Business Leaders

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, at their annual meeting last month responded to questions from a rightwing thinktank, saying, "If you want me to do things only for ROI [return on investment] reasons, you should get out of this stock."  Writing on his blog, Virgin Group chairman and founder, Sir Richard Branson, Branson said that businesses should take a stand against climate scepticism. "More businesses should be following Apple's stance in encouraging more investment in sustainability. While Tim [Cook] told sustainability sceptics to 'get out of our stock', I would urge climate change deniers to get out of our way," he said. And the January 11th, 2014 edition of The Economist entitled the economic case for scrapping fossil fuel subsidies is getting stronger. The article goes on to state, "Yet it is not only that the economic cost of subsidies is at a new high. The case for cutting them this year is particularly strong. Countries with high fuel subsidies are more exposed to external shocks, as holding down prices causes their budget deficits to explode, making them vulnerable to rising global interest rates. Cutting subsidies now would help them prepare for when borrowing gets harder as quantitative easing ends. It would also leave more money for growth-boosting policies, such as infrastructure investment".