Category: 3. Business

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.2% last financial year, in what the Albanese government says is the largest annual drop due to reduced fossil fuel use outside the Covid-19 pandemic.

About half of the 9.9m tonnes reduction was due to an increase in solar and wind generation pushing coal-fired power out of the system, according to new government data to be released on Thursday.

Pollution from power generation dropped 3.3%, or 5m tonnes, as the proportion of electricity from renewable energy across the year reached more than 40%. It reversed a brief rise in climate pollution from the power sector in the previous year.

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There were smaller emissions reductions from underground coalmines, heavy industry, farming and households burning gas for heating and cooking.

But pollution from transport continued to increase due to greater use of diesel-power vehicles and more people taking domestic flights.

The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, was expected to use an annual climate statement to parliament on Thursday to argue the data showed Labor’s policies since its election in 2022 were having an impact on the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere.

The Coalition and the Greens have argued otherwise: that pollution had either increased under Labor or was flatlining.

Assessing the true picture has been difficult due to the impact of Covid-19 shutdowns, which resulted in a sharp artificial drop in the two years before Albanese came to office, and led to a rebound once restrictions were lifted.

It is unlikely the drop in emissions will be enough to put Australia on track to meet its climate targets.

According to the latest data, annual emissions to June were 437.5m tonnes – 28.5% below 2005 levels.

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It is expected that an emissions projection report, also to be released on Thursday, will estimate the government’s policies will leave it short but still within reach of where it needs to be to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels.

The Climate Change Authority last year estimated reaching the target would require emissions to be cut by 15m tonnes a year over the next five years.

The projections report will show the government is much further behind meeting its recently announced 2035 target – a cut of between 62% and 70% below 2005 levels.

It means Labor will need to revamp existing policies and introduce new measures to get to even the bottom end of this commitment.

In a statement on the emissions data, Bowen said the government’s policies, including a renewable energy underwriting program and a home battery subsidy, meant the government was on track to reduce energy bills and meet its climate targets “if we stay the course and continue to lift our efforts”. He said renewable energy provided more than half the electricity in the national grid in October.

The reports released on Thursday do not include the emissions that result overseas from Australian coal and gas exports. A 2024 analysis found Australia ranked second behind only Russia for exported emissions.

Recommendations Highlight Significant Benefits and Value Creation Opportunity
for Teck Shareholders

Teck’s Board of Directors Unanimously Recommends Teck Shareholders
Vote “FOR” the Merger TODAY

Vancouver, B.C. – November 26, 2025 – Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) (“Teck”) today announced that independent proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis & Co. (“Glass Lewis”) have recommended that Teck shareholders vote “FOR” the Company’s merger of equals (the “Merger”) with Anglo American plc (“Anglo American”).  As previously announced, Teck has scheduled a special meeting of shareholders on December 9, 2025 (the “Meeting”).

In their reports dated November 26, 2025, and November 21, 2025, respectively, ISS and Glass Lewis stated:

• ISS: “The arrangement makes strategic sense in light of the anticipated synergies, strategic benefits, and opportunity for additional upside through ownership in the combined company. The universe of potential buyers is limited, the board actively explored alternative transaction structures in order to maximize shareholder value, shareholders are expected to benefit from increased liquidity and stronger financial position for the combined company, and the market reaction has been positive.”
   
• Glass Lewis: “Overall, the strategic merits of the combination appear well supported by the scale, asset quality and long-term copper growth profile of the combined company. If successfully executed, the merger positions Anglo Teck as a financially stronger and more resilient producer with meaningful upside from operational integration and future development opportunities…On balance, we believe the transaction presents a compelling strategic opportunity for Teck shareholders.”

“The Teck Board has determined that a merger of equals with Anglo American is the best path forward for Teck shareholders and all stakeholders,” said Jonathan Price, President and CEO. “The recent recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis further affirm this view. This merger is a unique opportunity to build a new global critical minerals champion headquartered in Canada with increased scale, a world-class portfolio of copper and critical minerals assets, and enormous growth potential. We are confident the transaction will drive significant value creation and encourage all Teck shareholders to vote for the merger.”

