It’s been less than six months since Google Cloud Next, and the pace of innovation across industries has been nothing short of extraordinary. We’re proud of our AI leadership and differentiation as we continue pushing the technology frontier for our customers. From launching more powerful versions of Gemini 1.5 Pro, to rolling out general availability for Gemini Flash and Imagen 3, to investing in our Vertex AI platform, our teams have been building off the product momentum of Next. And all of this innovation is driving incredible use of our products.
Today, as part of our Gemini at Work global event, we are showcasing nearly 50 new customer stories from organizations around the world to highlight just how impactful generative AI can be when you put it to work at scale — including Pods, Snap, Volkswagen US, Warner Bros. Discovery and many others. We’re inspired by what customers are building and excited by how quickly they’ve been able to move ideas from experimentation into production with our Vertex AI platform. We’re also seeing major boosts in productivity through Gemini for Google Workspace, with customers saving an average of 105 minutes per user, per week, according to our recent study of enterprise customers.
They can access and customize the best foundation models from both Google and the industry, including Gemini. We are the only Cloud provider to offer widely-used first-party, third-party, and open models. Enterprises want to choose a platform that gives them choice.
They can create sophisticated gen AI agents and experiences faster with our single, integrated development platform, Vertex AI. It sits on top of our world-class infrastructure and is the only unified platform that lets customers discover and access models, tune and augment models, and create, ground, deploy, and manage AI agents and experiences.
They can be more productive with our AI agents. We offer Gemini for Google Cloud and Gemini for Google Workspace, as well as purpose-built agents for Customer Engagement and Search. Customers are really appreciating these packaged agents, in addition to building their own.
They are deploying models with confidence, with the most comprehensive approach to grounding in enterprise truth. This significantly improves response accuracy and completeness, and lets them control their brand voice and customer experience.
Six types of AI agents
We continue to see customers and partners benefiting from AI agents — intelligent systems that go beyond simple chat and predictions, to proactively take actions. What makes AI agents unique is they help achieve specific goals, whether that’s guiding a shopper to the perfect pair of shoes, helping an employee look for the right health benefits, or supporting nursing staff with smoother patient hand-offs during shift changes. We see AI agents centering around six use cases:
Customer agents help make great recommendations
Customer agents work seamlessly across channels including the web, mobile, and point of sale, and can be integrated into product experiences with voice and video.
Bell Canada pioneered using digital agents to provide self-service — improving customer experience and delivering $20 million in cost savings.
Best Buy resolves issues up to 90 seconds faster using automated call summarization.
GoTo Group launched Dira, a Bahasa Indonesia AI-powered voice assistant integrated into their GoPay fintech app. Customers use voice commands and complete tasks like bill payments and money transfers with fewer steps. Check out a live demo of the app from GoTo in this video.
ScottsMiracle-Gro built an AI agent on Google Cloud Vertex AI to provide tailored gardening advice and product recommendations.
Snap deployed the multimodal capability of Gemini within their “My AI” chatbot and has since seen over 2.5x as much engagement within Snapping to My AI in the United States.
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Telecom Italia (TIM) implemented a Google-powered voice agent to address many customer calls, increasing efficiency by 20%.
UPS Capital uses an agent built on Google Cloud technology to analyze package movements, insurance claims, and address data in real time to identify anomalies.
Volkswagen US built a virtual assistant in the myVW app, where drivers can explore their owners’ manuals and ask questions such as, “How do I change a flat tire?” or “What does this digital cockpit indicator light mean?” Users can also use Gemini’s multi-modal capabilities to see helpful information and context on indicator lights simply by pointing their smartphone cameras at their dashboards. Watch how the myVW app works in this demo.
We continue to build on this momentum with our own packaged agents. For example, today we are announcing Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI, an end-to-end application that combines the rich features of our leading Contact Center AI solution with the latest gen AI capabilities.
This new solution offers four key benefits:
Omnichannel features, so you can orchestrate consistent customer experiences across web, mobile, voice, email, and apps with a single platform.
Multimodal approach, so your customers can use text, voice, and images.
Rule-based controls AND generative AI so you can address a broad range of issues that may come up from your customers. For instance, a customer speaking with a bank representative may have to verify their identity through a specific set of verification questions. At the same time, they may ask the bank: “Tell me what’s the best mortgage offering for me? Can you compare it across the products you offer?” The first requires a deterministic flow. The second requires a generative flow.
Grounding to provide the highest levels of accuracy
All of this can be connected with any customer service application — whether it’s a SaaS application like Salesforce, Servicenow, SAP, Dynamics, or Oracle — or an on-premise app.
Employee agents help workers collaborate and get more done
Employee agents can streamline processes, manage repetitive tasks, answer employee questions, as well as edit and translate critical communications.
Click Therapeutics develops prescription digital therapeutics designed to treat disease. Their Clinical Operations team leverages Gemini for Google Workspace to transform complex operations data into actionable insights; so they can quickly pinpoint ways to streamline the patient experience in clinical trials.
Dun & Bradstreet built an email-generation tool with Gemini that helps sellers create tailored, personalized communications to prospects and customers for its research services. They also developed intelligent search capabilities to help users with complex queries like, “Find me all the companies in this area with a high ESG rating.”
Elanco, a world leader in animal health, has implemented a gen AI framework, powered by Vertex AI and Gemini, to support critical business processes, such as Pharmacovigilance, Customer Orders, and Clinical Insights. This has resulted in an estimated ROI of $1.9 million since launching last year.
Randstad is using Gemini for Google Workspace to enhance our relationships internally and externally with candidates, making them more efficient and giving them time back to focus on the human aspect of their work.
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SURA Investments, the largest Asset Manager in Latin America, developed a gen AI-powered analysis model for employees built on Google Cloud that allows them to better understand customer needs. It has already improved sentiment analysis on more than 90% of calls and delivered a 10-point increase in customer satisfaction.
Thomson Reuters added Gemini Pro to its suite of large language models (LLM). The 2 million token context window makes some skills as much as 10x times faster to process and unlocks the ability to create new skills that require the LLM to process entire documents in context
The employee agents we deliver through Gemini for Google Workspace, our leading collaboration and productivity tools, are helping customers get more done, with greater confidence and in less time. In a recent survey of our enterprise customers using Gemini, we found they save an average of 105 minutes per user, per week. And it’s not just about getting more done, but getting it done really well — 75% of daily Gemini for Workspace users say it improves the quality of their work.
To help more people boost productivity with AI, we’re making the Gemini app with enterprise-grade data protection available as part of existing Google Workspace subscriptions. Starting next month, customers will have a round-the-clock brainstorming partner, research assistant, and more, to help where they need it most.
Data agents help you do research and data analysis more effectively
Data agents can help answer questions about internal and external sources, synthesize research, develop new models — and, best of all, help find the questions we haven’t even thought to ask yet, and then get the answers.
Bayer’s Crop Science team developed a Field Answers application built on Vertex AI to make critical, timely decisions in the field, contributing to more sustainable and efficient farming.
The CME Group is building a first-of-its-kind cloud-based commodities trading platform with Google Cloud’s AI tools built in, offering CME’s trading customers access to deeper insights and smarter trades as well as rapid experimentation on new trading strategies that won’t interrupt existing trade flows
Hiscox, one of the oldest syndicates in Lloyd’s of London, used BigQuery and Vertex AI to create the first AI-enhanced lead underwriting model, automating quoting for complex risks, from three days down to a few minutes.
Ipsos, a multinational market research firm, built a data analysis tool grounded in Google Search for its market researchers, eliminating the need for time-consuming requests to analysts.
Intelligencia AI, a healthcare technology company, uses Cloud SQL for Postgres for the data infrastructure that powers its AI-driven drug development predictions, enabling the company to deliver accurate and transparent results to customers, while reducing overhead.
NeuroPace, a medical device company, built a solution using Google Cloud gen AI technologies, to quickly identify effective epilepsy treatment options. By analyzing brainwave patterns, they can find similar patients and apply successful therapies faster.
Warner Bros. Discovery built an AI captioning tool with Vertex AI and saw a 50% reduction in overall costs, and an 80% reduction in the time it takes to manually caption a file without the use of machine learning.
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Security agents significantly increase the speed of investigations
Security agents automate monitoring and response for greater vigilance and compliance controls. They can also help guard data and models from cyberattacks, such as malicious prompt injection.
Apex Fintech has accelerated the creation of complex threat detections, reducing the time required from hours to mere seconds with Google SecOps.
Certify OS is working with Google Cloud to automate credentialing, licensing, and monitoring of medical providers for healthcare networks, relieving the burden of time-consuming and often siloed information.
Fiserv is working with Gemini in Security Operations to summarize threats, find answers, and detect, validate, and respond to security events faster.
NetRise‘s “Trace” product is enabling AI-powered semantic search — built using Google Cloud gen AI — in the software supply chain.
Creative agents can help everyone build design, artistic or production skills
Creative agents can empower organizations with the best design and production skills, working across images, slides, and more. Many businesses are building agents alongside their marketing teams, audio and video production teams, and creative teams to help explore and build creative concepts.
Formula E is using Google Cloud gen AI to summarize two-hour-long race commentary into a two-minute podcast in any language, using driver data and ongoing seasonal storylines.
Globo, the largest media group in Latin America, is using Google Cloud’s AI to hyper-personalize content for its streaming users, and create a better experience for spectators.
PODS, working with advertising agency Tombras, used Gemini to create the “World’s Smartest Billboard,” a campaign on their trucks that could adapt to each neighborhood in New York City. The ads used live feeds of data so they updated in real-time hitting all 299 neighborhoods in just 29 hours creating more than 6,000 headlines.
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PUMA is using Imagen to customize product photos on their website, saving time and ensuring they are locally relevant. Puma India has already seen a 10% increase in click-through rate, and they share how they did it in this demo.
Radisson Hotel Group worked with Accenture and Google Cloud to use Vertex AI and Gemini models to personalize its advertising at scale by training AI models on extensive datasets stored in BigQuery; ad teams saw productivity rise 50% while revenue increased from AI-powered campaigns by more than 20%.
Google’s open platform drives more momentum with partners and customers
The success of AI depends on an open platform that offers choice, is easy to integrate with existing systems, and is supported by a broad ecosystem. Google Cloud works closely with important partners, like Accenture and Deloitte, who report more than 45% of their Google Cloud gen AI projects have moved from proof of concept to production. In addition, expanded partnerships and dedicated Google Cloud centers of excellence with Accenture, BCG, Cognizant, Deloitte, HCLTech, KPMG, McKinsey, PwC, and Wipro have spurred thousands of successful projects. This collaborative ecosystem is the key to unlocking AI’s true potential. At Google Cloud, we truly value our partnership with this ecosystem, which is vital to helping our entire industry in its transformation — from systems updates to organizational change management to an overall mindset shift.
We’re inspired by the ingenuity and speed with which our customers are embracing gen AI. And we continue to work hard to partner with customers to help them deliver real business value in the form of incremental leads, conversions, sales, and profits. We’re committed to taking a bold and responsible approach to make AI helpful for everyone, helping organizations of all sizes solve real-world challenges in entirely new ways.
This is the new way to cloud. It’s a journey we’re on together with all of you — our customers and partners — all around the world.
This post originally appeared on theTransform with Google Cloud blog. It was first published April 12, 2024; last updated with new use cases September 24, 2024.
Since generative AI first captured the world’s attention, there’s been a vigorous discussion about what, exactly, the new technology is best used for. While we all enjoyed those early funny chats and witty limericks, we’ve quickly discovered that many of the biggest AI opportunities are clearly in the enterprise, government, and with exciting new companies.
When we first published this post during Google Cloud Next ‘24, we showcased 101 of the best use cases out of the hundreds featured across the event. Now, we’re adding another 84 to the list as customers across the globe continue to put generative AI to work.
[If you’ve visited this post in the past, you can find the newest use cases listed at the top of each section.]
In a matter of months, organizations have gone from AI helping answer questions, to AI making predictions, to generative AI agents. What makes AI agents unique is that they can take actions to achieve specific goals, whether that’s guiding a shopper to the perfect pair of shoes, helping an employee looking for the right health benefits, or supporting nursing staff with smoother patient hand-offs during shifts changes.
In our work with customers, we keep hearing that their teams are increasingly focused on improving productivity, automating processes, and modernizing the customer experience. These aims are now being achieved through the AI agents they’re developing in six key areas: customer service; employee empowerment; code creation; data analysis; cybersecurity; and creative ideation and production.
Hundreds of Google Cloud customers have now put AI agents and gen-AI solutions into production throughout their businesses and the world — with many seeing a tangible return on investment. They have come to rely on Google Cloud technologies that include our AI infrastructure, Gemini models, Vertex AI platform, Google Workspace, and Google Distributed Cloud.
Here’s a snapshot of how 185 of these industry leaders are putting AI to use today, creating real-world use cases that will transform tomorrow.
Customer agents
Similar to great sales and service people, customer agents are able to listen carefully, understand your needs, and recommend the right products and services. They work seamlessly across channels including the web, mobile, and point of sale, and can be integrated into product experiences with voice and video.
1.Alaska Airlines is developing natural language search, providing travelers with a conversational experience powered by AI that’s akin to interacting with a knowledgeable travel agent. This chatbot aims to streamline travel booking, enhance customer experience, and reinforce brand identity.
2. Bennie Health uses Vertex AI to power its innovative employee health benefits platform, providing actionable insights and streamlining data management in order to enhance efficiency and decision-making for employees and HR teams.
3. Beyond 12, a tech-enabled nonprofit focused on student empowerment, has developed an AI-powered college coach to offer scalable coaching to first-generation students that’s available over text, app, and the web.
4. CareerVillage is building an app called Coach to empower job seekers, especially underrepresented youth, in their career preparedness; already featuring 35 career development activities, the aim is to have more than 100 by next year.
5. Character.ai built its realistic conversational chat platform using the full stack of Google Cloud AI services, including for model training and daily operations, allowing it to manage terabytes of conversations each day without interruption.
6. Click Therapeutics develops prescription digital therapeutics designed to treat disease. Its Clinical Operations team leverages Gemini for Google Workspace to transform complex operations data into actionable insights, so they can quickly pinpoint ways to streamline the patient experience in clinical trials.
7. Formula E can now summarize a two-hour long race commentary into a 2-minute podcast in any language, incorporating driver data and ongoing seasonal storylines.
8. General Motors’ OnStar has been augmented with new AI features, including a virtual assistant powered by Google Cloud’s conversational AI technologies that are better able to recognize the speaker’s intent.
9. Gojek, an Indonesia-based super app, launched “Dira by GoTo AI,” a Bahasa Indonesia AI-powered voice assistant integrated into their GoPay service, allowing customers to use voice command to eliminate typing and scrolling, and complete tasks like bill payments and money transfers with fewer steps.
10. GroupBy, an ecommerce service provider, developed an AI-first Search and Discovery Platform powered by Vertex AI Search for Retail. This solution is meticulously designed to optimize revenue, strengthen brand loyalty, and drive sales growth for B2C and B2B retailers.
11. Hotelplan Suisse built a chatbot trained on the business’s travel expertise to answer customer inquiries in real-time, and, following that success, it plans to use gen AI to create travel content.
12. Justicia Lab is developing an AI-powered assistant that will simplify legal processes for asylum seekers and immigrants; by uploading a picture from a legal letter or document, users can extract valuable information and then receive personalized guidance and next steps.
13. Mercado Libre has incorporated semantic search into its digital shopping platforms, using AI embeddings from the Vertex AI Agent Builder, which greatly improved product recommendations and discoverability for more than 200 million consumers across Latin America.
14. Motorola’s Moto AI leverages Gemini and Imagen to help smartphone users unlock new levels of productivity, creativity, and enjoyment with features such as conversation summaries, notification digests, image creation, and natural language search — all with reliable responses grounded in Google Search.
15. mRelief has built an SMS-accessible AI chatbot to simplify the application process for the SNAP food assistance program in the U.S., featuring easy-to-understand eligibility information and direct assistance within minutes rather than days.
16. Personal AI offers a “personal language model” using only the data of one individual or brand and allowing them to control and own how it is used. Built on your own data, facts, and opinions, it creates a responsive and interactive messaging experience that helps people be more productive and deepen relationships.
17. PODS worked with the advertising agency Tombras to create the “World’s Smartest Billboard” using Gemini — a campaign on its trucks that could adapt to each neighborhood in New York City, changing in real-time based on data. It hit all 299 neighborhoods in just 29 hours, creating more than 6,000 unique headlines.
18. Quora developed Poe, its own generative AI platform for people to discover and chat with AI-powered bots, including Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama, and Mistral’s Large 2 — many of which are hosted on Google Cloud’s purpose-built AI infrastructure.
19. ScottsMiracle-Gro built an AI agent on Vertex AI to provide tailored gardening advice and product recommendations for consumers.
20. Snap has deployed the multimodal capability of Gemini within its “My AI” chatbot and has since seen over 2.5-times as much engagement within Snapping to My AI in the United States.
21. Tabiya has built a conversational interface, Compass, that helps young people find employment opportunities; the platform asks questions and requests information, drawing out skills and experiences and matching those to appropriate roles.
22. Telecom Italia (TIM) implemented a Google-powered voice agent to address many customer calls, increasing efficiency by 20%.
23. UPS Capital launched DeliveryDefense Address Confidence, which uses machine learning and UPS data to provide a confidence score for shippers to help them determine the likelihood of a successful delivery.
24. Volkswagen of America built a virtual assistant in the myVW app, where drivers can explore their owners’ manuals and ask questions, such as, “How do I change a flat tire?” or “What does this digital cockpit indicator light mean?” Users can also use Gemini’s multimodal capabilities to see helpful information and context on indicator lights simply by pointing their smartphone cameras at the dashboard.
25. ADT is building a customer agent to help its millions of customers select, order, and set up their home security.
26. Alaska Airlines is developing a personalized travel search experience using advanced AI techniques, creating hyper-personalized recommendations that engage customers early and foster loyalty through AI-generated content.
