구름이 피어나는 소리

정부가 원전 2기 추가 건설 계획을 발표한 가운데 지구 반대편 아프리카 대륙에서는 신재생에너지 실험이 연승을 이어가고 있다는 소식이 전해져왔습니다. 경제 규모나 자연환경상 다른 선택을 할 수 밖에 없는 것이 각자의 현실이겠지만, 잠재력 가득한 검은 대륙이 신재생에너지를 발판 삼아 화석연료를 건너 뛰고 돌파구를 만들어가는 것이 마냥 신기하고 부럽기만 합니다. 얼마 전 인도가 모바일로 전화기를 건너 뛴 것과 같은 것이겠지요. 기술도 기술이지만 중간 단계를 과감히 건너 뛰는 판단력과 의지가 대단할 따름입니다. 이 선택으로 에너지저장장치(ESS)와 전선 회사들의 희비가 갈리지 않을까 싶네요. 아래는 소식을 전한 The Economist 기사 요약본입니다. 아프리카 대륙에 행운이 함께하기를... 우엉우엉. 남아공..

SOUTH-EAST ASIA’S low-cost airlines have gone from feast to famine. Cheap, short-haul, no-frills flying came late to the region, but people have taken to it eagerly. In just ten years, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), a research firm in Sydney, low-cost carriers’ share of the region’s aviation market has soared from almost nothing to 58%. In Europe, where cheap airlines ..

Road crashes now kill 1.3m people a year, more than malaria or tuberculosis. On present trends, by 2030 they will take a greater toll than the two together, and greater even than HIV/AIDS. The vast majority of victims die in poor and middle-income countries—1.2m in 2011, compared with 99,000 in rich ones. ... Most crash victims are boys and working-age men. Their death or maiming leaves families..

Stephan Kippe of Commerzbank says that at least under Mr Heitmann the company has built a promising suite of products; what it needs now is a disciplined manager to cut costs. That is where Mr Zachert comes in: Mr Kippe thinks that whereas the departing boss talked of shedding 1,000 or so jobs (of a total workforce of 17,500), the new chief will be more “radical”. He will need to be. The German ..

Assuming the deal is allowed, it is likely to intensify the ad industry’s consolidation. Last year Dentsu, a Japanese advertising firm, bought Aegis Group for $4.8 billion. WPP, not used to second place, may seek to regain the top spot by making acquisitions. Its boss, Martin Sorrell, said further big mergers in the industry were “inevitable”. However much the traditional agency groups bulk them..

Mr Isenberg(Daniel Isenberg) has two important bits of advice for policymakers who genuinely want to foster entrepreneurship. First, they should remove barriers to entry, and growth, for all sorts of business, rather than seeking to build particular types of clusters. Second, they should recognise the importance of the profit motive. There has been much fancy talk of “social entrepreneurship”—ha..

In wonkish circles, energy efficiency used to be known as “the fifth fuel”: it can help to satisfy growing demand for energy just as surely as coal, gas, oil or uranium can. But in these environmentally conscious times it has been climbing the rankings. Whereas the burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, and nuclear plants generate life-threatening ..

In the days when CSR was just about public relations, it was probably bad for the reputation of business in general. Companies seemed to concede that profitmaking was a bad thing. Too often, they bowed to anti-business activists and made “amends” through good works. Today’s iteration of CSR is less self-abasing and more constructive. It is encouraging businesses to become more frugal in their us..