Teck Shareholders Encouraged to Vote Ahead of the Proxy Deadline
Teck shareholders of record as of the close of business on October 20, 2025, should vote “FOR” the Merger now and can advance vote up to the proxy voting deadline of 11:00 a.m. PST, December 5, 2025.

Teck’s notice of meeting, management information circular and other related Meeting materials  have been mailed to shareholders and can also be accessed online on Teck’s website at www.Teck.com/reports and under Teck’s issuer profiles on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

Any shareholder who has questions about how to vote should contact our proxy solicitation agents:

Shareholders Located in Canada

Laurel Hill Advisory Group
Toll-Free: 1-877-452-7184
Text Message: 1-416-304-0211
Email: assistance@laurelhill.com

Shareholders Located Outside of Canada

Innisfree M&A Incorporated
US Toll Free: 1-877-750-0510
Outside US: +1-412-232-3651
Banks and Brokers: 1-212-750-5833

The Merger, which was announced in September 2025, is subject to shareholder approvals and customary closing conditions, including approval under the Investment Canada Act and applicable competition and regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions globally.

Shareholder Support for the Merger
In addition to the unanimous support of the Teck Board of Directors, the Merger is supported by Temagami Mining Company Limited, SMM Resources Incorporated, Dr. Norman B. Keevil and the directors and executive leadership team of Teck, who have collectively agreed to vote shares representing approximately 79.8% of the issued and outstanding Teck Class A common shares and approximately 0.02% of the issued and outstanding Teck Class B subordinate voting shares (as of the record date for the Meeting) in favour of the Merger at the Meeting.

Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively referred to as forward-looking statements). These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words “anticipate”, “can”, “could”, “plan”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “may”, “will”, “would”, “project”, “predict”, “likely”, “potential”, “should”, “believe” and similar expressions is intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the anticipated benefits and synergies from the proposed Merger, the expected effects of the Merger on Anglo American and Teck, future production levels, the expected timing of completion of the Merger, and other statements that are not historical facts.

These statements are based on a number of assumptions, including, but not limited to, assumptions regarding general business and economic conditions, future outlook and anticipated events, such as the ability of Anglo American and Teck to complete the Merger, the ability of Teck and Anglo American to obtain all required regulatory and court approvals, the ability of Teck and Anglo American to obtain their respective shareholder approvals for the Merger, the ability of Teck and Anglo American to satisfy all other conditions to the Merger, the strategic vision of the merger between Teck and Anglo American following the closing of the Merger, expectations regarding exploration, production and operational potential, expectations with respect to production capabilities and future financial or operating performance of Teck and Anglo American following the Merger, expectations with respect to Teck’s current production and cost guidance and previously disclosed updates, the potential valuation of the merger of Teck and Anglo American, the expected synergies between Teck and Anglo American, the expected revenue from the synergies between Teck and Anglo American, expectations regarding integration and synergy capture; the accuracy of the pro forma financial position and outlook of Teck and Anglo American following the closing of the Merger, the success of the new board and management team, the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the Merger, the future financial or operating performance of the merged Teck and Anglo American, the expected EBITDA uplift, the expectations around the headquarters of the combined entity being in Canada, the expectations of the results and success of the Investment Canada Act commitments, the expectations with respect to receiving Investment Canada Act approval, the assumptions surrounding the proposed Investment Canada Act commitments, the expectations with respect to the proposed investments by the combined company in Canada, the potential of Teck and Anglo American following the Merger to meet industry target, public profile expectations, future plans, projections, objectives, estimates and forecasts and the timing related thereto and the expectations surrounding the combined companies long-term strategy. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. Events or circumstances could cause actual results to vary materially.

