green Construction; Cleantech; Smart Grid; and Corporate R&D. (Click here for report).  We welcome all enquiries!”

Ethical Markets Executive Director Rosalinda Sanquiche, M.Sc., says “Individual investors see the green economy growing on Main Street.  We welcome non-profit groups to access the full report by installing our GTS icon with a link to www.greentransitionscoreboard.com on their websites, free of charge for the next 30 days.”

Contacts:

·       Dr. Hazel Henderson, President, Ethical Markets Media, www.ethicalmarkets.com, hazel.henderson@ethicalmarkets.com, 904-829-3140

·       Rosalinda Sanquiche, Executive Director, Ethical Markets Media, rosalinda.sanquiche@ethicalmarkets.com, 904-826-1381

·       Timothy Jack Nash, Ethical Markets Media Senior Advisor and Director of Sustainability Research; President, Strategic Sustainable Investments, tim.nash@ethicalmarkets.com, 416-821-9179

·        

St. Augustine, FL – August 3, 2010 –

As Barnes & Noble considers selling itself—and its founder considers forming an investor group to buy it—it, along with e-book rivals Amazon and Apple face an investigation into suspiciously uniform prices for e-books by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. [Press release]

The Massachusetts economy expanded at more than double the rate of the national economy during the second quarter of the year, boosted by federal stimulus programs, demand for technology products and the strongest job growth since the so-called miracle years of the 1980s, the University of Massachusetts reported today.

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2010/07/mass_economy_is.html

Following the start of the industrial revolution, in 1824 Jean-Baptiste Fourier discovered a global warming “greenhouse” effect and in 1896 Swedish and American scientists independently concluded that CO2 was the likely cause of global warming.

Nearly 90 years later in 1987 the WMO and UNEP established a scientific advisory body called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which issued its First Assessment Report in 1990, finding that the planet had warmed by 0.5°C in the past century and would rise further by 0.3°C per decade in the 21st century, accompanied by global mean sea level rises of 6 cm per decade.

In 2007 the IPCC released its Fourth Assessment Report, concluding with 90% confidence that human activity is causing climate change and that “Global GHG emissions due to human activities have grown since pre-industrial times with an increase of 70% between 1970 and 2004.”

In 2008 our planet was estimated to contain 385 ppm (parts per million) of CO2 in its atmosphere, the highest concentration of CO2 for more than 630,000 years. This is widely agreed to be due to human industrial advancement, specifically the production and consumption of power from the burning of fossil fuels that are estimated to have caused around 85% of CO2 emissions.

It is known that global temperature increase must be kept within 2°C to prevent an irreversible chain reaction of greenhouse gas release from forests, peat bogs, Siberian permafrost and oceans, which would change the planet’s ecosystems irrevocably. To ensure this temperature rise does not occur concentration of CO2 must not pass 450 ppm, which means reducing CO2 emissions to 60% below 1990 levels before 2030.

Source:  http://blog.willowrivers.com/