27. Best Buy is using Gemini to launch a generative AI-powered virtual assistant this summer that can troubleshoot product issues, reschedule order deliveries, manage Geek Squad subscriptions, and more; in-store and digital customer-service associates are also gaining gen-AI tools to better serve customers anywhere they need help.
28. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is using Vertex AI to modernize transportation operations for a smoother, more efficient journey.
29. Etsy uses Vertex AI training to optimize their search recommendations and ads models, delivering better listing suggestions to buyers and helping sellers grow their businesses.
30. IHG Hotels & Resorts is building a generative AI-powered chatbot to help guests easily plan their next vacation directly in the IHG One Rewards mobile app.
31. ING Bank aims to offer a superior customer experience and has developed a gen-AI chatbot for workers to enhance self-service capabilities and improve answer quality on customer queries.
32. Magalu, one of Brazil’s largest retailers, has put customer service at the center of its AI strategy, including using Vertex AI to create “Lu’s Brain” to power an interactive conversational agent for Lu, Magalu’s popular brand persona (the 3D bot has more than 14 million followers between TikTok and Instagram).
33. Mercedes Benz will infuse e-commerce capabilities into its online storefront with a gen AI-powered smart sales assistant. Mercedes also plans to expand its use of Google Cloud AI in its call centers and is using Vertex AI and Gemini to personalize marketing campaigns.
34. Oppo/OnePlus is incorporating Gemini models and Google Cloud AI into their phones to deliver innovative customer experiences, including news and audio recording summaries, AI toolbox, and more.
35. Samsung is deploying Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 to their Galaxy S24 smartphones so users can take advantage of amazing features like text summarization, organization, and magical image editing.
36. The Minnesota Division of Driver and Vehicle Services helps non-English speakers get licenses and other services with two-way real-time translation.
37. Pepperdine University has students and faculty who speak many languages, and with Gemini in Google Meet, they can benefit from real-time translated captioning and notes.
38. Sutherland, a leading digital transformation company, is focused on bringing together human expertise and AI, including boosting its client-facing teams by automatically surfacing suggested responses and automating insights in real time.
39. Target uses Google Cloud to power AI solutions on the Target app and Target.com, including personalized Target Circle offers and Starbucks at Drive Up, their curbside pickup solution.
40. Tokopedia, an Indonesian ecommerce leader, is using Vertex AI to improve data quality, increasing unique products being sold by 5%.
41. US News saw a double-digit impact in key metrics like click-through rate, time spent on page, and traffic volume to its pages after implementing Vertex AI Search.
42-45. IntesaSanpaolo, MacquarieBank, and Scotiabank are exploring the potential of gen AI to transform the way we live, work, bank, and invest — particularly how the new technology can boost productivity and operational efficiency in banking.
Employee agents
Employee agents help workers be more productive and collaborate better together. These agents can streamline processes, manage repetitive tasks, answer employee questions, as well as edit and translate critical communications.
46. 2bots offers technology solutions, such as chatbots and virtual agents, built with Google Cloud’s AI solutions; these intelligent chatbots and content generation tools are transforming the way companies interact with their customers.
47. Augment is building an AI personal assistant that offers enhanced note-taking and collects information across your apps, including calendar, email, texts, and social media, so users can more quickly and easily find personal information and keep their lives organized.
48. Bayes Impact builds AI products to support nonprofits, and its flagship product, CaseAI, is a digital case manager that integrates with an NGO’s current system to add smart features to draft action plans tailored to a beneficiary’s unique history; caseworkers have saved 25 hours of work per week on average.
49. Bell Canada has built customizable contact center solutions for its business customers that offer AI-powered agents to address callers, and Agent Assist, which listens when a human agent is on, offering suggestions and sentiment analysis. AI has contributed $20 million in savings across customer operations.
50. Best Buy can generate conversation summaries in real time using Contact Center AI, allowing live agents to give their full attention to understanding and supporting customers, resulting in a 30-to-90-second reduction in average call time and after-call work. Both customers and agents have cited improved satisfaction.
51. Camanchaca, a Chilean seafood company, took only six weeks to develop Elon, a virtual assistant that aims to provide more efficient customer service through digital channels, enhancing Camanchaca’s customer interactions.
52. Certify OS is automating credentialing, licensing, and monitoring of medical providers for healthcare networks, relieving the burden of time-consuming and often siloed information.
53. Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs widely uses Gemini for Google Workspace, estimating that employees are saving an average five hours per week just with AI capabilities in Gmail. Gemini is also streamlining time-consuming, manual processes through uses like AI-generated transcriptions and auto-formatting of pharmaceutical lab results or FDA compliance documentation.
54. Dun & Bradstreet built an email-generation tool with Gemini that helps sellers create tailored, personalized communications to prospects and customers for its research services. The company also developed intelligent search capabilities to help users with complex queries like, “Find me all the companies in this area with a high ESG rating.”
55. England’s Football Association is training Vertex AI on the FA’s historical and current scouting reports so they can be transformed into concise summaries, helping national teams discover future talent.
56. Fireflies.ai can transcribe, summarize, and analyze meetings, recordings, and other voice conversations to save time and improve collaboration and information sharing across teams.
57. Fluna, a Pan-African digital services company, has automated the analysis and drafting of legal agreements using Vertex AI, Document AI, and Gemini 1.5 Pro, achieving an accuracy of 92% in data extraction while ensuring security and reliability for sensitive information.
58. Hemominas, Brazil’s largest blood bank, partnered with Xertica to develop an omnichannel chatbot for donor search and scheduling, streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency. The AI solution has the potential to save half-a-million lives annually by attracting more donors and optimizing blood supply management.
59. Hiscox used BigQuery and Vertex AI to create the first AI-enhanced lead underwriting model for insurers, automating and accelerating the quoting for complex risks from three days down to a few minutes.
60. LiveX AI delivers AI Agents that swiftly enhance product education, boost customer conversion, reduce churn, and provide personalized customer support, with the goal of offering everyone a seamless VIP experience across their customer journey.
61. Opportunity@Work is applying gen AI to scale a suite of software tools and APIs that help employers identify “STAR” job candidates — “skilled through alternative routes” such as community college, military service, and on-the-job experience — helping fill roles in a tight market and expand opportunities.
62. QuantumMetric has introduced Felix AI, powered by Gemini Pro, to simplify digital analytics and decision making. Felix AI automatically summarizes a user’s web or mobile session and consolidates the moments that matter most into short, readable summaries for customer service workers.
63. Randstad, a large HR services and talent provider, is using Gemini for Workspace across its organization to transform its work culture, leading to a more culturally diverse and inclusive workplace that’s seen a double-digit reduction in sick days.
64. Sprinklr built Sprinklr AI+ into its unified customer experience management platform, giving brands gen-AI capabilities for customer service, insights, social media management, and marketing that has enterprise-grade governance, security, and data privacy built-in.
65. Thomson Reuters added Gemini Pro to its suite of large language models approved for employee use; with its 2-million-token context window, Gemini makes some tasks as much as 10-times faster to process and can process entire documents in context.
66. Warner Bros. Discovery built an AI captioning tool with Vertex AI and saw a 50% reduction in overall costs, and an 80% reduction in the time it takes to manually caption a file without the use of machine learning.
67. The U.S. Air Force built a new proof-of-concept portal for searching, browsing, and reading e-published PDFs — all within a 90-day deadline that leveraged the prebuilt tools and speed of Vertex AI Search and Conversation.
68. Avery Dennison empowered their employees with generative AI to enable secure, flexible, and borderless collaboration for enhanced productivity to drive growth.
69. Bank of New York Mellon built a virtual assistant to help employees find relevant information and answers to their questions.
70. Bayer is building a radiology platform that will assist radiologists with data analysis, intelligent search, and to create documents that meet healthcare requirements needed for regulatory approval. The bioscience company is also harnessing BigQuery and Vertex AI to develop additional digital medical solutions and drugs more efficiently.
71. Bristol Myers Squibb is transforming its document processes for clinical trials using Vertex AI and Google Workspace. Now, documentation that took scientists weeks now gets to a first draft in minutes.
72. BenchSci develops generative AI solutions empowering scientists to understand complex connections in biological research, saving them time and financial resources and ultimately bringing new medicine to patients faster.
73. Cintas is using Vertex AI Search to develop an internal knowledge center for customer service and sales teams to easily find key information.
74. Covered California, the state’s healthcare marketplace, is using Document AI to help improve the consumer and employee experience by automating parts of the documentation and verification process when residents apply for coverage.
75. Dasa, the largest medical diagnostics company in Brazil, is helping physicians detect relevant findings in test results more quickly.
76. DaVita leverages DocAI and Healthcare NLP to transform kidney care, including analyzing medical records, uncovering critical patient insights, and reducing errors. AI enables physicians to focus on personalized care, resulting in significant improvements in healthcare delivery.
77. Discover Financial helps their 10,000 contact center representatives to search and synthesize information across detailed policies and procedures during calls.
78. HCA Healthcare is testing Cati, a virtual AI caregiver assistant that helps to ensure continuity of care when one caregiver shift ends and another begins. They are also using gen AI to improve workflows on time-consuming tasks, such as clinical documentation, so physicians and nurses can focus more on patient care.
79. The Home Depot has built an application called Sidekick, which helps store associates manage inventory and keep shelves stocked; notably, vision models help associates prioritize which actions to take.
80. Los Angeles Rams are utilizing AI across the board from content analysis to player scouting.
81. McDonald’s will leverage data, AI, and edge technologies across its thousands of restaurants to implement innovation faster and to enhance employee and customer experiences.
82. Pennymac, a leading US-based national mortgage lender, is using Gemini across several teams including HR, where Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Gmail is helping them accelerate recruiting, hiring, and new employee onboarding.
83. Robert Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier, revolutionizes marketing through gen AI-powered solutions, streamlining processes, optimizing resource allocation, and maximizing efficiency across 100+ decentralized departments.
84. Symphony, the communications platform for the financial services industry, uses Vertex AI to help finance and trading teams collaborate across multiple asset classes.
85. Uber is using AI agents to help employees be more productive, save time, and be even more effective at work. For customer service representatives, they’ve launched new tools that summarize communications with users and can even surface context from previous interactions, so front-line staff can be more helpful and effective.
86. The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs is using AI at the edge to improve cancer detection for service members and veterans. The Augmented Reality Microscope (ARM) is deployed at remote military treatment facilities around the world. The prototype device is helping pathologists find cancer faster and with better accuracy.
87. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has improved the quality and efficiency of their patent and trademark examination process by implementing AI-driven technologies.
88. Verizon is using generative AI to help teams in network operations and customer experience get the answers they need faster.
89. Victoria’s Secret is testing AI-powered agents to help their in-store associates find information about product availability, inventory, and fitting and sizing tips, so they can better tailor recommendations to customers.
90. Vodafone uses Vertex AI to search and understand specific commercial terms and conditions across more than 10,000 contracts with more than 800 communications operators
91. WellSky is integrating Google Cloud’s healthcare and Vertex AI capabilities to reduce the time spent completing documentation outside work hours.
92. Woolworths, the leading retailer in Australia, boosts employees’ confidence in communications with “Help me write” across Google Workspace products for more than 10,000 administrative employees. It’s also using Gemini to create next-generation promotions, as well as for quickly assisting customer service reps in summarizing all previous customer interactions in real time.
93-97. Box, Typeface, Glean, CitiBank, and Securiti AI discuss developing AI-powered apps across the enterprise, with measurable returns on investment for marketing, financial services, and HR use cases.
98-99. Highmark Health and Freenome join Bristol Myers Squibb to explore how AI can improve efficiency and innovation across care delivery, drug discovery, clinical trial planning, and bringing medicines to market.
Code agents
Code agents are helping developers and product teams to design, create, and operate applications faster and better, and to ramp up on new languages and code bases. Many organizations are already seeing double-digit gains in productivity, leading to faster deployment and cleaner, clearer code.
100. Labelbox has built a fully managed AI model evaluation solution directly integrated into the Vertex AI platform, allowing Google Cloud users to seamlessly launch human evaluation jobs and set specific criteria for evaluation, such as question-answering and summarization; this eases and accelerates the ability to deploy human-in-the-loop AI systems with higher levels of trust and authority.
101. Leroy Merlin, a global home improvement retailer, developed its Pull Request Analyzer using Vertex AI. This generative AI solution summarizes code changes, helping developers understand projects faster and improve code review efficiency.
102. Linear, a product development platform, built Similar Issues, a feature that uses AI to detect and prevent duplicate or overlapping tickets and ensures cleaner and more accurate data representation.
103. Magic is building a developer platform with a 100-million-token context window, so organizations can upload extremely large code bases and more easily query and build on them using gen AI assistance.
104. Pinecone provides infrastructure for developers to build accurate, secure, and scalable AI applications, allowing companies to easily ground gen AI apps in their proprietary data for use in AI search, retrieval-augmented generation, coding agents, and more.
105. Regnology built its Ticket-to-Code Writer tool with Gemini 1.5 Pro to automate the conversion of bug tickets into actionable code, significantly streamlining the software development process.
106. Weights & Biases, a creator of AI tools for developers, created W&B Weave, a lightweight toolkit to track, evaluate, and debug gen AI applications built with Gemini, so teams can confidently go from demo to production.
107. Capgemini has been using Code Assist to improve software engineering productivity, quality, security, and developer experience, with early results showing workload gains for coding and more stable code quality.
108. Commerzbank is enhancing developer efficiency through Code Assist’s robust security and compliance features.
109. Quantiphi saw developer productivity gains of more than 30% during their Code Assist pilot.
110. Replit developers will get access to Google Cloud infrastructure, services, and foundation models via Ghostwriter, Replit’s software development AI, while Google Cloud and Workspace developers will get access to Replit’s collaborative code editing platform.
111. Seattle Children’s hospital is using AI to boost data engineering productivity and accelerate development.
112. Turing is customizing Gemini Code Assist on their private codebase, empowering their developers with highly personalized and contextually relevant coding suggestions that have increased productivity around 30 percent and made day-to-day coding more enjoyable.
113. Wayfair piloted Code Assist, and those developers with the code agent were able to set up their environments 55 percent faster than before, there was a 48 percent increase in code performance during unit testing, and 60 percent of developers reported that they were able to focus on more satisfying work.
Data agents
Data agents are like having knowledgeable data analysts and researchers at your fingertips. They can help answer questions about internal and external sources, synthesize research, develop new models — and, best of all, help find the questions we haven’t even thought to ask yet, and then help get the answers.
114. 180Seguros is powering its data management platform for employees with Google Cloud AI and BigQuery to improve operational metric tracking, allowing for 3X faster query times.
115. Addy AI is helping mortgage lenders and banks automate their lending processes with custom AI models trained on Vertex AI. For example, the platform can extract loan opportunity details from lengthy email threads with numerous attachments.
116. Bayer Crop Science has developed Climate FieldView, a comprehensive agricultural platform with more than 250 layers of data and billions of data points; AI-powered recommendations allow farmers to design and monitor their fields for greater yields and efficient fertilization, with the added benefit of reduced carbon emissions.
117. CME Group is building a first-of-its-kind cloud-based commodities trading platform with AI tools built-in, offering CME’s trading customers access to deeper insights and smarter trades as well as rapid experimentation on new trading strategies that won’t interrupt existing trade flows.
118. Digits is developing next-gen accounting software for startups and small businesses; using AI-driven bookkeeping, expense management, and financial analysis, Digits enables business owners to achieve financial clarity and focus on growth.
119. Elanco, a leader in animal health, has implemented a gen AI framework supporting critical business processes, such as Pharmacovigilance, Customer Orders, and Clinical Insights. The framework, powered by Vertex AI and Gemini, has resulted in an estimated ROI of $1.9 million since launching last year.
120. Full Fact, a UK-based nonprofit working in 18 countries to combat misinformation, is now using gen AI to actively monitor stories so its 30 fact-checking partner organizations can focus on addressing specific claims and harmful information.
121. Fullstory, a digital behavioral data platform, is building the ability to analyze and summarize user behavior on a site to create more informed and enriching chatbot experiences; responses are more relevant and accurate, ultimately improving virtual agent performance and customer experience
122. GamudaBerhad, a Malaysian infrastructure and property management company, has integrated a Gemini-powered conversational agent into its cloud-based Tunnel Insight platform, providing faster information and insights during construction projects.
123. IntelligenciaAI is using AI models to research novel new drugs, relying on Google Cloud’s AI-optimized infrastructure to deliver scalable research that is accurate and transparent to meet the stringent needs of medicine.
124. IPRally built a custom machine-learning platform that uses natural language processing on the text of more than 120 million global patent documents, creating an accurate, easily searchable database that adds more than 200,000 new sources a week.
125. Ipsos built a data analysis tool for its teams of market researchers, eliminating the need for time-consuming requests to data analysts, which is powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash models as well as Grounding with Google Search to enhance real-world accuracy from contemporaneous Search information.
126. Materiom, a startup researching zero-waste, bio-based alternatives to fossil-fuel-made products like plastics, is creating a gen AI tool that enables entrepreneurs to develop novel compostable materials with broad applications; AI offers faster research and information gathering to speed up the development process.
127. Mendel has built a clinical AI system designed to break down the longstanding silos in medical data, boosting accuracy, accessibility, and ultimately patient health outcomes.
128. NeuroPace, a medical device company, built a solution to quickly identify effective epilepsy treatment options best suited to different patients; by analyzing brainwave patterns, it can find similar patients and apply successful therapies, streamlining personalized care.
129. NotCo, a Chilean food tech company, partnered with Eleven Solutions to develop a conversational AI chatbot powered by Gemini; the chatbot has revolutionized data access, allowing employees to instantly query their SAP system and gain real-time insights for faster, data-driven decision-making.
130. SURA Investments, the largest asset manager in Latin America, developed an AI-based analysis model for employees that allows them to better understand customer needs and improve customer experience and satisfaction.
131. AI21 Labs offers a BigQuery integration called Contextual Answers that allows users to query data conversationally and get high-quality answers quickly.