Forward-looking information is based on the information available at the time those statements are made and are of good faith belief of the officers and directors of Teck and Anglo American as of the time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the Forward-looking information. Factors that may cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, the possibility that the Merger will not be completed on the terms and conditions, or on the timing, currently contemplated, and that it may not be completed at all, due to a failure to obtain or satisfy, in a timely manner or otherwise, required regulatory, shareholder and court approvals and other conditions to the closing of the Merger or for other reasons, the risk that competing offers or acquisition proposals will be made, public perception of the Merger, market reaction to the Merger, the negative impact that the failure to complete the Merger for any reason could have on the business of Anglo American or Teck, the ability of Anglo American and Teck to successfully integrate and capture expected synergies, general economic and market conditions, including interest and foreign exchange rates, global financial markets, changes in government regulations or in tax laws, industry competition, technological developments and other factors described or discussed in Anglo American’s or Teck’s disclosure materials filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time.

Teck assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required under securities laws. Further information concerning risks, assumptions and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements, the Merger and Teck’s business can be found in Teck’s management information circular in respect of the Meeting filed under Teck’s profile on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and on EDGAR (www.sec.gov).

About Teck
Teck is a leading Canadian resource company focused on responsibly providing metals essential to economic development and the energy transition. Teck has a portfolio of world-class copper and zinc operations across North and South America and an industry-leading copper growth pipeline. We are focused on creating value by advancing responsible growth and ensuring resilience built on a foundation of stakeholder trust. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Teck’s shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols TECK.A and TECK.B and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TECK. Learn more about Teck at www.teck.com or follow @TeckResources.

Investor Contact:
Emma Chapman
Vice President, Investor Relations
+44.207.509.6576
emma.chapman@teck.com

Media Contact:
Dale Steeves
Director, External Communications
236.987.7405
dale.steeves@teck.com

 

25-32-TR

Online casinos and bookmakers will pay billions of pounds more in tax under a steep rise in duties levied on their takings from British gamblers.

In her second budget as chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced duty changes expected to raise an extra £1.1bn a year by 2029-30, raiding a fast-growing sector that made £12.6bn from punters last year.

Shares in UK gambling firms began tumbling even before Reeves announced the change in her budget, after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – which assesses the likely impact of tax changes – accidentally published a document confirming that the industry had been singled out for higher taxes.

By the end of the day three major gambling companies, Rank Group, Evoke and Entain, had either revised down profit forecasts or warned of major job losses.

The boss of Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, said the company was “deeply appalled” by changes that it says will shave £150m off underlying profit by 2027. The industry’s lobby group – the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) – lamented a “devastating hammer blow” for the sector.

The most eye-catching change is a near doubling of remote gaming duty (RGD), levied on online casinos, rising from 21% to 40% next April. The rise is higher than many investors and industry sources had expected.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury select committee, said Reeves had rightly refused to bow to industry “scaremongering”, something her committee had accused lobbyists of in a report earlier this month.

“Some parts of the gambling industry, such as racecourses and bingo halls, make a cultural contribution to our country,” she said. “This is not the case, though, for online slots and other remote gaming, which can quickly drain the bank balances of vulnerable people after just a few clicks of a button on a phone.

“It’s reassuring to see that the chancellor agrees with us on this and I look forward to discussing it further with her when she appears in front of us in December.”

General betting duty, levied on sports bets, will rise from 15% to 25% for wagers placed online from April 2027, but there will be no change for bets placed in high street bookmakers.

Bets on horse racing – a sport that relies heavily on income from gambling firms – will be exempted from the increase. Bingo duty of 10% will be abolished from April.

Reeves said she was targeting online gambling because it was “associated with the highest levels of harm”. However, she did not increase machine gaming duty, charged on income from high-street slot machines, which are also linked to high rates of addiction.

Leading figures from the gambling industry, including company chief executives and lobbyists, claim that an increase on the scale announced by the chancellor will cost jobs and ultimately damage the economy.

