A specialist psychiatric hospital in Inverness has officially been handed over to NHS Highland following the conclusion of a 25-year private finance model. Built in 2000, New Craigs provides care to people across the Highlands with mental illness and learning disabilities.The 234-bed hospital was one of a number of facilities built under a private finance initiative (PFI), with the Robertson Group and Dalmore Investments footing the bill for construction and maintenance in exchange for an annual fee.Construction was estimated to cost £16.5m, however, a BBC investigation in 2023 suggested the health board would end up paying more than £100m to…
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Oil prices jumped Monday after President Trump shortened a timeline on Russia to end the war with Ukraine, and a US-EU trade deal spurred optimism over demand. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) climbed 1.9% to trade above $66 per barrel, and Brent (BZ=F) crude, the international benchmark price, rose to nearly $69 per barrel. The trade accord between the European Union and the US, announced on Sunday, includes $750 billion in EU purchases of American oil and natural gas. Liquified natural gas producers like Cheniere Energy (LNG), NextDecade (NEXT), and Venture Global (VG) all jumped. The 15% tariff deal on US…
The carbon credit system is a cornerstone of global climate policy – supporting the move to net zero by providing incentives for cleaner energy generation/distribution, transportation and manufacturing and lower carbon emissions. The system encourages businesses to reduce their impact on climate Source link
The Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) organisation has restricted local communities’ land access to operate its nature conservancies – which serve as tourist parks and carbon removal projects in which companies like Netflix and Meta invest to offset their emissions. A new report by Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) documents how NRT’s actions have triggered a human rights crisis among Indigenous people.Paris and Brussels, 29 July 2025. In northern Kenya, the landscape of Isiolo County attracts tourists fascinated by the wildlife, but also “green” investments from large companies in search of climate credentials. Yet,…
Buyers should keep an eye on the possibility of rate cuts in the next few months. Tharon Green/CNETFor the past several months, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has sat between 6.5% and 7%. Prospective homebuyers shouldn’t hold their breath for that to change anytime soon.On July 30, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep borrowing rates the same at its fifth monetary policy meeting this year. Although the central bank doesn’t directly dictate mortgage rates, its policy decisions indirectly influence consumer borrowing costs, including for mortgages, over the long term. Mortgage rates, which are primarily tied to 10-year Treasury yields…
Share this: New windowShare on LinkedinNew windowShare on XNew windowShare on FacebookNew windowShare on Email Adaptation cannot wait: why the private sector matters Climate change is already causing severe economic damage globally. A 2024 Oxera study for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world’s business organisation, found that extreme weather events resulted in US$2 trillion in economic losses between 2014-2023, directly affecting 1.6 billion people. Annual damages are rising rapidly, reaching US$451 billion in 2022-2023 alone. Adaptation must match mitigation in urgency – and investing today is critical to reducing escalating future losses. While global mitigation finance hit US$1.3…
Oil prices jumped Monday after President Trump shortened a timeline on Russia to end the war with Ukraine, and a US-EU trade deal spurred optimism over demand. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) climbed 1.9% to trade above $66 per barrel, and Brent (BZ=F) crude, the international benchmark price, rose to nearly $69 per barrel. The trade accord between the European Union and the US, announced on Sunday, includes $750 billion in EU purchases of American oil and natural gas. Liquified natural gas producers like Cheniere Energy (LNG), NextDecade (NEXT), and Venture Global (VG) all jumped. The 15% tariff deal on US…
News Modeling by MSU gives farmers insights into carbon efforts July 28, 2025 By Nicole Heslip Filed Under: Michigan, News Precision modeling research at Michigan State University will help farmers quantify and validate carbon intensity scores. Bruno Basso tells Brownfield, “The dynamic baseline looks at what if you were to maintain the conventional tillage, where would you end up compared to the no tillage and the cover crops and the regenerative practices—it provides farmers with a much more realistic and accurate understanding.” He says the models can single out specific practices and measure their annual impact for carbon markets and 45Z tax…
Spencer Knickerbocker, chief investment officer at Stonebrook Private an Elevation Point partner firm, for one, is preparing for the possibility that interest rates will stay higher for longer. That’s because inflation remains persistent, and the Fed has signaled it’s not in a rush to cut. But what’s equally important and less talked about in his view is what’s happening on the long end of the Treasury curve. “We’re seeing a surge in Treasury issuance at the same time that foreign demand is pulling back, and a weaker dollar is compounding the issue. That combination is putting upward pressure on long-term…
Slow credit growth and weak private investment may restrict acceleration in India’s economic momentum, the finance ministry said on Monday. It also warned that continued uncertainty on the US tariff front might weigh on the country’s trade performance in the coming quarters. As of June 27, the annual credit growth among the scheduled commercial banks was 10.4% compared with 13.9% recorded a year ago. India’s merchandise exports witnessed a modest fall on year at $ 35.14 billion in June. Goods shipments have been either flat or negative in most of the recent months, except April 2025 and October 2024. The…