132. Anthropic has partnered with Google Cloud to offer its family of Claude 3 models on Vertex AI — providing organizations with more model options for intelligence, speed, cost-efficiency, and vision for enterprise use cases.
133. The Asteroid Institute is using AI to discover hidden asteroids in existing astronomical data. This is a major focus for astronomers researching the evolution of the Solar System, investors and businesses hoping to fly missions to asteroids, and for all of us who want to prevent future large asteroid impacts on Earth.
134. Contextual is working with Google Cloud to offer enterprises fully customizable, trustworthy, privacy-aware AI grounded in internal knowledge bases.
135. Cox 2M, the commercial IoT division of Cox Communications, is able to make smarter, faster business decisions using AI-powered analytics.
136. Essential AI, a developer of enterprise AI solutions, is using Google Cloud’s AI-optimized TPU v5p accelerator chips to train its own AI models.
137. Generali Italia, Italy’s largest insurance provider, used Vertex AI to build a model evaluation pipeline that helps ML teams quickly evaluate performance and deploy models.
138. Globo, one of Brazil’s largest media networks, is using Service Extensions and Media CDN to fight piracy during live events by blocking pirated streams in real time.
139. Golden State Warriors are using AI to improve the fan experience content in their Chase Center app.
140. Hugging Face is collaborating with Google across open science, open source, cloud, and hardware to enable companies to build their own AI with the latest open models from Hugging Face and Google Cloud hardware and software.
141. Kakao Brain, part of Korean technology company Kakao Group, has built a large-scale AI language model that is the largest Korean language-specific LLM in the market, with 66 billion parameters. They’ve also developed a text-to-image generator called Karlo.
142. Mayo Clinic has given thousands of its scientific researchers access to 50 petabytes worth of clinical data through Vertex AI search, accelerating information retrieval across multiple languages.
143. McLaren Racing is using Google AI to get up-to-the-millisecond insights during races and training to gain a competitive edge.
144. Mercado Libre is testing BigQuery and Looker to optimize capacity planning and reservations with delivery carriers and airlines to fulfill shipments faster.
145. Mistral AI will use Google Cloud’s AI-optimized infrastructure, to further test, build, and scale up its LLMs, all while benefiting from Google Cloud’s security and privacy standards.
146. MSCI uses machine learning with Vertex AI, BigQuery and Cloud Run to enrich its datasets to help our clients gain insight into around 1 million asset locations to help manage climate-related risks.
147. NewsCorp is using Vertex AI to help search data across 30,000 sources and 2.5 billion news articles updated daily.
148. Orange operates in 26 countries where local data must be kept in each country. They are using AI on Google Distributed Cloud to improve network performance and deliver super-responsive translation capabilities.
149. Spotify leveraged Dataflow for large-scale generation of ML podcast previews, and they plan to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with data engineering and data science to build better experiences for their customers and creators.
150. UPS is building a digital twin of its entire distribution network, so both workers and customers can see where their packages are at any time.
151. Workday is using natural language processing in Vertex Search and Conversation to make data insights more accessible for technical and non-technical users alike.
152. Woven — Toyota‘s investment in the future of mobility — is partnering with Google to leverage vast amounts of data and AI to enable autonomous driving, supported by thousands of ML workloads on Google Cloud’s AI Hypercomputer. This has resulted in resulting in 50% total-cost-of-ownership savings to support automated driving.
152-153. Broward County, Florida, and Southern California Edison are using geospatial capabilities and AI to improve infrastructure planning and monitoring, generate new insights, and create regional resilience for communities facing climate challenges today and tomorrow.
154-155. Kinaxis and Dematic are building data-driven supply chains to address logistics use cases including scenario modeling, planning, operations management, and automation.
156-157. NOAA and USAID are among the U.S. government agencies using Google Cloud AI to unlock critical data insights to streamline operations and improve mission outcomes — all with an emphasis on responsible AI.
Security agents
Security agents assist security operations by radically increasing the speed of investigations, automating monitoring and response for greater vigilance and compliance controls. They can also help guard data and models from cyberattacks, such as malicious prompt injection.
158. Apex Fintech is using Gemini in Security to accelerate the writing of complex threat detections from hours to a matter of seconds.
159. Exabeam has built a generative AI copilot for security analysts into its New-Scale Security Operations Platform.
160. Fiserv, a developer of financial services technology, can now summarize threats, find answers, and detect, validate, and respond to security events faster with the Gemini in Security Operations platform.
161. NetRise developed Trace to provide software supply chain security by introducing AI-powered intent-driven searches; these allow users to search their assets based on the underlying motives or purposes behind the code and configurations, rather than solely relying on signature-based methods.
162. Palo Alto Networks is using Gemini to create a grounded AI assistant for 24/7 security platform support in order to improve agent efficiency and response time; grounding the assistant in organizational data and security protocols has greatly improved the accuracy of responses.
163. BBVA uses AI in Google SecOps to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats with more accuracy, speed, and scale. The platform now surfaces critical security data in seconds, when it previously took minutes or even hours, and delivers highly automated responses.
164. Behavox is using Google Cloud technology and LLMs to provide industry leading regulatory compliance and front office solutions for financial institutions globally.
165. Charles Schwab has integrated their own intelligence into the AI-powered Google SecOps, so analysts can better prioritize work and respond to threats.
166. Fiserv’s security operations engineers create detections and playbooks with much less effort, while analysts get answers more quickly.
167. Grupo Boticário, one of the largest beauty retail and cosmetics companies in Brazil, employs real-time security models to prevent fraud and to detect and respond to issues.
168. Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XSIAM, the AI-driven security operations platform, is built on more than a decade of expertise in machine-learning models and the most comprehensive, rich, and diverse data store in the industry. Backed by Google’s advanced cloud infrastructure and advanced AI services, including BigQuery and Gemini models, the combination delivers global scale and near real-time protection across all cybersecurity offerings.
169. Pfizer can now aggregate cybersecurity data sources, cutting analysis times from days to seconds.
Creative agents
Creative agents can expand your organization with the best design and production skills, working across images, slides, and exploring concepts with workers. Many organizations are building agents for their marketing teams, audio and video production teams, and all the creative people that can use a hand. With creative agents, anyone can become a designer, artist, or producer.
170. AdoreMe marketers write differentiated product descriptions in one hour, a tedious task which used to take 30-40 hours a month thanks to Gemini for Google Workspace.
171. Globo, the largest media group in Latin America, is using Google Cloud’s AI to hyper-personalize content for its streaming users, and create a better experience for spectators.
172. Higgsfield.ai built a number of text-to-video apps for consumers, including Diffuse 2.0, which can combine users photos, videos, and texts through AI models to create more realistic avatars.
173. Jasper trains its suite of creativity-, writing-, and marketing-focused AI models on Google’s AI infrastructure, delivering on-brand, data-optimized assets faster and at scale to teams large and small.
174. Puma is using Imagen to customize product photos on its website, saving time and ensuring they are locally relevant across markets; PUMA India has already seen a 10% increase in click through rate.
175. RadissonHotel Group personalized its advertising at scale in collaboration with Accenture and using Vertex AI and Gemini models, training them on extensive datasets stored in BigQuery; ad teams saw productivity rise around 50% while revenue increased from AI-powered campaigns by more than 20%
176. SquareEnix is using customer data to develop AI-optimized marketing assets to keep its gamers engaged, sharing personalized emails suited to each player’s preferences, leading to a 20% increase in email opens and a 10% increased retention rate.
177. Urmobo, a mobile-device management platform, created a virtual agent, Odin, that significantly improved user experience and reduced support tickets by enabling clients to interact with the platform using natural language.
178. The World Bank is developing a tool to extract key information from research literature on the causal impact of development interventions, with the ultimate goal to empower decision-makers to allocate the $220B in annual aid and trillions in annual impact investing more effectively.
179. Belk ECommerce is using generative AI to craft better product descriptions, a necessary yet time-consuming task for digital retails that has often been done manually.
180. Canva is using Vertex AI to power its Magic Design for Video, helping users skip tedious editing steps while creating shareable and engaging videos in a matter of seconds.
181. Carrefour used Vertex AI to deploy Carrefour Marketing Studio in just five weeks — an innovative solution to streamline the creation of dynamic campaigns across various social networks. In just a few clicks, marketers can build ultra-personalized campaigns to deliver customers advertising that they care about.
182. Major League Baseball continues to innovate its Statcast platform, so teams, broadcasters, and fans have access to live in-game insights.
183. Paramount currently relies on manual processes to create the essential metadata and video summaries used across its Paramount+ platform for showcasing content and creating personalized experiences for viewers. VertexAI Text Bison is now helping to streamline this process.
184. Procter & Gamble used Imagen to develop an internal gen AI platform to accelerate the creation of photo-realistic images and creative assets, giving marketing teams more time to focus on high-level planning and delivering superior experiences for its consumers.
185. WPP will integrate Google Cloud’s gen AI capabilities into its intelligent marketing operating system, called WPP Open, which empowers its people and clients to deliver new levels of personalization, creativity, and efficiency. This includes the use of Gemini 1.5 Pro models to supercharge both the accuracy and speed of content performance predictions.
To find even more customers using our AI tools to build agents and solutions for their most important enterprise projects, visit the Google Cloud customer hub.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louise Arseneault, Professor in Developmental Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
When was the last time that you felt lonely? It’s an uncomfortable question, but for 3.83 million people in the UK, 7.1% of the population, the answer is probably “right now”.
Loneliness has become a worrying public health matter because it is common and is often associated with people experiencing physical and mental health problems. There is now taxpayers’ money being spent at the local, national and international levels on initiatives to minimise loneliness and the harmful effect it can have on people’s health. But are those investments misjudged?
New research from Guangzhou Medical University in China has challenged the notion that loneliness can cause ill health. Instead, the findings suggest that loneliness might be considered an associated feature for many diseases (a so-called “surrogate marker”) as it was shown to not be a root cause for poor physical and mental health.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank in which over half a million people aged 37 to 73 were asked to report how often they felt lonely. They conducted analyses based on the distribution of genetic variants in the population (known as “Mendelian randomisation”) to test the causal effect of loneliness on a wide range of diseases, including physical and mental health problems.
This is certainly an interesting study; however, there are several points we must consider when reflecting on the findings. It is important to note that UK Biobank data isn’t the best for testing the causal effects of loneliness on health.
Although many participants have taken part in UK Biobank, they are volunteers who tend to be white, older and have higher levels of education than the general population in the UK. Many of the participants also follow a healthier lifestyle than the population as a whole.
Although loneliness doesn’t discriminate and can affect anyone, at all ages, and from all walks of life, this participation bias can influence the findings as it may conceal important associations.
The study also captured a snapshot of loneliness from a single time in adulthood. We all experience loneliness from time to time, but its effect on health depends at what age a person feels lonely, why they feel lonely and for how long. This detail isn’t captured in this data.
Some of our own research in this area shows that mental health difficulties and poor general functioning are often experienced alongside feelings of loneliness. However, our findings also show that loneliness in early adolescence can have long-lasting effects, especially related to education and employment prospects –– so-called “socioeconomic outcomes”.
This study also measured loneliness in participants in their late 30s and older. Again, previous research has shown that loneliness can start early in life and is associated with later depression and poor socioeconomic outcomes, both of which are shown in this paper to be important factors associated with health.
The ideal is to conduct analyses with data from studies that observe people from childhood to old age, and which have measured loneliness earlier in life and health in later life to best understand the links between loneliness and health.
Also, this study used hospitalisation data to determine health outcomes. While this type of data is valuable, it captures information only from participants who seek treatment and represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to diseases. Loneliness may affect health in more subtle ways that won’t be caught here.
This is not to be over-critical of the study, however. The importance of depression and socioeconomic status as mechanisms through which loneliness translates into poor health is an essential message from this study. For example, loneliness may result in difficulties at work or worsening mental health, which could in turn increase a person’s risk of physical disease.
Identifying surrogate markers of poor health is also valuable as it opens the door to better and earlier ways to support vulnerable people. For example, someone may not feel comfortable revealing that they experience symptoms of depression, but they are fine with talking about their feelings of loneliness. Loneliness may act as a red flag in some circumstances. This is especially important when diseases are accompanied by stigma, such as many mental health conditions.
Loneliness is intertwined with a range of health conditions throughout life and is considered both a contributing factor to and an outcome of poor health. This study acknowledges that.
Loneliness has a complex relationship with health
To measure the importance of loneliness for public health relevance solely as a causal factor oversimplifies its complex and intricate relationships with health. This is where further research using data that is representative of the general population is needed. It would allow researchers to unpick the pervasive role of loneliness in shaping health and wealth for all people.
What this study cannot answer is an important question: should we continue to invest in initiatives designed to tackle loneliness as a means of improving population health? As ever, the answer is not a binary one.
While this study may not report a causal relationship between loneliness and diseases, ample evidence indicates that it precedes, accompanies and results from poor health. Current strategies have proven to be limited in their effectiveness, particularly for people with lower incomes and less education.
If we consider the occurrence of loneliness alongside mental health difficulties and low socioeconomic status, and a better understanding of the mechanisms that underpin loneliness, we might find these initiatives become more effective.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
A series of recruitment talks organised by the Civil Service Bureau in Beijing and Shanghai wrapped up today, attracting over 1,800 Hong Kong people who are interested in applying for civil service posts in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.
Five recruitment talks on the administrative officer (AO) and executive officer (EO) grades were held at the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in Shanghai (SHETO), East China University of Political Science & Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Renmin University of China, and China University of Political Science & Law respectively.
The participants, mostly university students, joined the talks online or in person.
At the seminars, participants were introduced to the entry requirements, training programmes, examination and interview arrangements, as well as tips on preparing for AO and EO grade exams.
In addition, the bureau had specifically arranged for serving AO and EO colleagues who had studied or lived on the Mainland to share their work and personal experiences.
The bureau’s representatives also attended a SHETO event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, taking the occasion to introduce the AO and EO grades to the young participants, with a view to encouraging them to apply for civil service posts in the Hong Kong SAR Government.
A joint recruitment exercise is being held for the civil service grades of AO, EO II, assistant trade officer II and transport officer II. The application deadline is October 4.
Since his first day in office, President Biden has been committed to restoring American leadership at the United Nations. Our world today faces many challenges that no one country can or should confront alone. But when the United States shows up and leads at the UN, we can rally global action to tackle problems that affect us all. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration has worked tirelessly at the UN to advance American values, safeguard human rights for all, and address conflict and instability. Alongside our allies and partners from around the world, we have worked with UN agencies to tackle the climate crisis, shape our digital future, and fight poverty and disease.
At a time of increasing geopolitical challenges and growing global needs, strong and effective American leadership at the UN is more critical than ever. The Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen American leverage at the United Nations, uphold the UN Charter, and keep human rights at the core of the organization. Without robust American engagement, our competitor nations would gain leverage to advance their interests and values at our expense.
The Biden-Harris Administration has also been committed to reforming and adapting the UN to the needs of the 21st century. For example, President Biden announced a new U.S. openness to expanding the membership of the UN Security Council, including permanent seats for Africa and Latin America. The UN is not a perfect organization, but given the scale of today’s challenges, the world needs global institutions that are more inclusive and effective.
Over nearly four years, the Biden-Harris Administration’s leadership at the UN has delivered results for the American people. At the UN, we have:
Responded to Threats to International Peace and Security
After Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we worked at the UN to build support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and hold Russia to account. We rallied 141 countries in the UN General Assembly to condemn Russia’s violations of international law. We used UN Security Council debates to shine a spotlight on Russia’s illegal war and atrocities. We pressed the UN General Assembly to kick Russia off the UN Human Rights Council. We isolated Russia by denying it senior UN appointments and preventing its election to UN bodies.
Responding to the security situation in Haiti, we partnered with Ecuador to obtain UN Security Council authorization of a new Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission.
Working with African partners, we secured a UN Security Council decision to create in December 2023 a new mechanism to largely fund future African Union-led Peace Support Operations from the UN-assessed budget.
Following the horrific October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, we defended at the UN Security Council Israel’s right to defend itself and demanded the release of hostages. Also in the Security Council, we called for increased humanitarian assistance to Gaza and established a new UN mechanism to improve aid coordination. In July 2024, we secured Security Council endorsement of President Biden’s plan for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
As the Sudan conflict worsened, we mobilized action in the UN Security Council, including the adoption of a resolution in June 2024 demanding an end to the siege of El Fasher.
Responding to concerns that Russia intended to deploy nuclear weapons in space, we and Japan proposed a UN Security Council resolution calling on countries not to develop such weapons.
In 2022, we partnered with Ireland at the UN Security Council to reform, expand and strengthen humanitarian exemptions for UN sanctions.
Working with the United Kingdom, we secured adoption of the first-ever UN Security Council resolution condemning the February 2021 military coup in Burma.
Protected and Upheld Universal Human Rights
We rejoined the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, enabling the United States to once again lead multilateral efforts to hold accountable human rights violators worldwide.
We issued a standing invitation to all UN thematic human rights monitors to visit the United States and assess our human rights record at home. In contrast to authoritarian governments, this invitation showed that a confident democracy is willing to have its record scrutinized and receive advice on strengthening rights protections for its citizens.
We pressed for the release of a landmark report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on human rights violations against Uighurs in China.
We worked in the UN Human Rights Council to establish a new Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Russia to examine Moscow’s crackdown on dissent at home and a Commission of Inquiry on violations and abuses in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
We restored American leadership at the UN in defending the human rights of LGBTQI+ individuals around the world. This included participating in high-level meetings of the Core Group of countries advocating for LGBTQI+ rights, including a September 23 meeting where the First Lady represented the United States. We also secured the renewal of the mandate of the UN’s Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and urged the UN to release its first-ever organization-wide strategy on LGBTQI+ rights, co-sponsoring the first-ever Human Rights Council resolution on the rights of intersex persons, and convening the second-ever informal UN Security Council meeting on the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals.
We spotlighted egregious human rights violations by North Korea, including by organizing the first briefing of the UN Security Council on North Korea human rights since 2017.
We helped establish mechanisms through the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations and abuses in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nicaragua.