Grainne Hurst, the chief executive of the BGC, said the increases were a “devastating hammer blow to tens of thousands of people working in the industry”.

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She said: “The government’s budget is a massive win for the incredibly harmful, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market, which pays no tax and offers none of the protections that exist in the regulated sector.”

The government said it would allocate an extra £26m over three years to help the Gambling Commission tackle the illicit market.

Shares in the heavily indebted London-listed Evoke, which owns the 888 and William Hill brands, plunged by more than 18% on news of the changes but Rank (up 10%) and Entain (up 3.4%) both enjoyed an increase potentially on the basis that Rank would benefit from the abolition of bingo duty, while both could prosper if smaller rivals, unable to cope with duty rises, are forced out of the UK.

However, all three companies warned of a financial hit in statements to investors after the London Stock Exchange closed. Entain expects underlying profit to fall by £100m next year and £150m the year after, although it expects to gain market share. Evoke, which owns William Hill and 888, predicted extra duty costs of £135m, while Rank forecast a £40m hit to operating profit.

The OBR said it expected the changes to raise an extra £1.1bn a year for the Treasury by 2029-30. The figure would be higher, at £1.8bn, but the government expects some customers to bet less and admits that others are likely to switch to the illicit market, as the extra duty is passed on to consumers in the form of less attractive odds and bonuses.

Reeves explicitly linked the increase to the government’s decision to lift the two-child cap on child benefit, listing the duty rise among the measures that funded the latter decision.

The former prime minister and chancellor Gordon Brown previously called for a larger increase in duties, raising about £3bn, to pay for lifting children out of poverty.

The Nokia Foundation’s purpose is to support the scientific development of information and communication technologies and to promote education in the sector in Finland. Nokia Foundation provides scholarships and awards for this mission. The Foundation was established on the initiative of Nokia Oyj in 1995; it is an independent, non-profit organization under Finnish foundation law. https://nokiafoundation.com/

 

About Nokia

Nokia is a global leader in connectivity for the AI era. With expertise across fixed, mobile, and transport networks, we’re advancing connectivity to secure a brighter world.

 

BBC

You’re probably reading this article on a phone or laptop containing more than 30 different metals. Some will be common: aluminium casing, copper wires. But other metals are less familiar and much more scarce. Each iPhone contains less than a gram of lithium, for instance, but would not function without it.

We are in the midst of a geopolitically charged race for lithium and other so-called critical minerals. These materials are crucial for renewable energy, transport, data centres, aerospace and defence, among other things, and the transition to net zero will place unprecedented pressure on their supplies.

Accordingly, the UK has just published a new Critical Minerals Strategy, identifying 34 of these raw materials as essential for national security and the economy. Meeting demand for them will be a monumental challenge.

Take copper: even though it is a well-established commodity, in the coming decades the world will need more of it than has ever been mined in human history. Yet opening a new mine takes a decade and costs billions.

Other minerals, such as cobalt or the 17 “rare earth elements”, present a different problem: supplies are concentrated in countries with competing strategic interests or developing nations, and can be hard to access.

For instance, most high-performance magnets – including those in wind turbines – use the rare earth neodymium, and the vast majority currently comes from China. The metal cobalt is used in batteries: about half of the world’s reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Historically, mining has caused significant social and environmental harm in host countries – frequently developing nations – while delivering most of the benefits to consumers in wealthier countries.

Wealthier countries could just turn a blind eye to those harms, but there is a growing awareness of the impact of mining. This, combined with the concentration of supplies in certain countries, creates a challenge for places like the UK, which don’t have critical mineral resources.

Disruptive technologies

New extraction technologies are emerging in the UK and elsewhere. While some companies are making progress with “green mining” – using electric vehicles and renewable energy – the most promising solutions are more radical.

One new avenue is recovering geothermal energy alongside critical minerals. The hot fluids beneath ancient volcanoes can be rich in lithium, gold, silver and other critical elements, with each volcanic system offering its own distinct mix of resources.

