World leaders agreed last year to curb emissions and limit the rise in global temperature to 2°C. Global carbon emissions reached a record level last year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The watchdog says emissions rose again after a dip caused by the financial crisis in 2009, and ended 5% up from the previous record in 2008.

China and India account for most of the rise, though emissions have also grown in developed countries.

The increase raises doubts over whether planned curbs on greenhouse emissions will be achieved, the group says.

At a meeting last year in Cancun, Mexico, world leaders agreed that deep cuts were needed to limit the rise in global temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

But according to the IEA’s estimate, CO2 emissions reached a record 30.6 gigatonnes in 2010.

The IEA’s Fatih Birol said the finding was “another wake-up call”.

“The world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 if the 2°C target is to be attained,” he added.

“Unless bold and decisive decisions are made very soon, it will be extremely challenging to succeed in achieving this global goal agreed in Cancun.”

Source: BBC

Despite numbers of staff employed by central government falling slightly over the last decade, costs have increased by 10 per cent.

“Work to identify potential savings in central government’s staffing costs has begun, but there are a number of areas of weakness.

“Increasing numbers of higher grade posts have led to much of the recent cost growth. The centre of government needs to review its ability to understand and challenge these management decisions. There is also a lack of a structured approach to delivering the staff cost reduction required across government in the next Spending Review period.

“If these areas of weakness are not dealt with, real risks to value for money remain.” says Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office.

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The government has announced plans to review Tupe regulations, as well as collective redundancy and discrimination compensation, as part of its efforts to reduce the burden of red tape.

The three newly-targeted areas were highlighted by Ed Davey, Minister for Employment Relations, in a speech to the Institute for Economic Affairs. He said that Tupe (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) regulations which protect employees pay and conditions when an organisation is transferred from one owner to another, were being reviewed because some businesses think these rights are gold plated and overly bureaucratic.

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The 2011 Sunday Times Rich List, published this weekend, reveals that the 1,000 wealthiest people in the country are now worth a combined £395.8 billion, equivalent to more than a third of the national debt.

The number of billionaires has risen from 53 to 73, while nine people have seen their fortunes rise by £1 billion or more during the past 12 months alone.

The soaring fortunes of Britain’s wealthiest men and women have put them within striking distance of the pre-recession boom in 2008, when there were 75 billionaires and the 1,000 wealthiest people were worth £413 billion.

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Older workers are more productive not less, finds study Yet ageism is rife as pressure for jobs increases

Older workers are not less productive than younger workers even when their job is physically demanding, new research has revealed. The findings from the study Productivity and Age: Evidence from work teams at the assembly line from researchers at University Mannheim, in Germany, contradicts the belief that older workers performance and ability levels deteriorate with age. It also adds support to the UK government’s decision toabolish the default retirement age of 65 this October.

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The Health System in Transition report on England, by Se¡n Boyle at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), is the most comprehensive overview of the health and social care system in England produced this century. It provides a wealth of detail about all aspects of the health care system, as well as developments in the health of the population.

The report reveals that while public expenditure on health care in England more than doubled between 1997 and 2010, the impact on health system performance has been variable.

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Use coaching to build resilience, HR urged Muster your resources to work through change, says performance consultant

Resilience is the key to success, performance improvement consultant Caron King told the CIPD’s HRD conference in London. It makes the difference between an organisation that is just muddling through and those that are doing really well.

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Grayling: health and safety culture is stifling business The government has announced reforms that will see automatic health and safety inspections cut by a third, and inspections concentrated on high risk workplaces like power plants.

Detailing the reforms today, employment minister Chris Grayling also announced a new register for health and safety consultants to weed out what he called cowboy operators.

He said that unqualified individuals were responsible for many of the UK’s most inappropriate H&S recommendations.

Furthermore, employers found guilty of putting staff or the public at risk will be forced to pay the cost of investigations into their activities.

“Of course it is right to protect employees in the workplace, but Britain’s health and safety culture is also stifling business and holding back economic growth, said Grayling.

The purpose of health and safety regulation is to protect people at work and rightly so. But we need common sense at the heart of the system, and these measures will help root out the needless burden of bureaucracy. “This will help us make Britain a more growth focused, entrepreneurial nation. By reducing unnecessary red tape we can encourage businesses to come and invest in the UK, creating jobs and opportunities when we need them most.”

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Will Hutton’s Fair Pay Review Reporth, calls for new earn back model but rejects caps.

Senior public-sector pay should be reformed to make it more performance-related rather than being capped,

At least 10 per cent of basic pay for top public servants should be held back and only awarded at the end of the year if objectives are met, Hutton said in his government-commissioned report.

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Perverse incentives leading to inferior courses, says Wolf Review

The government should give more funding to employer-led apprenticeships and training and take it away from vocational qualifications that offer nothing to the employability of young people, a report has recommended.

The Wolf Report, published yesterday, criticised the system of vocational education for having perverse incentives that steer colleges and learners into qualifications that have little or no value.

In particular, it called for a shift from the awarding of funding per qualification which encourages courses that are easier to pass towards funding per student, and incentives to ensure that 16 to 19 year olds pass core subjects of English and maths before leaving education.

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