We worked at the UN to advance the global fight against antisemitism, including to ensure 36 countries and four multilateral organizations joined the U.S.-led Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism. In 2023, we convened a UN meeting on antisemitism with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and, in 2022, a roundtable at UNESCO.
We advanced the UN’s work to promote racial equality, including by championing the inaugural session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. We co-sponsored a UN General Assembly resolution designating July 25 as International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent.
We engaged seriously with the human rights treaty body process, including through periodic reports about our domestic human rights record to the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Reaffirming support for the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we pressed for enhanced participation of Indigenous Peoples throughout the UN system. In 2022, Ambassador (ret.) Keith Harper, the first-ever Senate confirmed U.S. ambassador from a federally-recognized tribe, was elected to the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues.
We supported efforts in the UN General Assembly to advance discussion of a proposed convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.
After assuming the presidency of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), we hosted the UNCAC conference in Atlanta, Georgia in 2023, with approximately 2,600 delegates, including an unprecedented 1,000 from civil society.
Advanced Gender Equity and Equality
We restored American leadership in pressing at the UN for the rights of women and girls, advancing their inclusion in societies, and supporting strong language in UN resolutions and at the Commission on the Status of Women on sexual and reproductive rights.
The January 2021 Presidential Memorandum on Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad restored life-saving funding to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
We announced that the United States will contribute for the first time to the UNICEF–UNFPA Global Program to End Child Marriage.
Following the Iranian regime’s killing of Mahsa Amini and crackdown on protestors, we helped establish a new UN Fact-Finding Mission to investigate human rights abuses. We spearheaded efforts to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women.
In 2024, we reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action.
We launched the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, which included actions at the UN to address online safety for women and girls.
Shaped Our Digital Future, Promoted Labor Rights, and Tackled Synthetic Drugs
We sponsored the first-ever UN General Assembly resolution outlining principles for the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). This landmark resolution helped define a global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems for advancing sustainable development.
We hosted events at the UN on misuses of new technologies, such as countries using commercial spyware to surveil dissidents and journalists.
We worked at the International Labor Organization (ILO) to empower workers worldwide and joined the ILO’s Equal Pay International Coalition to share best practices to close the gender wage gap.
At the first Summit for Democracy in 2021, we announced the Multilateral Partnership for Organizing, Worker Empowerment and Rights (M-POWER), an initiative working with governments, trade unions, labor support, civil society organizations, and philanthropy to uphold and promote workers’ trade union rights around the world.
In coordination with the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), we launched and hosted at the UN high-level meetings of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats and secured adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution to enhance international action to fight such drugs.
Strengthened Global Health Cooperation, Advanced Sustainable Development, and Bolstered Climate Action
We redoubled efforts to support implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, launching a U.S. Strategy on Global Development to accelerate progress and mobilizing $150 billion of U.S. funding and billions more from the private sector, philanthropic, and other donor resources.
In 2021, we reversed the previous administration’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), enabling the United States to shape the WHO’s work on global health and reform. With the WHO, we led the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic by launching the COVID-19 Global Action Plan and donating nearly 700 million vaccine doses to 117 countries.
We hosted the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s 7th Replenishment in 2022, resulting in more than 75 governments, foundations, and corporations delivering pledges totaling a record $15.67 billion.
We worked at the UN to advance universal health coverage, continue the fight against tuberculosis and mpox, and combat global antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including to push countries for commitments on AMR that are bold, aspirational, and implementable.
We focused attention at the UN on addressing global food insecurity, repeatedly using the U.S. presidency of the UN Security Council to focus on the nexus between food security and conflict. We hosted at the UN ministerial-level meetings to generate new commitments to expand agricultural capacity and respond to famine with over 100 partner countries.
U.S. Representative to the UN Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland co-led the U.S. delegation to the 2023 UN Water Conference, where they announced more than $49 billion towards water security both at home and abroad.
In 2024, Secretary Haaland co-led the U.S. delegation to the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), where we announced new efforts to enhance our partnerships with SIDS.
After rejoining the Paris Agreement, we galvanized efforts at the UN to combat climate change, raising global climate ambition through countries’ enhanced national contributions, accelerated action to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, forward-leaning decisions at annual UN Climate Change Conferences, and major initiatives for ocean-climate action catalyzed by the annual Our Ocean Conference.
Former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy John Podesta have helped lead an all-out effort, including critical agreements at the UN Climate Change Conference COPs 26 and 28 to partner with countries to accelerate climate efforts worldwide and reduce global emissions sufficiently to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius.
We advanced efforts within the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization, and other multilateral organizations to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from the aviation, shipping, and other sectors.
Strengthened American Presence at the United Nations
After a five-year absence, we rejoined the UN Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This allowed us to partner with UNESCO to combat the scourge of antisemitism, support global Holocaust education, promote journalist safety, safeguard Ukrainian cultural heritage, bolster ethical uses of AI, and advance science education for girls in Africa.
We led robust campaigns resulting in the election of U.S. citizens to key UN positions, including Doreen Bogdan-Martin as Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Amy Pope as Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Sarah Cleveland as Judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
We supported the appointments of highly qualified Americans to lead UN agencies, such as Ambassador Cathy Russell as Executive Director of UNICEF, Ambassador Cindy McCain as Executive Director of the World Food Program, and Ian Saunders as Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization.
Co-chairing the UN Accessibility Steering Committee, we worked to make UN headquarters in New York more accessible for all delegates, including construction of a 24/7 entrance for wheelchair users and the installation of a lift so everyone can address the General Assembly from behind the official rostrum.
TRENTON – Kicking off Climate Week, Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette today announced the release of the final 2024 New Jersey Statewide Water Supply Plan, which for the first time assesses water supply challenges resulting from climate change and offers climate resilience solutions. Climate Week provides an opportunity for the public to learn about the many ways climate change is threatening the planet and the steps that can be taken to become more resilient and mitigate its impacts.
The water supply plan concludes that, under normal conditions and in most regions, New Jersey has adequate volumes of source water supply and is well-positioned to address water supply challenges as long as the state continues to take actions to mitigate the threats of climate change, aging infrastructure and emerging contaminants.
“The Statewide Water Supply Plan plays a critical role to inform local water supply management decisions by presenting the newest science to better prepare us for the challenges brought on by our changing climate,” said Commissioner LaTourette. “In addition to upgrading our aging infrastructure, a healthy water supply is dependent on constant reevaluation of how we can use water more efficiently to protect it for future generations.”
Consistent with the state’s comprehensive approach to making New Jersey resilient to the worsening impacts of climate change, the 2024 plan seeks to assess the threats of climate change to the state’s water supply. Of particular concern are temperature, precipitation, and sea-level changes, which will significantly impact water quantity, where and when it is available, and its quality. The plan also examines how emerging contaminants may impact water supply.
“New Jersey’s climate is changing. From increased temperatures to sea-level rise, these climate impacts can pose a threat to our water supplies if not properly addressed by proactive planning, management, and permitting,” said State Geologist Steven Domber. “By conducting comprehensive monitoring that factors in climate impacts such as increased temperatures, we can develop models and identify trends that will help local water users make informed decisions to ensure New Jerseyans have access to reliable and safe supplies of water now and in the future.”
A 60-day public comment period followed the release of the draft plan on February 26, 2024. The DEP then held two public meetings (one in-person and one virtual) and reviewed and incorporated comments from those meetings before finalizing the plan. Both the plan and a summary response to comment report are available at dep.nj.gov/water-supply-plan.
The DEP has also developed a new interactive website that outlines key information from the plan for specific audiences, including residential users, water professionals and others to summarize key plan topics, such as climate change and environmental justice. The website can be found at dep.nj.gov/water-supply-plan/storymap. The site will be updated as additional data and plan updates become available.
Water Supply Planning
The Water Supply Management Act (N.J.S.A. 58:1A-13) directs the DEP to prepare the New Jersey Statewide Water Supply Plan, analyze water supply data, examine associated risks, study projections, and make recommendations for effective management of the state’s water supplies.
The initial version of the plan was adopted in 1982 and updated in 1983, 1985, 1987, 1991, and 1993. Major revisions occurred in 1996 and 2017. The 2024 plan will be updated again in five years, but some aspects may be revised sooner.
The plan must carry out its assessments and recommendations from both statewide and regional perspectives to pursue comprehensive management addressing the diversity of water supply issues faced in different areas of New Jersey.
Drafted to align with the DEP’s related water regulations and policies, the plan provides guidance for state and regional groups making decisions concerning water supply. One of the primary goals of the plan is to put forward defined, actionable steps that the DEP can take to ensure water supplies are sufficient, in quality and quantity, to meet existing and future needs.
Water Supply Challenges Assessed
New Jersey has repeatedly faced a confluence of water resource challenges that have tested both infrastructure and responsiveness. Extremely low precipitation and streamflow in summer 2022 led the DEP to declare a Drought Watch, the first in more than six years. During the same period, aging infrastructure failed, resulting in massive water main breaks; water systems were required to address sources contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and harmful algal blooms were worsened by extremely warm temperatures. Additional challenges occurred in 2023, with four months experiencing near record temperatures and the state having its wettest December on record.
The combination of these challenges in 2022 and 2023 severely tested the resilience of New Jersey’s management of water resources. Such conditions are expected to persist or worsen in the future, requiring the DEP and its partner institutions to delicately balance the management of water resources by carefully administering planning, regulatory, investment and incident response initiatives. Recommended Action Areas
The availability of surface water, unconfined groundwater, and confined aquifers, the use of which varies geographically, was modeled to investigate potential shortages. Although not evenly distributed throughout the state, total natural water resource availability (including reservoirs) remains about the same as the 2017 New Jersey Statewide Water Supply Plan determined. However, current and forecasted use did change, and a few regions showed potential shortages. The plan provides details and recommendations to address these areas.
To meet requirements and ensure that New Jerseyans continue to have ample, reliable, and safe supplies of water now and in the future, the following action areas are covered in the plan, with greater detail on each found in Chapter 8, and elsewhere throughout the plan:
Hydrologic Data, Monitoring, Models, and Assessments: The availability of long-term and real-time hydrologic datasets are critical pieces of information the DEP uses to quantify trends, characterize current conditions, and to build and calibrate models. This information is used to ultimately make informed decisions and to update future water supply plans.
Climate Change – Water Availability Research and Modeling: This plan and its recommendations benefit from the availability of sound and reliable climate change science. This science continues to evolve, and the DEP will remain committed to monitoring new developments, with a particularized focus on the regional and local impacts of climate change upon New Jersey and its natural resources. As new and additional climate change data becomes available, it will be utilized to improve DEP water supply models and monitoring methods to more effectively mitigate and manage climate change impacts to water resources.
Climate Change – Infrastructure Resilience Recommendations: The DEP develops recommendations and establishes criteria to improve the resilience of water infrastructure and mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change upon the state’s water supply, including through actions to reform relevant DEP policies, protocols, statutes, or regulations pertaining to water infrastructure assessments and modifications.
Regional and Statewide Water Supply Planning and Protection: Water supply planning is a critical element to ensure that the state continues to have adequate supplies of acceptable quality to meet all current and future needs, and to balance human uses with ecological needs. Regional and statewide planning is adaptive and evolves as new information becomes available or issues emerge. The plan prioritizes regions of New Jersey where future planning efforts should be focused.
Water Policy Modernization: The DEP is obligated and empowered to improve and protect water supply resources and water system infrastructure to ensure water availability and the delivery of safe drinking water to homes and businesses. In some cases, the federal and state laws and regulations that give rise to these obligations are fit for modernization to better position the state and its water providers to confront new and evolving water supply challenges.
Asset Management and Resilience: Maintenance and improvement of infrastructure is key to effective and successful water supply management, and critical to ensure the state has access to clean and plentiful drinking water. Proper asset management can reduce water incidents and emergencies, limit disruptions to customers, and reduce long-term costs.
Policies and Priorities for Efficient Water Use: The plan identifies key policy priorities for the DEP as it continues to regularly re-evaluate new technologies and research to ensure the responsible and efficient use of the state’s water resources.
Public Outreach: DEP is committed to continuing public education and engaging with people and communities it serves on key water supply issues and initiatives.
The DEP’s Our Water’s Worth It campaign works to draw attention to the importance of clean water in our lives, from drinking water to supporting vibrant ecosystems and health places for recreation. An important focus of the campaign is educating the public on reducing potential lead exposure in drinking water.
NEW YORK, NY — The U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population, today launched the Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative to grow career pathways in climate and clean energy fields, strengthen workforce diversity, and jointly train 1 million new registered apprentices by 2035 across the Alliance’s states and territories.
Today’s announcement was made at a Climate Week NYC event featuring Alliance co-chairs New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, founding member Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.
“In New York, we’re showing how climate action and economic growth go hand-in-hand,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “As a co-chair of the U.S. Climate Alliance, I’m proud to be collaborating with states, industry leaders, labor unions, higher education and community organizations to create the jobs of the future required to build a clean, equitable, and resilient economy. A skilled and well-prepared workforce will drive innovation, create new businesses, and ensure a sustainable, resilient future for our country.”
“We need a climate-ready workforce — from EV technicians and heat pump installers to solar panel manufacturers — to meet our carbon reduction goals,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. “The Executive Order I’m issuing today in conjunction with the Alliance’s new Workforce Initiative will help ensure that workers from all backgrounds have access to the skills and training needed for high-quality, climate-ready jobs across New Mexico.”
“We’re aligning our ambitious climate policies with workforce development to have 1 million more workers poised to take these good-paying, union jobs that serve our communities and strengthen our economies,” said Washington Gov. Jay Gov. Inslee. “These are economy-wide jobs, not just in clean energy but building trades, land management, clean technology and more. Climate Alliance states have a track record of meeting our ambitious goals and that momentum continues today.”
“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, we are bringing down the barriers to economic opportunity, lowering costs for American families, and catalyzing a renaissance of American-made manufacturing that is creating jobs across America. In fact, just last year, we added over 250,000 new American energy jobs — with clean energy jobs growing twice as fast as the rest of the sector,” said White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “Governors across America are at the forefront of our efforts to spur growth in union jobs, expand American energy production, and invest in the economic success of our communities. Today’s announcement will help capitalize on our momentum to create a climate-ready workforce that is rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, communities, and industrial strength.”
The Initiative’s launch comes as historic federal investments, combined with ambitious state climate action, have unleashed a significant expansion of good-paying and union jobs in climate-ready fields — with millions more anticipated in the coming years under the Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This includes high-quality jobs not only in clean energy and clean technology sectors — such as wind, solar, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and batteries — but also in fields associated with climate resilience and natural climate solutions.
Under this Initiative, Alliance states and territories will collaborate to collectively support 1 million new workers in completing Registered Apprenticeship programs across the coalition by 2035. These programs, registered with the U.S. Department of Labor or federally approved State Apprenticeship Agencies, provide an especially valuable and proven career pathway, empowering workers to earn while they learn in key climate-ready occupations and industries.
Alliance members will also advance a series of collective goals aimed at strengthening and expanding pathways into a wide variety of climate-ready professions critical to building a clean, equitable, and resilient net-zero future. The Initiative’s goals include boosting job quality and ensuring climate-ready employment pathways lead to good-paying, high-quality jobs; expanding opportunities for workers from underrepresented and underserved communities; and promoting the use of stackable and portable credentials in climate-ready fields to build transferable skills, support reskilling and upskilling, and strengthen workers’ economic mobility. A full list of the Initiative’s goals can be found here.
Finally, to advance sector-specific strategies, Alliance members will work together through new multi-state cohorts focused on in-demand, climate-ready fields. These cohorts will provide a platform for states and territories to increase collaboration, share evidence-based practices, engage experts and stakeholders, and develop sectoral workforce solutions that can be scaled across the country. Cohorts to be launched in the Initiative’s first year will focus on careers in the following areas:
Clean Energy, Fuels, and Technologies: Led by Michigan and New Jersey, this cohort will focus on careers in the design, construction, and maintenance of a clean, affordable, and resilient power system; the manufacturing and deployment of zero-emission vehicles and technologies; and the development and distribution of alternative, low-carbon fuels.
Clean Buildings and Industry: Led by Maine and Massachusetts, this cohort will focus on careers in the engineering, design, construction, retrofitting, maintenance, and operation of buildings and industrial processes that are clean, energy-efficient, healthy, and resilient.
Resilient Communities and Lands: Led by Arizona and Vermont, this cohort will focus on careers in the development and maintenance of safe, livable, and resilient communities; preparedness for and response to climate impacts such as extreme heat, wildfires, severe storms, flooding, and drought; and the deployment of natural climate solutions and climate-smart stewardship of our lands and waters.
The Initiative will be led by Alliance states and territories with support from the Alliance’s Secretariat. In implementing the Initiative, Alliance members will customize efforts to meet their individual needs and challenges, while working together to achieve the collective goals. States and territories will also collaborate directly with their workforce development system partners, labor unions, higher education institutions, industry, and other key partners that bring substantial expertise and experience in this work.
This Initiative builds on a number of federal-state collaborations between the Alliance’s members and the Biden-Harris Administration, including a White House convening with Alliance governors’ offices in May focused on creating good-paying jobs and mobilizing a diverse workforce in climate and clean energy.
Additional information on the Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative can be found here.
MALVERN, Pa., Sept. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — YPrime, the leading pioneer in clinical trial technology, today announced its recognition as a Trailblazer in the Everest Group‘s Clinical Trial Patient Engagement Products Assessment. This prestigious acknowledgment underscores YPrime’s commitment to improving patient participation and engagement in clinical trials through innovative, experience-centric, and quality-driven technology.
“We are thrilled to be named a Trailblazer by the Everest Group,” said Jim Corrigan, CEO of YPrime. “This recognition shows that our hard work in transforming clinical trials is paying off. At YPrime, we have always considered ourselves trailblazers, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible in patient engagement and clinical trial technologies for all stakeholders in the ecosystem.”
“Patient engagement has become a critical component of clinical trials, increasingly recognized as a key factor to trial success by sponsors. As digital technology adoption in clinical trial gains momentum, patient-centric approaches are becoming the cornerstone for trial retention, data accuracy, and regulatory compliance. The future of clinical trials involves using technology to empower participation, improve adherence, and ultimately drive better trial outcomes,” says Nisarg Shah, Practice Director at Everest Group.” YPrime’s clinical trial technology platform offers patient engagement features across eConsent and eCOA, leveraging user-friendly design, personalization, and behavioral science to drive patient retention and adherence. Their focus on creating patient-centric and user-intuitive solutions for clinical trials has led to YPrime being recognized as a Trailblazer in the Clinical Trial Patient Engagement Trailblazer Assessment 2024.”
YPrime’s forward-thinking approach is rooted in its comprehensive strategy for advancing science and health through innovative eCOA, IRT, patient engagement, and eConsent solutions. The company improves patient retention by delivering personalized and intuitive experiences while consistently developing solutions that address the evolving needs of clinical trial participants, site personnel, and sponsors.
“Our technology isn’t just built on user-centric design principles – it’s driven by them,” said Mike Hughes, Chief Product Officer at YPrime, commenting on the company’s approach. “We’ve got a dedicated team that is focused on patient needs, including researchers who work directly with trial participants. This approach does not just enhance the patient experience; it revolutionizes trial efficiency and site productivity.”
YPrime demonstrates its commitment to patient-centric technology through recent innovations. The launch of eCOA 7.0, a no-code, configurable platform, accelerates study launches by 30% while supporting both complex and simple trials. The platform benefits patients, sites, and sponsors alike, with faster startup, high-quality data, and operational efficiencies. YPrime has also recently introduced patient-focused functionalities including the glucometer integration and the Tender Swollen Joint Count (TSJC) assessment. Developed with input from diabetes patients, the glucometer integration improves data quality and compliance; while the joint assessment supports sites with an intuitive body map for quick and accurate evaluations.
As a recognized Trailblazer, YPrime continues to solidify its position as a leader in clinical trial technology with its unique ability to improve patient participation and engagement. For more information on YPrime’s eCOA, IRT, eConsent, or Patient Engagement solutions, visit www.yprime.com.
About YPrime At YPrime, we streamline the clinical trial journey with a configurable platform designed for speed, quality, and certainty. With 50% faster IRT startup times, 30% faster eCOA launch times, and quality standards 50% above the industry average, YPrime can help you solve for certainty. Discover how by visiting www.yprime.com or emailing marketing@yprime.com.
Media Contact Terry Rehm Head of Thought Leadership and Public Relations, YPrime trehm@yprime.com 862-288-0329
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
SITI commences visit to Wuhan (with photos) SITI commences visit to Wuhan (with photos) *******************************************
The Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, began his visit to Wuhan, Hubei Province today (September 24). Professor Sun called on Vice Governor of Hubei Province Ms Chen Ping, and exchanged views on the development of innovation and technology (I&T) and new industries in Hong Kong and Hubei. At the meeting, Professor Sun introduced the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s plan and latest work on leading the development of the city’s I&T industry. He also learned about Hubei’s strengths in I&T and advanced manufacturing, particularly the development of chips and new energy vehicle industries. They also explored ways to further strengthen co-operation between Hubei and Hong Kong in technological innovation and industry development. Professor Sun later visited the Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology. It is one of the first six national research centres approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and is a research platform focusing on fundamental science and technology in the fields of optoelectronics for information, energy and life. Professor Sun was briefed on the laboratory’s development history, research conditions and innovation achievements, as well as the comprehensive support and services it provides to the “Optics Valley of China, Wuhan” and the development and industrialisation of the optoelectronics industry. Professor Sun then visited the Jiufengshan Laboratory to learn about its work on promoting the development of the fundamental research of compound semiconductor in order to support Wuhan to become a global compound semiconductor innovation centre and industry cluster. In a tour of the laboratory’s chip process lines and professional testing infrastructure, he was kept abreast of the facility’s efforts in pushing forward the technological frontier by aiming at research and development (R&D), technology development, transformation of R&D outcomes as well as detection and analysis on compound semiconductor. Professor Sun visited the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone in the evening and received an update on the development of the optoelectronics information industry cluster, as well as the efforts and achievements in building the “World Optics Valley”. Professor Sun also encouraged the East Lake High-tech Development Zone to set up accelerators and incubators in Hong Kong. The Commissioner for Industry (Innovation and Technology), Dr Ge Ming, also joined the visit. Professor Sun will continue his visit to Wuhan tomorrow (September 25).
Ends/Tuesday, September 24, 2024Issued at HKT 21:30
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
EDB launches “Love Our Home,Treasure Our Country 3.0” joint school national education activities to celebrate 75th anniversary of founding of People’s Republic of China (with photos) EDB launches “Love Our Home,Treasure Our Country 3.0” joint school national education activities to celebrate 75th anniversary of founding of People’s Republic of China (with photos) ******************************************************************************************
The Education Bureau (EDB) today (September 24) held the “Love Our Home, Treasure Our Country” – Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China and Joint School National Education Activities Kick-off Ceremony. The Bureau announced that it will collaborate with Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, Po Leung Kuk, the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China, the Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society, Kowloon, Hong Kong Subsidized Secondary Schools Council, Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council, Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association and Subsidized Primary Schools Council to jointly organise the “Love Our Home, Treasure Our Country 3.0” series of joint school national education activities in the 2024/25 school year, with an aim of deepening students’ understanding of Chinese culture and strengthening their affection for and sense of belonging to the country. The Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing; the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin; the Convenor of the Working Group on Patriotic Education, Ms Starry Lee; the Division Director of the Education, Science and Technology Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Dr He Jinhui, together with representatives from school sponsoring bodies, school councils and school head associations involved in the activities, jointly officiated at the kick-off ceremony. About 2 500 representatives from school sponsoring bodies and the EDB, principals, teachers, students and parents attended. Addressing the event, Mr Cheuk said that the “Love Our Home, Treasure Our Country 3.0” joint school national education activities will further expand the scale of the event. Participating schools cover kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, special schools and sister schools on the Mainland. Joint school collaboration not only strengthens exchanges among schools but also combines strengths to develop resources, enabling a patriotic atmosphere and sentiments to extend continuously across school campuses in all districts of Hong Kong. Mr Cheuk said, “Love for the country should be the value and sentiment of every Chinese national. Patriotic education and activities play an important role in nurturing the growth of patriotic sentiments.” He thanked practitioners from the education sector for remaining steadfast in their roles. Through learning inside and outside the classroom, students are given the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the country’s history, culture and values from an early age, and experience the distinctiveness of traditional Chinese culture, thereby fostering their pride in being Chinese and enhancing their national pride and sense of responsibility and ownership. The kick-off ceremony featured a variety of rich programmes, including the performance of the magnificent “Hymn to the Sun” by a joint school Chinese orchestra formed by nearly 90 students. In addition, over 100 students performed lion dances, martial arts and other dances. A choir composed of 75 principals from school sponsoring bodies, school councils and government schools marked the finale of the ceremony with a song to express their warm congratulations on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Highlights of the kick-off ceremony will be broadcast on RTHK TV 31 at 1.30pm on September 28 (Saturday).
Ends/Tuesday, September 24, 2024Issued at HKT 21:25
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at business luncheon Hong Kong-Spain: Partnering for Success in Madrid, Spain, today (September 24, Madrid time): Dr Peter Lam (Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council), Ms Jarillo (Deputy Director General for Asia, Europe and Oceania, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise of Spain, Ms Laura Jarillo), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon. I’m delighted to be here, in Madrid, the dynamic capital and financial heart of Spain, a city renowned for its world-class museums and fine dining and wine, not to mention the best football club in Europe, if not the world. What more can a visitor ask for? Well, I can tell you that this speaker, and the young and energetic innovation and technology delegation here with me, are pleased to be here, with you, to talk about how Spanish and Hong Kong business can partner for success long-term, mutually rewarding success.Hong Kong, connecting Spain and Asia Ladies and gentlemen, like Spain, Hong Kong is back in business after the challenges of the COVID pandemic, back creating opportunity for a world of business. Spain, included of course. Hong Kong has long been recognised as one of the best connected cities in the world. Half the global population is no more than a five-hour flight away from us. Before the pandemic, Hong Kong International Airport operated 1 100 flights a day, covering 220 destinations. Today, passenger throughput is rebounding, reaching over 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels on peak days, with full resumption expected by year’s end. As for cargo, our airport has been the busiest in the world for 13 of the last 14 years. This strategic connectivity is enhanced by Hong Kong’s institutional advantages, reinforcing our role as a “super connector” in Asia. The unique “one country, two systems” arrangement makes this possible. As part of China, Hong Kong enjoys convenient and sometimes priority access to the vast Mainland market, particularly the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a city cluster comprising Hong Kong, Macao and nine Mainland cities in Guangdong province. The Greater Bay Area’s collective population counts more than 87 million, with a GDP exceeding 1.8 trillion euros, surpassing that of Australia and the Republic of Korea. And, on a purchasing power parity basis, the per capita GDP of the Greater Bay Area is US$40,000, 75 per cent of Spain’s. (Note: HK’s is US$71,500) Hong Kong, let me add, is the most international city in China, thanks to the “two systems” that distinguish us. We are the only jurisdiction in China practising the common law system, our judiciary exercising its powers independently. Information, capital, goods and people flow freely in and out of our city. Our taxes are low and simple, with a currency pegged to the US dollar. Our regulatory systems and professional services align with the best international standards. Our commitment to the rule of law is exemplified by the Rule of Law Index, produced by the World Justice Project. In the latest Index, Hong Kong ranked 23rd and Spain 24th, both ahead of the United States. Hong Kong’s enduring strengths will continue to thrive, as our country is committed to the “one country, two systems” principle for the long term. This commitment has been reiterated by President Xi Jinping on multiple occasions, and reaffirmed at various high-level state and party meetings in Beijing. Last year, China and Spain celebrated the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties. And those ties continue to grow. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Sanchez was in Beijing, his second trip to the Chinese capital in two years. As political and economic ties between our two countries strengthen, Hong Kong is proud to play a pivotal role in fostering more two-way investments, and more economic, innovation and cultural exchanges.Financial Services One obvious area where we can contribute is financial services. Hong Kong, after all, is an international financial centre – number three worldwide, behind only New York and London, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index, released today. We have a robust fund-raising market. Our stock market’s total capitalisation stands at 3.7 trillion euros, while assets managed by private equity and venture capital exceed 200 billion euros. Hong Kong is the leading biotech fund-raising hub in Asia, too. A defining feature of our capital market are the “Connect Schemes” with the Mainland. Under the schemes, Mainland investors can buy stock, bonds, ETFs and derivatives directly from Hong Kong, while foreign investors can buy similar financial products on the Mainland through Hong Kong. In short, Spanish companies looking to list or issue bonds in Hong Kong can tap the capital from both the Mainland and international markets. Hong Kong is also the world’s offshore renminbi hub. As the use of renminbi as a trade and reserve currency increases, businesses will naturally look for renminbi-denominated investment and risk-management tools. Hong Kong handles approximately 80 per cent of global offshore renminbi transactions, offering a wide range of investment and risk-management products. Then there’s green and sustainable finance. We have long been Asia’s leader in green finance, issuing, on average, more than 55 billion euros in green and sustainable debt a year over the past three years. Our green standards align with the best international practices. To take an example, the Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, released in May, is highly compatible with the European Union’s Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities. For green projects looking for funding, Hong Kong is simply Asia’s premier destination.Innovation and Technology No less important is our commitment to rise as a global innovation and technology hub, together with the Greater Bay Area. We have what it takes to realise that ambition. Hong Kong is home to five global top 100 universities, and our two medical schools are among the world’s top 40. We also support 29 labs and research and development centres in collaboration with prestigious universities around the world. Our start-up system is thriving, offering a variety of innovative products in fintech, green tech, biotech, supply-chain management, big-data analytics and more. And 20 per cent of our 4 200 start-ups were founded by overseas entrepreneurs. Many of them are based in our two main innovation flagships: Science and Technology Park and Cyberport. And you will soon hear more from senior executives from these institutions, Albert and Eric. Let me add that our delegation members, many of them founders and CEOs of start-ups, are eager to talk to you, to explore business opportunities together. Hong Kong boasts a full-spectrum financing market, including banks, private equity funds, venture-capital funds and a well-developed stock and bond market. These provide abundant financial support for tech companies local and global, at different stages of growth. Greater Bay Area cities, let me add, each offers distinct strengths in innovation and technology; from basic research to technological application, commercialisation, and advanced manufacturing. This year, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index ranked the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster second, globally, for the fifth consecutive year. Now, allow me now to highlight a few I&T areas where Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area offer singular advantages, starting with artificial intelligence. Crucial to AI are algorithms, supercomputing power, data and application scenarios, all of which Hong Kong is blessed with. We serve as a convergence point for Mainland and international data. We are also investing in the necessary i
nfrastructure, including a supercomputer centre. Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area provide many different application scenarios for AI. Many AI companies, let me add, are choosing Hong Kong to develop their large language models and to go global. Biotechnology is also a priority. And we are planning to conduct clinical trials for the Greater Bay Area. We are also working on a “primary evaluation system” that will allow medicine and medical devices approved in Hong Kong to be widely used in the Greater Bay Area, the Asian region and around the world. Then there’s the Northern Metropolis, a 300-square kilometre area in Hong Kong bordering Shenzhen. The Northern Metropolis is destined to rise as an innovation and technology hub, a vast bridgehead for Hong Kong’s co-operation with other Greater Bay Area cities. Ladies and gentlemen, that just touches on the opportunities Hong Kong is actively pursuing. But let me say that we’re particularly focused on four areas: AI, biotech, fintech and new energy and new materials. We are bringing in strategic companies to help us develop those sectors. Since the end of 2022, we have attracted over 100 tech companies to Hong Kong. Together, they will invest about 6 billion euros and create more than 15 000 jobs in our city. We are equally keen on attracting talent. Since the launch of the new talent admission schemes and updating existing ones, to date, we’ve received some 360 000 applications under our various talent admission schemes. About 226 000 applications have been approved, and 150 000 professionals have already arrived in Hong Kong, I’m pleased to say.Concluding remarks Ladies and gentlemen, Hong Kong offers boundless opportunities for Spanish companies – as a gateway to the Chinese Mainland and throughout Asia, and as a hub for financial services and I&T. My thanks to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council for hosting today’s luncheon, and to our Spanish partners, including CEOC, ICEX and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, for make this welcome gathering possible. I am happy now to take your questions, to hear your thoughts and ideas on how our two economies and peoples can deepen our co-operation, creating far-reaching opportunities that benefit us all. Thank you.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on US businesses to deepen their investment ties with South Africa, highlighting the country’s renewed focus on economic recovery and structural reform.
Speaking at the SA-US Interactive Business Forum in New York on Monday, the President emphasised the progress made under South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and the vast opportunities available to foreign investors.
He said this is a “timely intervention”, referencing his first visit to the US since South Africa’s general elections in May, which led to a coalition government of political parties committed to inclusive growth and job creation.
“The advent of the Government of National Unity has renewed investor optimism in the South African economy. The message I bring to US investors today is that this optimism is well-placed.
“South Africa is firmly on the road to recovery, and we invite you to be part of this journey. Investments in South Africa are secure. Our business environment is stable. This is supported policy certainty and regulatory safeguards,” the President said.
He added that South Africa intends to stay the course on the structural economic reform process, on scaling up investment in key infrastructure, and on improving the business operating environment.
The President noted South Africa’s success in attracting investment, revealing that the country had achieved its target of raising R1.2 trillion (approximately USD 63.6 billion) ahead of schedule in 2022.
“We have announced a new target of approximately R2 trillion or approximately USD 100 billion over the next five-year period up to 2028.
“The far-reaching structural reforms we have implemented over the past six years have opened up the country to increased levels of investment that continues to grow,” the President said.
Ramaphosa particularly underscored the potential in the clean energy sector, which has attracted significant investment, supporting South Africa’s commitment to decarbonisation and energy security.
“We are equally committed to a Just Energy Transition that is inclusive, that take our developmental needs into account, and that leaves no community behind.
“We have a supportive and enabling industrial policy that incorporates amongst others expanding the special economic zones, driving export-led growth, and harnessing the potential of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area or AfCFTA. In January 2024 we began preferential trading under the AfCFTA,” he said.
The President emphasised that the Government of National Unity is furthermore committed to prudent monetary and fiscal policy and to strengthening regulatory and legislative frameworks to combat corruption.
The President also highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships with US businesses, especially in sectors like advanced manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and infrastructure.
“South Africa and Africa is ripe for investment in financial services, advanced manufacturing, energy, healthcare, infrastructure development, mining, science and technology and other sectors. South Africa is also developing the value chains of the future.
“With substantial reserves of critical energy transition minerals, we are positioning ourselves to be at the forefront of the green energy revolution,” he said.
He added that as the country with the world’s largest platinum group metal reserves, South Africa has a competitive advantage when it comes to the production of sustainable energy technologies, including electric vehicles, new energy vehicles and renewable energy components.
President Ramaphosa praised the collaboration between the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), following the 2022 Memorandum of Understanding. He stated that the partnership between the two stock exchanges “promotes cross-border investment and drives economic growth on a global scale.”
The President further highlighted the US as one of South Africa’s most valued trade partners, noting that bilateral trade totalled USD 17.6 billion in 2022.
He also praised the impact of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in fostering trade and creating jobs in sectors like automotive, agriculture, and precious metals.
With Africa’s population expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, President Ramaphosa painted a bright picture of the continent’s economic prospects, noting that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would “drive a wave of industrialisation and create dynamic regional value chains.”
“This too presents opportunities for US businesses and investors, and opens up new markets for their goods, products and services.
“Mutually beneficial trade and investment not only unlocks the dynamism and potential of an entire continent. It will also aid Africa’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” the President said.
In closing, President Ramaphosa reassured investors of the stability and security of investments in South Africa.
“South Africa is open for business. Sustainable and inclusive growth spurs development and creates jobs.
“Together, we can forge a path to shared success and progress, leveraging our combined strengths to achieve enduring prosperity for our people,” the President said. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: United States Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, announced the U.S. Department of Commerce is awarding Polar Semiconductor $123 million in federal funding as part of the CHIPS and Science Act to expand its Bloomington manufacturing facility. Polar is the first company in the country to move from a preliminary agreement to the award stage. The funding will go toward expanding and modernizing the company’s manufacturing facility in Bloomington, doubling the company’s U.S. production capacity and creating new manufacturing and construction jobs in Minnesota.
“America must stay on the cutting edge of manufacturing to maintain our economic edge on the world stage. This landmark federal investment in Polar Semiconductor’s Bloomington facility is a major step toward strengthening domestic production of advanced semiconductors,” said Klobuchar. “I worked closely with Polar Semiconductor to secure this grant and ensure Minnesota continues to be a premier destination for business investment.”
Polar produces high-voltage semiconductors for use in automotive, commercial and industrial applications at its 310,000-square-foot facility in Bloomington. The company produces 21,000 wafer semiconductors per month.
Klobuchar voted to pass the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen domestic semiconductor production and boost American competitiveness and innovation. The CHIPS and Science Act is providing significant resources to:
Help companies build, expand, or modernize domestic facilities and equipment for semiconductor production;
Kickstart development of the domestic semiconductor workforce and address near-term labor shortages;
Make the largest five-year investment in public research and development in the nation’s history, including in critical technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, as well as boosting STEM education and regional technology hubs.
In June 2023, Klobuchar hosted a roundtable discussion and press conference at Normandale Community College in Bloomington with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act and how it can benefit Minnesota companies and workers. Polar Semiconductor VP of Business and Technology Development Rajesh Appat attended the roundtable.
In August 2022, Klobuchar held a press conference in Bloomington with executives from leading U.S.-based semiconductor designers and manufacturers with operations or headquarters in Minnesota to highlight how the CHIPS and Science Act will strengthen American economic competitiveness and spur innovation.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Andrew J. Hoffman, Professor of Management & Organizations, Environment & Sustainability, and Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan
The U.S. has seen a large number of billion-dollar disasters in recent years.AP Photo/Mark Zaleski
Millions of Americans have been watching with growing alarm as their homeowners insurance premiums rise and their coverage shrinks. Nationwide, premiums rose 34% between 2017 and 2023, and they continued to rise in 2024 across much of the country.
There are a few reasons, but a common thread: Climate change is fueling more severe weather, and insurers are responding to rising damage claims. The losses are exacerbated by more frequent extreme weather disasters striking densely populated areas, rising construction costs and homeowners experiencing damage that was once more rare.
Hurricane Ian, supercharged by warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane in October 2022 and caused an estimated $112.9 billion in damage. Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
Just a decade ago, few insurance companies had a comprehensive strategy for addressing climate risk as a core business issue. Today, insurance companies have no choice but to factor climate change into their policy models.
Rising damage costs, higher premiums
There’s a saying that to get someone to pay attention to climate change, put a price on it. Rising insurance costs are doing just that.
Increasing global temperatures lead to more extreme weather, and that means insurance companies have had to make higher payouts. In turn, they have been raising their prices and changing their coverage in order to remain solvent. That raises the costs for homeowners and for everyone else.
The importance of insurance to the economy cannot be understated. You generally cannot get a mortgage or even drive a car, build an office building or enter into contracts without insurance to protect against the inherent risks. Because insurance is so tightly woven into economies, state agencies review insurance companies’ proposals to increase premiums or reduce coverage.
The insurance companies are not making political statements with the increases. They are looking at the numbers, calculating risk and pricing it accordingly. And the numbers are concerning.
The arithmetic of climate risk
Insurance companies use data from past disasters and complex models to calculate expected future payouts. Then they price their policies to cover those expected costs. In doing so, they have to balance three concerns: keeping rates low enough to remain competitive, setting rates high enough to cover payouts and not running afoul of insurance regulators.
But climate change is disrupting those risk models. As global temperatures rise, driven by greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use and other human activities, past is no longer prologue: What happened over the past 10 to 20 years is less predictive of what will happen in the next 10 to 20 years.
The number of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. each year offers a clear example. The average rose from 3.3 per year in the 1980s to 18.3 per year in the 10-year period ending in 2024, with all years adjusted for inflation.
With that more than fivefold increase in billion-dollar disasters came rising insurance costs in the Southeast because of hurricanes and extreme rainfall, in the West because of wildfires, and in the Midwest because of wind, hail and flood damage.
Hurricanes tend to be the most damaging single events. They caused more than US$692 billion in property damage in the U.S. between 2014 and 2023. But severe hail and windstorms, including tornadoes, are also costly; together, those on the billion-dollar disaster list did more than $246 billion in property damage over the same period.
As insurance companies adjust to the uncertainty, they may run a loss in one segment, such as homeowners insurance, but recoup their losses in other segments, such as auto or commercial insurance. But that cannot be sustained over the long term, and companies can be caught by unexpected events. California’s unprecedented wildfires in 2017 and 2018 wiped out nearly 25 years’ worth of profits for insurance companies in that state.
To balance their risk, insurance companies often turn to reinsurance companies; in effect, insurance companies that insure insurance companies. But reinsurers have also been raising their prices to cover their costs. Property reinsurance alone increased by 35% in 2023. Insurers are passing those costs to their policyholders.
What this means for your homeowners policy
Not only are homeowners insurance premiums going up, coverage is shrinking. In some cases, insurers are reducing or dropping coverage for items such as metal trim, doors and roof repair, increasing deductibles for risks such as hail and fire damage, or refusing to pay full replacement costs for things such as older roofs.
Some insurances companies are simply withdrawing from markets altogether, canceling existing policies or refusing to write new ones when risks become too uncertain or regulators do not approve their rate increases to cover costs. In recent years, State Farm and Allstate pulled back from California’s homeowner market, and Farmers, Progressive and AAA pulled back from the Florida market, which is seeing some of the highest insurance rates in the country.
In some cases, insurers are restricting coverage. Roof repairs, like these in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., after Hurricane Ian, can be expensive and widespread after windstorms. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
State-run “insurers of last resort,” which can provide coverage for people who can’t get coverage from private companies, are struggling too. Taxpayers in states such as California and Florida have been forced to bail out their state insurers. And the National Flood Insurance Program has raised its premiums, leading 10 states to sue to stop them.
According to NOAA data, 2023 was the hottest year on record “by far.” And 2024 could be even hotter. This general warming trend and the rise in extreme weather is expected to continue until greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are abated.
In the face of such worrying analyses, U.S. homeowners insurance will continue to get more expensive and cover less. And yet, Jacques de Vaucleroy, chairman of the board of reinsurance giant Swiss Re, believes U.S. insurance is still priced too low to fully cover the risk from climate change.
Andrew J. Hoffman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Karen Mollica (BA Hons [Political Science], McMaster University, 2000; MA [International Affairs], Carleton University, 2003) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2003 following internships in Guyana and Costa Rica.
Karen Mollica (BA Hons [Political Science], McMaster University, 2000; MA [International Affairs], Carleton University, 2003) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2003 following internships in Guyana and Costa Rica. Her early assignments included coordinator in the Anti-personnel Mine Action Team and desk officer for several countries in West and Central Africa. She subsequently moved to the Canadian International Development Agency and served as first secretary at the High Commission in South Africa and as counsellor and head of cooperation at the Embassy to Jordan. Upon her return to Headquarters in 2019, she became director of policy, planning and operations for Latin America and the Caribbean, a position she held until 2022. Most recently, she served as director and senior departmental adviser in the Office of the Minister of International Development and as chargé d’affaires at the Embassy to the Holy See.
Ajit Singh (BA [Communications], University of Winnipeg, 2003; BA Hons [Political Science], University of Winnipeg, 2004; MA [International Law], United Nations University for Peace, 2006; JD, Osgoode Hall Law School, 2012) has lived, studied and worked in multiple languages in 6 countries on 4 continents. He joined the Government of Canada in 2008 after working in media, academia, the United Nations and civil society organizations. He later worked in private law in Toronto and was called to the Bar of Ontario as a barrister and solicitor. In 2013, he joined the Privy Council Office in the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat. He then worked in its Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat, where he led on relations with Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia regions and Latin America and on legal files. In 2017, he joined Global Affairs Canada as a deputy director in the Foreign Policy Planning Division to lead the team responsible for the foreign ministers’ track during Canada’s 2018 G7 presidency. After this, he worked in the Conflict Prevention, Stabilization and Peacebuilding Division. In 2021, he joined the Department of National Defence as a director of operations. In 2022, he rejoined the Privy Council Office, this time as the first person to hold the position of director of international crisis response.
The free event, which has been held nearly every year since 2016, allows 5th graders from Virginia Beach City and Chesapeake Public Schools to receive an exclusive sneak peek of the Air Show performances, including the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels and the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team; vendor booths and activities; and numerous STEM Laboratory exhibits. This year’s theme is “Inspire. Educate. Soar!”
NAVFAC volunteers staffed engineering-themed tables to encourage the participating students to take part in the command’s annual Penny Boat Challenge.
“The students get a sheet of aluminum foil, and they design a boat to see how many pennies it can hold before it sinks,” said Taylor Priest, a Civil Engineer for NAVFAC LANT and STEM Coordinator. “We talk to the students about weight distribution, boat shapes and design, and buoyancy, among other things.”
This challenge not only leads the students to think about the basic shape and design of the boat so it can float on water, but strategy and skill also come into play when they start adding the weight of the pennies.
“The idea of showing these skills to a younger generation is fascinating to me … I have kids who were into STEM and became engineers, so I want to continue to help push and promote STEM for other children,” said Robert Brown, a Project Manager for NAVFAC MIDLANT, and a first-time STEM Lab volunteer. “NAVFAC is connected to all of this, so it gives us an opportunity – as volunteers – to explain and show off what we do at NAVFAC, and hopefully encourage these students to one day become better NAVFAC engineers.”
As a hands-on learning activity, the Penny Boat Challenge generates significant crowds as the students show off their talent and patience throughout the day.
“The students get really competitive as they watch each other build different boats,” Priest explained. “When they work side-by-side in the engagement stations, they start to see who gets more pennies, and then they want to do it again, and again to get better results. We also have an ongoing high score board that displays the highest number [of pennies floated] to keep the competition and creativity flowing.”
According to the National Center for Science and Engineering website, about a quarter of the current U.S. workforce is employed in STEM occupations. Events such as these not only help to plant a seed for students to seek out future STEM careers, but specifically, it plays a role in promoting STEM opportunities for women, persons of color, and persons with disabilities who have historically been underrepresented in U.S.-based science and engineering fields.
“We love promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics activities, such as this, to allow children to ask questions about future engineering professions and get them interested in engineering,” said Melissa Dyson, Supervisory Project Manager for NAVFAC MIDLANT and STEM Coordinator. “Many of these students incorporate engineering into their daily routines and they don’t even realize it, so this event allows us to help them identify those skills and show them it can be fun. The STEM fields are growing exponentially, so there’s tons of opportunities – and there will be even more within the next 10 years – and NAVFAC is on the forefront.”
While most of the attending students are a part of Generation Alpha – who were born at a time when technological devices are getting smarter, and everything is connected digitally – they also demonstrate exceptional skill with non-digital, hands-on learning activities.
“The students use different parts of their brains … some learn visually, some learn by auditory, and others learn through physical activities, so this activity combines a lot of that together when our volunteers coach them and talk to them about the different elements involved,” said Priest. “It completely syncs for them, and I’ve seen students who take these basic skills home to show their parents and teachers so they can recreate the activities again at home or school.”
The NAS Oceana Air Show is an annual opportunity for the U.S. Navy to give back to our military families and the local Hampton Roads community. Each year, the base welcomes visitors from across the country and around the world to the Navy’s East Coast Master Jet Base to experience the wonder of flight firsthand and meet the exceptional men and women of naval aviation.
NAVFAC’s STEM team of volunteers will represent the command again on October 17-18 for Naval Station Norfolk’s STEM Days in Norfolk, Virginia, which will be held in conjunction with the installation’s annual Fleet Fest, scheduled on Oct. 19.
NAVFAC MIDLANT provides facilities engineering, public works and environmental products and services across an area of responsibility that spans from South Carolina to Maine, as far west as Illinois, and down to Indiana. As an integral member of the Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic team, NAVFAC MIDLANT provides leadership through the Regional Engineer organization to ensure the region’s facilities and infrastructure are managed efficiently and effectively.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
September 24, 2024
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
September 24, 2024
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
September 24, 2024
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Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
A meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The Director of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring, Yuri Chikhanchin, also took part in it.
At the meeting, the program for the final stage of the fourth Olympiad, which will take place from September 30 to October 4 in the federal territory of Sirius, was approved, as well as the composition of the jury and the appeal committee.
In his opening remarks, Dmitry Chernyshenko noted the expansion of the geography of the participants of the International Financial Security Olympiad. This year, more than 550 finalists from 36 countries will come to the final in the hospitable federal territory of Sirius.
“Despite the current international situation, we have managed not only to maintain, but also to expand the level of organization and holding of the Olympiad. This year, more than 550 children from 36 countries will come to Sirius; last year, there were 19 countries. I consider it important that the Olympiad participants will not only win, but also receive opportunities to enter the country’s leading universities and employment prospects,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
He also recalled that on September 17, a founding conference was held at the site of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and the launch of the International Movement for Financial Security was launched, which united representatives from 36 countries.
According to Rosfinmonitoring Director Yuri Chikhanchin, schoolchildren, students, representatives of financial intelligence agencies, the business community, and the scientific and educational sphere will meet at the Sirius venues. The final stage program includes more than 40 educational events for schoolchildren and students, including meetings with future employers and career guidance events.
“The events of the final week of the Olympiad are aimed at achieving educational results, professional development of participants, creating conditions for the formation of a cultural and moral environment based on traditional civilizational values, as well as involving participants in the sports movement. As part of the educational direction, schoolchildren and students will be able not only to demonstrate their knowledge, but also to acquire new competencies in master classes, panel discussions and interactive workshops,” said the director of Rosfinmonitoring.
Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Dmitry Afanasyev shared details of the final stage of the Olympiad and reported on the results of the qualifying stages of the fourth Olympiad, noting that in 2024 the number of participants in the final has increased.
The program of the final stage of the fourth Olympiad includes a meeting of the Council of the International Network Institute in the field of AML/CFT, the international forum on financial security “Sirius-2024”, “Conversations on equal terms”, a phygital basketball tournament, master classes, panel discussions and a number of other events of educational, professional, cultural and sports orientation.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister of Education Olga Koludarova, State Secretary – Deputy Head of Rospotrebnadzor Mikhail Orlov, Head of the educational foundation “Talent and Success” Elena Shmeleva, First Deputy Governor of Krasnodar Krai Igor Galas, General Director of ANO “National Priorities” Sofia Malyavina, representatives of the Executive Office of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Bank of Russia, the International Training and Methodological Center for Financial Monitoring (ITMCFM), PJSC Promsvyazbank and universities of the International Network Institute in the Sphere of AML/CFT.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
http://government.ru/nevs/52784/
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Reforms to apprenticeship system in England announced, alongside publication of first Skills England report highlighting nationwide skills gaps
The government is boosting opportunities for young people through ambitious apprenticeship reforms in England.
The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson today announced a new growth and skills levy which will replace the existing apprenticeship levy and include new foundation apprenticeships.
These new apprenticeships will give young people a route in to careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage whilst developing vital skills.
The new levy will also allow funding for shorter apprenticeships, giving learners and employers greater flexibility over their training than under the existing system – where apprenticeships must run for at least 12 months.
The training eligible for funding under the new levy will develop over time, informed by Skills England’s assessment of priority skills needs.
The Department for Education will set out further details on the scope of the offer and how it will be accessed in due course.
To fund this, employers are being asked to rebalance their funding for apprenticeships, asking them to invest in younger workers. This will also involve businesses funding more of their level 7 apprenticeships – equivalent to a master’s degree and often accessed by older or already well qualified employees – outside of the levy.
The first report from Skills England, the government’s new body for the skills system, has also been published today. It provides an initial assessment of the nation’s working skills, as well as future skills needs and gaps which employers are struggling with across the country.
The report has found that employer investment in training has been in steady decline over the past decade, with training expenditure at its lowest level since records began in 2011, with investment per employee down by 19% in real terms. This highlights the need for government reforms to the skills and apprenticeships system.
It also shows that, across the UK, almost 1 in 10, or over 2.5 million roles are in critical demand, with more than 90% being in roles that require training or education.
The government launched Skills England in July to help identify skills needs. Skills England will play a crucial role in determining which types of training will be eligible for the expanded growth and skills levy and will set out shortly how they will work with stakeholders to inform their advice to DfE.
The need for jobs and skills varies across industries, with the health and social care sector experiencing the highest demand, followed by education, manufacturing, and science and technology.
We are in an era of epic transformation – facing challenges unlike any we have ever seen – challenges that demand global solutions.
Yet geo-political divisions keep deepening. The planet keeps heating.
Wars rage with no clue how they will end.
And nuclear posturing and new weapons cast a dark shadow.
We are edging towards the unimaginable – a powder keg that risks engulfing the world.
Meanwhile, 2024 is the year that half of humanity goes to the polls – and all of humanity will be affected.
I stand before you in this whirlwind convinced of two overriding truths.
First, the state of our world is unsustainable.
We can’t go on like this.
And second, the challenges we face are solvable.
But that requires us to make sure the mechanisms of international problem-solving actually solve problems.
The Summit of the Future was a first step, but we have a long way to go.
Getting there requires confronting three major drivers of unsustainability.
A world of impunity – where violations and abuses threaten the very foundation of international law and the UN Charter.
A world of inequality – where injustices and grievances threaten to undermine countries or even push them over the edge.
And a world of uncertainty – where unmanaged global risks threaten our future in unknowable ways.
These worlds of impunity, inequality and uncertainty are connected and colliding.
Excellencies,
The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable.
Today, a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to a “get out of jail free” card.
They can trample international law.
They can violate the United Nations Charter.
They can turn a blind eye to international human rights conventions or the decisions of international courts.
They can thumb their nose at international humanitarian law.
They can invade another country, lay waste to whole societies, or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people.
And nothing will happen.
We see this age of impunity everywhere — in the Middle East, in the heart of Europe, in the Horn of Africa, and beyond.
The war in Ukraine is spreading with no signs of letting up.
Civilians are paying the price – in rising death tolls and shattered lives and communities.
It is time for a just peace based on the UN Charter, on international law and on UN resolutions.
Meanwhile, Gaza is a non-stop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.
Look no further than Lebanon.
We should all be alarmed by the escalation.
Lebanon is at the brink.
The people of Lebanon – the people of Israel – and the people of the world — cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.
Let’s be clear.
Nothing can justify the abhorrent acts of terror committed by Hamas on October 7th, or the taking of hostages – both of which I have repeatedly condemned.
And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as Secretary-General.
More than 200 of our own staff have been killed, many with their families.
And yet the women and men of the United Nations continue to deliver humanitarian aid.
I know you join me in paying a special tribute to UNRWA and to all humanitarians in Gaza.
The international community must mobilize for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-State solution.
For those who go on undermining that goal with more settlements, more landgrabs, more incitement — I ask:
What is the alternative?
How could the world accept a one-state future in which a large a large number of Palestinians would be included without any freedom, rights or dignity?
In Sudan, a brutal power struggle has unleashed horrific violence — including widespread rape and sexual assaults.
A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as famine spreads. Yet outside powers continue to interfere with no unified approach to finding peace.
In the Sahel, the dramatic and rapid expansion of the terrorist threat requires a joint approach rooted in solidarity – but regional and international cooperation have broken down.
From Myanmar to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Haiti to Yemen and beyond – we continue to see appalling levels of violence and human suffering in the face of a chronic failure to find solutions.
Meanwhile our peacekeeping missions are too often operating in areas where simply there is no peace to keep.
Instability in many places around the world is a by-product of instability in power relations and geo-political divides.
For all its perils, the Cold War had rules.
There were hot lines, red lines and guard rails.
It can feel as though we don’t have that today.
Nor do we have a unipolar world.
We are moving to a multipolar world, but we are not there yet.
We are in a purgatory of polarity.
And in this purgatory, more and more countries are filling the spaces of geopolitical divides, doing whatever they want with no accountability.
That is why it is more important than ever to reaffirm the Charter, to respect international law, to support and implement decisions of international courts, and to reinforce human rights in the world.
Anywhere and everywhere.
Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs,
L’augmentation des inégalités est un deuxième facteur de l’insoutenabilité et une tache sur notre conscience collective.
L’inégalité n’est pas une question technique ou bureaucratique.
Au fond, l’inégalité est une question de pouvoir, aux racines historiques.
Les conflits, les bouleversements climatiques et la crise du coût de la vie étendent ces racines historiques plus profondément encore.
Dans le même temps, le monde peine encore à se relever de la flambée des inégalités engendrée par la pandémie.
Si l’on regarde les 75 pays les plus pauvres du monde, un tiers d’entre eux se trouve aujourd’hui dans une situation pire qu’il y a cinq ans.
Au cours de la même période, les cinq hommes les plus riches de la planète ont plus que doublé leurs fortunes.
Et un pour cent des habitants de la planète détient 43 % de l’ensemble des avoirs financiers mondiaux.
Au niveau national, certains gouvernements décuplent les inégalités en accordant des cadeaux fiscaux massifs aux entreprises et aux ultra-riches — au détriment des investissements dans la santé, l’éducation et la protection sociale.
Et personne n’est plus lésé que les femmes et les filles du monde entier.
Excellences,
La discrimination et les abus généralisés fondés sur le genre constituent l’inégalité la plus répandue dans toutes les sociétés.
Chaque jour, il semble que nous soyons confrontés à de nouveaux cas révoltants de féminicides, de violences fondées sur le genre et de viols collectifs – en temps de paix comme en tant qu’arme de guerre.
Dans certains pays, les lois sont utilisées pour menacer la santé et les droits reproductifs.
Et en Afghanistan, les lois sont utilisées pour entériner l’oppression systématique des femmes et des filles.
Et je suis désolé de constater que, malgré des années de beaux discours, l’inégalité de genre se manifesteet je vous demande pardon de le dire, elle se manifeste aujourd’hui encore, pleinement dans cette enceinte.
Moins de 10 pour cent des intervenants au Débat général de cette semaine sont des femmes.
C’est inacceptable, surtout quand on sait que l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes contribue à la paix, au développement durable, à l’action climatique et bien plus encore.
C’est précisément pour cela nous avons pris des mesures spécifiques pour atteindre la parité hommes-femmes parmi les hauts responsables de l’Organisation des Nations Unies,objectif qui est déjà complété.
C’est faisable.
J’exhorte les institutions politiques et économiques du monde dominées par les hommes à le faire aussi.
Excellences,
Les inégalités mondiales se reflètent et se renforcent jusque dans nos propres organisations internationales.
Le Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies a été conçu par les vainqueurs de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
À l’époque, la majeure partie du continent africain était encore sous domination coloniale.
À ce jour, l’Afrique n’a toujours aucun siège permanent au sein de la principale instance de paix du monde.
Un changement s’impose.
Il en va de même pour l’architecture financière mondiale, mise en place il y a 80 ans.
Je félicite les dirigeants de la Banque mondiale et du Fonds monétaire international pour les mesures importantes qu’ils ont entreprises.
Mais comme le souligne le Pacte pour l’avenir, la lutte contre les inégalités exige une accélération de la réforme de l’architecture financière internationale.
Au cours des huit dernières décennies, l’économie mondiale s’est développée et transformée.
Les institutions de Bretton Woods n’ont pas suivi le rythme.
Elles ne sont plus en mesure de fournir un filet de sécurité mondial, ni d’offrir aux pays en développement le niveau de soutien dont ils ont tant besoin.
Dans les pays les plus pauvres du monde, le coût des intérêts de la dette dépasse, en moyenne, le coût des investissements dans l’éducation, la santé et les infrastructures publiques réunis.
Et à l’échelle du monde, plus de 80 % des cibles des Objectifs de développement durable ne sont pas en bonne voie. Excelencias,
Volver al camino correcto requiere un aumento de financiamiento para la Agenda 2030 y el Acuerdo de París.
Esto implica que los países del G20 lideren un Estímulo para los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de 500.000 millones de dólares al año.
Implica reformas para aumentar sustancialmente la capacidad de préstamo de los Bancos Multilaterales de Desarrollo – y permitirles ampliar masivamente la financiación asequible a largo plazo para el clima y el desarrollo.
Implica ampliar la financiación de contingencia mediante el reciclaje de los Derechos Especiales de Giro.
E implica promover una reestructuración de la deuda a largo plazo.
Excelencias,
No me hago ilusiones sobre las barreras a la reforma del sistema multilateral.
Los que tienen poder político y económico, o y los que creen tenerlo, son siempre reacios al cambio.
Pero el status quo ya está agotando su poder.
Sin reformas, la fragmentación es inevitable, y las instituciones globales perderán legitimidad, credibilidad y eficacia.
Excellencies,
The third driver of our unsustainable world is uncertainty.
The ground is shifting under our feet.
Anxiety levels are off the charts.
And young people, in particular, are counting on us and seeking solutions.
Uncertainty is compounded by two existential threats – the climate crisis and the rapid advance of technology — in particular, Artificial Intelligence.
Excellencies,
We are in a climate meltdown.
Extreme temperatures, raging fires, droughts, and epic floods are not natural disasters.
They are human disasters — increasingly fueled by fossil fuels.
No country is spared. But the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit.
Climate hazards are blowing a hole through the budgets of many African countries, costing up to five per cent of GDP – every year.
And this is just the start.
We are on course to careen past the global limit of a 1.5 degree temperature rise.
But as the problem gets worse, solutions are getting better.
Renewable prices are plummeting, roll-out is accelerating, and lives are being transformed by affordable, accessible clean energy.
Renewables don’t just generate power. They generate jobs, wealth, energy security and a path out of poverty for millions.
But developing countries cannot be plundered in that journey.
Our Panel on Critical Minerals has recommended fair and sustainable ways to meet global demand for these resources, which are essential to the renewables revolution.
Excellencies,
A future without fossil fuels is certain. A fair and fast transition is not.
That is in your hands.
By next year, every country must produce an ambitious new national climate action plan – or Nationally Determined Contributions.
These must bring national energy strategies, sustainable development priorities, and climate ambitions together.
They must align with the 1.5 degree limit, cover the whole economy, and contribute to every one of the COP28 energy transition targets.
An International Energy Agency report released today breaks this down.
By 2035, on average, advanced economies must slash energy emissions 80 per cent, and emerging markets 65 per cent.
The G20 is responsible for 80 per cent of total emissions.
They must lead the charge – keeping with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances.
But this must be a joint effort — pooling resources, scientific capacities and proven and affordable technologies for all to be able to reach those targets.
I’m honoured to be working closely with President Lula of Brazil – who is both G20 Chair and COP30 host – to secure maximum ambition, acceleration and cooperation. We just met for that purpose.
Finance is essential.
COP29 is around the corner.
It must deliver a significant new finance goal.
We also need a Loss and Damage Fund that meets the scale of the challenge – and developed countries meeting their adaptation finance promises.
And we must finally flip the script on a crazy situation:
We continue to reward polluters to wreck our planet.
The fossil fuel industry continues to pocket massive profits and subsidies, while everyday people bear the costs of climate catastrophe – from rising insurance premiums to lost livelihoods.
I call on G20 countries to shift money from fossil fuel subsidies and investments to a just energy transition;
To put an effective price on carbon;
And to implement new and innovative sources of financing – including solidarity levies on fossil fuel extraction – through legally-binding, transparent mechanisms.
All by next year and this taking into account that those who shoulder the blame must foot the bill.
Polluters must pay.
Excellencies,
The rapid rise of new technologies poses another unpredictable existential risk.
Artificial Intelligence will change virtually everything we know — from work, education and communication, to culture and politics.
We know AI is rapidly advancing, but where is it taking us:
To more freedom – or more conflict?
To a more sustainable world – or greater inequality?
To being better informed – or easier to manipulate?
A handful of companies and even individuals have already amassed enormous power over the development of AI – with little accountability or oversight for the moment.
Without a global approach to its management, artificial intelligence could lead to artificial divisions across the board – a Great Fracture with two internets, two markets, two economies – with every country forced to pick a side, and enormous consequences for all.
The United Nations is the universal platform for dialogue and consensus.
It is uniquely placed to promote cooperation on AI – based on the values of the Charter and international law.
The global debate happens here, or it does not happen.
I welcome important first steps.
Two resolutions in the General Assembly, the Global Digital Compact, and the recommendations of the High-Level Body on AI can lay the foundations for inclusive governance of AI.
Let’s move forward together to make AI a force for good.
Excellencies,
Nothing lasts forever.
But a feature of human life is that it appears otherwise.
The current order always feels fixed.
Until it is not.
Across human history, we see empires rising and falling; old certainties crumbling; tectonic shifts in global affairs.
Today our course is unsustainable.
It is in all our interests to manage the epic transformations underway; to choose the future we want and to guide our world towards it.
Many have said that the differences and divisions today are just too great.
That it is impossible for us to come together for the common good.
You proved that is not true.
The Summit of the Future showed that with a spirit of dialogue and compromise, we can join forces to steer our world to a more sustainable path.
It is not the end.
It is a start of a journey, a compass in the whirlwind.
Let’s keep going.
Let’s move our world towards less impunity and more accountability …. less inequality and more justice … less uncertainty and more opportunity.
The people of the world are looking to us – and succeeding generations will look back on us.
Let them find us on the side of the United Nations Charter … on the side of our shared values and principles … and on the right side of history.
Today, the Government of Canada released the State of the Canadian Space Sector Report 2023 during the Spacebound conference in Ottawa. This 26th edition of the report, published by the Canadian Space Agency, shows that in 2022, Canada’s space sector generated $3.2 billion for Canada’s economy and over $5 billion in revenues while supporting over 25,000 jobs across the country.
September 24, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario
Today, the Government of Canada released the State of the Canadian Space Sector Report 2023 during the Spacebound conference in Ottawa. This 26th edition of the report, published by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shows that in 2022, Canada’s space sector generated $3.2 billion for Canada’s economy and over $5 billion in revenues while supporting over 25,000 jobs across the country.
The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced that the CSA is investing $15 million in 16 Canadian organizations aimed at advancing the next generation of cutting-edge space technologies. This investment reaffirms the Government of Canada’s commitment to fostering the long-term growth of the space sector. It will support 22 innovative projects across various fields including imaging and quantum technologies, satellite navigation, Earth observation, and lunar exploration. Among them are groundbreaking innovations that could inform the design of future rover missions.
The Government of Canada is committed to helping unlock the full potential of Canada’s space sector by supporting organizations that play a crucial role in addressing challenges such as climate change, natural disaster response, food production, remote healthcare and improving Internet connectivity. By providing a wide range of opportunities to both established players and rising stars, Canada ensures a bright future for its space sector and continues to invest in innovative solutions to important issues, both on Earth and in space.
Quotes
“Continuous investments in Canada’s vibrant space sector demonstrate our unwavering commitment to opening new commercial opportunities and paving the way for a dynamic future in space exploration. These efforts have a direct impact on the socio-economic benefits for Canadians here on Earth. They drive economic growth, contribute to a highly skilled workforce, and take innovative technology to the next level.”
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
“These investments continue to strengthen Canada’s position as a world leader in space innovation, creating lasting jobs for Canadians and new opportunities in British Columbia’s growing space sector.”
The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada
“Space solutions power our daily lives, drive innovation, and create high-quality jobs in vibrant companies across Canada. Satellites in space help us monitor and sustain Canada’s lands, waters and resources. Building on our decades of expertise, we’re developing cutting-edge technologies and advancing space science. These investments directly contribute to improving the lives of Canadians right here back on Earth and position Canada as a key player in the global space industry for the long term.”
The Government of Canada today released the State of Canada’s Space Sector – 2023 Report at the Spacebound conference in Ottawa. This 26th report in the series, published by the Canadian Space Agency, shows that in 2022, Canada’s space sector contributed $3.2 billion to the Canadian economy, generated more than $5 billion in revenue, and supported more than 25,000 jobs across the country.
Ottawa, Ontario, September 24, 2024
The Government of Canada today released theState of the Canadian Space Sector – 2023 Report at the Spacebound conference in Ottawa. This 26th report in the series, published by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shows that in 2022, the Canadian space sector contributed $3.2 billion to the Canadian economy, generated more than $5 billion in revenue and supported more than 25,000 jobs across the country.
The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the CSA’s investment of $15 million in 16 Canadian organizations to advance the development of a suite of cutting-edge space technologies. This investment reinforces the Government of Canada’s commitment to fostering the long-term growth of the space sector. It will support 22 innovative projects in areas such as imaging technologies, quantum technologies, satellite navigation and Earth observation, and lunar exploration. Some of these groundbreaking innovations could inform the design of future rover missions.
The Government of Canada is committed to helping unlock the full potential of Canada’s space sector by supporting organizations that play a critical role in addressing challenges such as climate change, natural disaster response, food production, remote health care and improving internet connectivity. By providing a wide range of opportunities From established players to rising stars, Canada is ensuring a bright future for its space sector and continuing to invest in innovative solutions to important problems, both on Earth and in space.
Quotes
“Continued investments in Canada’s vibrant space sector demonstrate our unwavering commitment to unlocking opportunities and paving the way for a prosperous future in space exploration. They have direct socio-economic benefits for Canadians: they stimulate economic growth, contribute to the development of a highly skilled workforce, and advance innovative technologies.”
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
“This investment reinforces Canada’s position as a global leader in space innovation by creating sustainable jobs for Canadians and new opportunities in British Columbia’s growing space sector.”
The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada
“Space solutions are at the heart of our daily lives. They drive innovation and create quality jobs in dynamic companies across Canada. Satellites help us monitor and conserve Canada’s lands, waters and resources. With decades of expertise, we are developing cutting-edge technologies and advancing space science. This investment directly contributes to improving the lives of Canadians and positions Canada as a key player in the global space sector for the long term.”
Lisa Campbell, President of the Canadian Space Agency
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07)
(September 23, 2024) WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6219, the Accessing Satellite Capabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act (ASCEND Act), legislation to permanently authorize the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program within NASA.
Introduced by Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), this bipartisan bill provides statutory authority for the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the program as a pilot program in 2017 to acquire commercial small-satellite data in support of NASA’s earth science research.
Congressman Kean spoke on the House floor in support of his bill, watch HERE.
“Passing the ASCEND Act demonstrates our strong commitment to NASA’s commercial operators and public-private partnerships,” said Congressman Kean. “These efforts are essential for advancing human exploration and ensuring America’s leadership in space innovation. The ASCEND Act will provide access to data sets and imagery from the commercial space sector, supporting critical scientific research and paving the way for a sustainable future for generations to come. I thank my House colleagues for supporting my bill and look forward to seeing this on the Senate floor soon.”
“The bipartisan ASCEND Act is a commonsense solution to help researchers benefit from the vast, high-quality data available from commercial satellites to better understand climate change, natural disasters, and earth sciences,” said Congresswoman Bonamici. “I’m grateful that the House passed this legislation and I will continue advocating with Rep. Kean for the Senate to schedule a vote on the bill.”
The ASCEND Act would:
Establish CSDA as a permanent program within NASA’s Earth Science Division.
Direct NASA to expand procurement licenses to provide federal agencies access to high quality Earth remote sensing datasets and imagery.
Promote the acquisition of new datasets for scientific and non-scientific applications.
Require an annual report to Congress on the uses and impact of commercial data products and licensing agreements.
Read more about the bill HERE.
Congressman Kean serves on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Every year, humpback whales migrate up the east coast of Australia to breed, and journey back to Antarctica to feed. During their migration, the whales make calls and sing songs – a grand chorus in the symphony of their ecosystems.
This underwater soundscape is a valuable and vital window into the health of this species and their habitats. By tracking audio data, scientists can understand migration activity, patterns, mating calls, competitive behaviors and more.
Humpback whale mating call, collected in the Gold Coast
As part of the Digital Future Initiative, Google Australia is teaming up with Griffith University to implement more precise, comprehensive and efficient monitoring of whale migrations and their ecosystems in Australia – enabled by Google AI and automatic audio detection.
Researchers Dr Olaf Meynecke from Griffith University’s Whales and Climate Program and Dr Lauren Harrell from Google Research are leading this collaboration.
Traditional whale research methods have faced limitations in both data collection and analysis. Researchers logged sightings and manually analysed audio recordings, which is time-consuming and does not give a continuous view of whale activity. Moreover, visual sightings can only be logged during daylight, and tracking the evolving vocal dialects of whales across different regions and seasons is a complex task.
With this new collaboration, researchers have deployed hydrophones — underwater microphones — and Google AI powered audio detection systems to monitor the sounds and songs of humpback whales and their habitats.
A seal swimming around a hydrophone off the South Coast, NSW
Hydrophones allow us to tune into marine soundscapes and continuously collect underwater audio data all day and all night, through the entire humpback migration season. Google’s AI technology processes this data, automatically detecting whale sounds, marking their location in time and classifying the species. This frees researchers from the minutiae and laborious manual work, so they can look at the big picture, uncover insights and explore new research frontiers.
Dr Olaf Meynecke deploying a hydrophone in Terrigal, NSW
Curtin University’s Centre for Marine Science and Technology is supporting the collection and labeling of acoustic data, and a range of local citizen science groups will assist with monitoring each of the hydrophone sites. The AI model will eventually be open-sourced on Kaggle and GitHub, benefiting other whale and marine researchers worldwide.
While our current focus is on monitoring humpback whale sounds, the potential of this AI model extends far beyond. We’ll look to build on the model to detect the sounds of diverse marine species, from fish to dolphins and seals. These advancements will open up uncharted territories of research that could help protect these magnificent creatures and their habitats for generations to come.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07)
Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher Invites Students in Texas’ Seventh Congressional District to Participate in 2024 Congressional App Challenge
Houston, TX, September 23, 2024
Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) announced the launch of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge for Texas’ Seventh Congressional District. The competition, which is open to middle school and high school students, encourages students to learn to code and inspires them to pursue careers in computer science.
“I am excited to launch this year’s Congressional App Challenge for students across our district and to provide them with an opportunity to demonstrate and develop their STEM skills,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher. “I look forward to seeing the submissions from our talented young neighbors.”
The Congressional App Challenge is open to middle school and high school students in Texas’ Seventh Congressional District. The deadline to submit an app is October 24, 2024. The winner for Texas’ Seventh Congressional District will be selected by a panel of judges from the district. For more information about the competition, click here.
Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo
Washington, D.C.— The U.S. Senate unanimously agreed to a Senate Resolution designating September 15-21, 2024, as National Forensic Science Week. The resolution, introduced by U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Alex Padilla (D-California), and co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), recognizes the role forensic science plays in the investigation, prosecution and conviction of crimes, as well as exoneration of the innocent.
“Forensic science frees the innocent and provides justice for victims,” said Crapo. “This work delivers the scientific truth to the criminal justice system. The Idaho State Police is a leader and shining example of the significance of these essential services. This Senate Resolution acknowledges their invaluable efforts and the efforts of all forensic scientists around the nation.”
“America’s justice system relies on accurate forensic science,” said Padilla. “That’s why I’ve partnered with Senators Crapo and Risch in this bipartisan effort to highlight the critical role of partnerships between forensic science laboratories and federal agencies in protecting public safety and fighting injustice.”
“National Forensic Science Week recognizes the critical work done to convict dangerous criminals, provide closure for victims, and free the innocent,” said Risch. “Thank you to the forensic scientists in Idaho and across the country who do this important work for our criminal justice system.”
“Forensic science practitioners provide vital information to the United States criminal justice system,” said Matthew Gammette, Idaho State Police Forensic Services Laboratory System Director. “We appreciate the support of the United States Senate, and specifically our Senators from Idaho, in recognizing the important contributions of forensic scientists to advance the science in forensic science, provide critical information to law enforcement and the courts, and to bring resolution to victims of crime and their families. We appreciate the support of Congress in funding forensic science providers, including medical examiner and coroner offices, to assist them in being more efficient, effective, and innovative in solving forensic science cases.”
NASA and the U.S. Department of Education are teaming up to engage students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education during after-school hours. The interagency program aims to reach approximately 1,000 students in more than 60 sites across 10 states to join the program, 21st Century Community Learning Centers. “Together with the Education Department, NASA aims to create a brighter future for the next generation of explorers,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “We are committed to supporting after-school programs across the country with the tools they need to engage students in the excitement of NASA. Through STEM education investments like this, we aspire to ignite curiosity, nurture potential, and inspire our nation’s future researchers and explorers, and innovators.” On Monday, NASA and the Education Department kicked off the program at the Wheatley Education Campus in Washington. Students had an opportunity to hear about the interagency collaboration from Kris Brown, deputy associate administrator, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, and Cindy Marten, deputy secretary, Education Department, as well as participate in an engineering design challenge. “The 21st Century Community Learning Centers will provide a unique opportunity to inspire students through hands-on learning and real-world problem solving,” said Brown. “By engaging with in learning opportunities with NASA scientists and engineers, students will not only develop the critical thinking and creativity needed to tackle the challenges of tomorrow, but also discover the joy of learning.” “Through this collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education and NASA, we are unlocking limitless opportunities for students to explore, innovate, and thrive in STEM fields,” said Marten. “The 21st Century Community Learning Centers play a pivotal role in making this vision a reality by providing essential after-school programs that ignite curiosity and empower the next generation of thinkers, problem-solvers, and explorers. Together, we are shaping the future of education and space exploration, inspiring students to reach for the stars.” NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland will provide NASA-related content and academic projects for students, in-person staff training, continuous program support, and opportunities for students to engage with NASA scientists and engineers. Through engineering design challenges, students will use their creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to help solve real-world challenges that NASA engineers and scientists may face. In May 2023, NASA and the Education Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding, strengthening collaboration between the two agencies, and expanding efforts to increase access to high-quality STEM and space education to students and schools across the nation. NASA Glenn signed a follow-on Space Act Agreement in 2024 to support the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. The program, managed by the Education Department and funded by Congress, is the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to afterschool programs. Learn more about how NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement is inspiring the next generation of explorers at: https://www.nasa.gov/stem -end- Abbey DonaldsonHeadquarters, Washington202-269-1600abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov Jacqueline MinerdGlenn Research Center, Cleveland216-433-6036jacqueline.minerd@nasa.gov
Source: Australian Government – Antarctic Division
Over the next decades to centuries, will melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) – Earth’s largest ice mass – cause global sea level to rise by five metres, two metres or less? It’s a difficult question to answer. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean environment is dynamic and unpredictable. This means that there is uncertainty in our understanding of the behaviour of the AIS and what this means for future sea-level rise. Now scientists from Australia, the United States and Canada, have identified actions that will help reduce uncertainties about the future behaviour of the ice sheet and sea-level rise projections. Their work will also guide research to reduce the uncertainties faced by policymakers, decision-makers and communities needing to plan and adapt to a changing world.
Sources of uncertainty The team of researchers, led by Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi, reviewed research on the key processes and potential feedbacks that can accelerate AIS retreat. “We examined how Antarctica will contribute to sea-level change in the coming decades to centuries and where the uncertainties lie that make it difficult to project future behaviour of the ice sheet,” Dr Galton-Fenzi said. “Then we looked at what processes and regions should be the focus of future scientific research to reduce these uncertainties.” If the AIS were to completely melt, global sea levels would rise by about 58 metres. The huge East Antarctic Ice Sheet (covering two thirds of the continent) would contribute about 52 metres of this sea-level rise, while the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula would make up the rest. In the simplest terms, the Antarctic Ice Sheet grows due to snowfall that compresses into ice, and shrinks due to iceberg calving and melting from beneath the ice shelves. However, there are many complex interactions and feedback mechanisms involved in these physical processes and how the ice moves that make it difficult to predict ice sheet behaviour. Critical thresholds if they are crossed can dramatically amplify the contribution of Antarctica to sea-level rise. Also contributing to the uncertainty are limitations with current climate and ice sheet models in simulating these physical processes and feedback mechanisms, and a lack of data that can capture physical processes at the right time and spatial scales. Sea-level rise is also uneven across the globe due to what are known as “gravitational, rotational and deformational effects”. “When the Antarctic Ice Sheet loses mass from ice melting into the ocean, it weakens the gravitational pull of the continent, causing the sea level to drop close to the continent, but rise in more distant locations,” Dr Galton-Fenzi said. “The loss of ice mass and the redistribution of water in the ocean also cause changes in the rotation and shape of the Earth, which adds to the spatial variability in sea level.” Areas for action Among the priority areas for future research identified by the team are high resolution measurements focused on regions thought to be particularly vulnerable to rapid change, to better understand the physical processes impacting on the ice sheet. Improved understanding based on these observations can then be used to improve models and analytical tools which, in turn, improve projections of sea-level rise that can inform effective policy decisions. “By reducing the uncertainties associated with the Antarctic Ice Sheet and sea-level rise, we’ll give policymakers and decision-makers better information to develop coastal planning measures, resilient infrastructure and adaption strategies,” Dr Galton-Fenzi said. “Interdisciplinary and international collaboration, particularly in regions vulnerable to rapid retreat in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, will enhance our overall research quality and accelerate progress in reducing the level of uncertainty.” The research will appear in Antarctica and the Earth System, published by Taylor & Francis Group, in early 2025. More information
Galton-Fenzi, B.K., Gold, M. and Souter, D. (2024) Outlook for Policy Makers: The Antarctic Ice Sheet and Sea Level, Australian Antarctic Division Data Centre. [PDF link below] Opening the floodgates – a science briefing on Antarctica and sea-level rise Galton-Fenzi, B.K., H. A. Fricker, J.N. Bassis, A.J. Crawford, N. Gomez and C. Schoof. (In press, 2025) The Antarctic Ice Sheet and sea level: contemporary changes and future projections, in M. Meredith, J. Melbourne-Thomas, M. Raphael and A. Naveira Garabato (eds), “Antarctica and Planet Earth”, Taylor & Francis Group. (Link when published: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003406471)
This content was last updated 1 minute ago on 24 September 2024.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Colin Allred (TX-32)
Building Chips in America Act would support billions in domestic manufacturing investments by streamlining federal reviews
Washington, D.C. – Today, a bill co-led by Congressman Colin Allred (D-TX-32), theBuilding Chips in America Actpassed the House with bipartisan support. Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) also helped lead the House bill along with a bipartisan coalition of 5 total members who introduced the legislation together. It ensures federal environmental reviews are completed in a timely manner for microchip projects supported by the CHIPS and Science Act by streamlining approval for projects currently under construction and others that could be delayed. The bill also adds tools to more effectively and efficiently carry out reviews. This will maximize the opportunity to bring microchip manufacturing back to America while ensuring we maintain protections for clean air and water.
“The CHIPS Act is a huge opportunity for Texas and the nation to invest in microchip manufacturing and grow the semiconductor industry, but to do that we must ensure these projects can get approved quickly,”said Allred. “The CHIPS Act is already creating thousands of jobs across our great state. I am proud our legislation passed the House and is now on track to become law. We can do big things if we work together, and I look forward to this legislation continuing to create jobs and deliver for Texas.”
The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk. It was also led in the House by Congresswoman Jen Kiggans (R-VA-02), Congressman Scott Peters (D-CA-50), and Congressman Brandon Williams (R-NY-22). TheBuilding Chips in America Actwas led in the Senate by U.S. Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Todd Young (R-IN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
Allredchampioned the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, and now, following the passage of the landmark bill, the Department of Commerce has announced billions in federal investments to support domestic manufacturing projects in Texas. Including $6.4 billion for Samsung in Taylor, $1.6 billion forTexas Instruments in North Texasand $400 million for GlobalWafers in Sherman, TX and Missouri.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Garcia (CA-25)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Rep. Mike Garcia’s (CA-27) ANCHOR Act, H.R. 7630, a bipartisan bill co-led by Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI-11), passed the House unanimously. This critical legislation facilitates much-needed cybersecurity and telecommunications upgrades for the 17 oceanographic vessels in the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, including three based in California.
“These ships are vital to our national security and environmental research, but they’re outdated and vulnerable to rising cyber threats from adversaries like Russia and China,” said Rep. Garcia. “The ANCHOR Act is about securing these vessels and making sure they can continue their important missions—whether it’s studying our oceans or supporting our national defense—for years to come.”
The ANCHOR Act directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a detailed plan within one year to modernize the fleet’s cybersecurity and telecommunications systems and implement it within the following two years and report back to Congress.
“These vessels have already made significant discoveries, like locating WWII-era munitions off the Los Angeles coast,” said Rep. Garcia. “We’re protecting not just our oceans, but our national interests and future research, ensuring America stays at the forefront of global innovation.”
The ANCHOR Act is endorsed by leading research institutions, including Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and marks a major step forward in securing the tools and technologies critical to our nation’s research and security.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (Virginia 4th District)
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04),a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee,voted in support of H.R. 8958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Reauthorization Act of 2024.
The NASA Reauthorization Act provides support and direction for NASA’s civil space activities, including directing human space exploration initiatives like the Artemis and Moon to Mars Programs; maximizing utilization and productivity of the International Space Station; investing in technology development to support America’s space innovation; and cultivating scientific discovery and expansion of humankind’s collective knowledge.
“The House Science Committee advanced the NASA Reauthorization Act unanimously to support our nation’s continued innovation and leadership in space exploration,”said Congresswoman McClellan.“I’m thrilled to have secured important provisions in this legislation, including my Celestial Time Standardization Act, the ACERO Act, and my amendment to ensure the agency can address PFAS water contamination in the Town of Chincoteague near the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. I urge my Senate colleagues to pass this legislation expeditiously and look forward to President Biden signing it into law.”
The final version of the bill included the following priorities championed by McClellan:
H.R. 8837, theCelestial Time Standardization Act:The legislation directs NASA to lead the development of a celestial time standard to improve interoperability in space exploration and further establish American leadership in standards setting.
H.R. 8118, theAdvanced Capabilities for Emergency Response to Operations (ACERO) Act:The bipartisan legislation, co-led by Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA-27), will codify and expand the existing ACERO Project at NASA to enhance the use of manned and unmanned firefighting technologies to support firefighters and protect our communities.
Chincoteague Well Replacement:Authorizes NASA to plan to enter into an agreement with the Town of Chincoteague to reimburse costs associated with replacing PFAS-contaminated drinking water wells.
The House passed H.R. 8658 on a vote of 366 Yays, 21 Nays, 1 Present Vote.Read the NASA Reauthorizationfact sheet,section-by-section summary, andfull bill text.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
FS continues to visit Madrid, Spain (with photos/video) FS continues to visit Madrid, Spain (with photos/video) *******************************************************
The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, continued his visit to Madrid, Spain, yesterday (September 23, Madrid time). Mr Chan visited the Plenary of the City Council of Madrid yesterday and met with its President, Mr Francisco de Borja Fanjul Fernández-Pita. They exchanged views on strengthening co-operation between the two places. Mr Chan presented the latest developments in Hong Kong across various sectors and noted that, with staunch support from the Central Government, the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement will continue to be implemented in Hong Kong in the long run. He emphasised that Hong Kong will maintain an international, open and friendly business environment practising the common law. Mr Chan expressed hope for enhancing mutually beneficial co-operation in areas such as finance, innovation and technology (I&T), culture, and education. He also welcomed Spanish enterprises to invest in Hong Kong and leverage it to explore the vast markets of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, broader Mainland China, and Asia. In the afternoon, Mr Chan called on the Chinese Ambassador to Spain, Mr Yao Jing. Mr Chan briefed Ambassador Yao the latest situation in Hong Kong, as well as its development direction and strategies. They had in-depth exchanges on topics including economic and trade co-operation between China and Spain, and promoting collaboration in business and I&T between Hong Kong and Spain. Mr Chan then met with Mr José Moisés Martín Carretero, the Director General of the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación (CDTI). The CDTI provides funding support for projects aligned with Spain’s I&T development strategy, and promotes technological co-operation between Spain and other countries and regions. Mr Chan highlighted the progress Hong Kong has made in recent years by investing substantially in I&T, and presented the support provided by Hong Kong’s full-spectrum financial services to I&T enterprises and projects at various development stages. They also exchanged ideas on strengthening co-operation on technology projects and the matching of funds with projects. In the morning, Mr Chan led the delegation of technology startups to visit Wayra, one of Spain’s innovation accelerators and venture capital funds, where he met with its investment team leaders. Through its global network, Wayra helps startups connect with technology and capital worldwide and provides guidance to expand their markets. During the meeting, Wayra’s technology and investment teams introduced the organisation’s operations and development strategies, and both sides discussed ways to promote mutual co-operation. Mr Chan expressed hope that the visit would facilitate better connections between the I&T ecosystems of both places and create more practical collaboration opportunities for their startups. The Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), Dr Peter Lam; the Executive Director of the HKTDC, Ms Margaret Fong; the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Science and Techlogy Parks Corporation, Mr Albert Wong; the Chief Public Mission Officer of Cyberport, Mr Eric Chan, and the Special Representative for Hong Kong Economic and Trade Affairs to the European Union, Miss Shirley Yung, participated in all or parts of the visit above. Mr Chan will continue his visit in Madrid today (September 24, Madrid time), including attending a themed business luncheon organised by the HKTDC to promote Hong Kong’s advantages to local political, business, financial, and innovation communities.
Ends/Tuesday, September 24, 2024Issued at HKT 9:00