Tapping into this heat can offer a double benefit: clean energy and useful minerals. In Cornwall, south-west England, there are plans to do this at a reopened lithium mine.

Synthetic biology is another exciting development. This involves scientists modifying microbe DNA to selectively scavenge specific elements from their surroundings, such as battery waste and sewage sludge. These micro-organisms could recover resources even in extreme environments.

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Read more:
As mining returns to Cornwall, lithium ambitions tussle with local heritage

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Circular resources

Making better use of the resources we already have is essential. This goes beyond traditional recycling to develop new ways to turn by-products and discarded materials into valuable resources, while simultaneously cleaning up legacy pollution.

For example, mining tailings and coal fly ash contain recoverable metals, and innovative “smart” minerals and microbes can be harnessed to extract them.

However, recycling alone won’t meet future demand. Many metals, while highly recyclable, remain in use for decades before re-entering the supply chain. Take nickel, for instance. It’s an important battery metal, but can stay in circulation for 30 years or more, limiting its availability in the short term.

Mining that does not curse the locals

Future mining must avoid the “resource curse” – the paradox where resource-rich countries often fail to benefit fully from their own mineral wealth. Principles for a new approach should include investment in local industries in producer countries so they can make batteries and magnets, not just export ore.

They should also require genuine community engagement, giving mining de facto permission and acceptance from locals. This unwritten set of positive (or at least tolerant) attitudes is sometimes termed the “social licence” to operate – and without it, mining operations can fail.

Mining companies should promote best practices with regard to the environment, health and safety, and workers rights. Regulators need to enforce environmental protection with teeth, including rewilding and ecosystem restoration after a mine has been emptied.

The mining industry has a bad reputation for a reason, with a history of high-profile environmental disasters. The growing emphasis on environmental, social and governance criteria for investors is encouraging, and may help deliver change.

The UK government’s new strategy outlines promising goals on domestic development, the circular economy and supply chain resilience – but its measures of success don’t match the ambition. Its support for innovation is also cautious and focuses on established approaches. What’s needed is an entirely new way of thinking about how to secure these resources.

This means recovering materials from new sources, using them more wisely, ensuring mining communities benefit, and cleaning up environmental damage. It also means building resilient supply chains that can withstand a major change of government, an economic crash, or some other geopolitical shock.

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Pets at Home is in the doghouse. And not the padded fabric kind found on the retailer’s own shelves. The UK purveyor of pet food, supplies and medicine is getting mauled: in the past six months, pre-tax profit at its retail business, which makes up around two-thirds of revenue, the rest coming from sales to vets, fell by over 80 per cent.

Dog demographics are not on Pets At Home’s side. The great pandemic pet boom created a surge in demand for beds, collars, crates and treats as new owners kitted out a new generation of companions. Those mollycoddled pups have aged into a cohort of adults requiring less in the way of maintenance. The overall dog market is about flat in sales terms, the company posits, accessories suffering more than food. 

The decline in Pets At Home’s revenue suggests it is faring worse than the average, and gross profitability has been dented by competition. The problem, it would appear, is that canines have fashion trends too, which Pets At Home has misjudged.

In accessories — theoretically the business with the highest gross margins — online rivals such as Amazon and Temu are tough to beat on price, analysts at RBC note. Both, along with online pet platforms like Pets Corner and the US’s Chewy, are nimbler in spotting the next big thing, be it GPS-enabled collars or smart feeders.

Meanwhile, dog food is no longer just dried pellets. It can be raw, freeze-dried, insect-based or probiotic. Startups like Butternut Box and The Farmer’s Dog, which offer a subscription-based experience, and Tuggs, which produces insect-based food, have turned pet food into a lifestyle choice. Online platforms are aggressively staking a claim on that market too. 

Pets At Home is partly to blame for its woes. Investing in food and accessory innovation might get sales growing again. As the pandemic pet generation ages, demographics should become more favourable: more supplements and orthopaedic dog beds.

The challenges Pets At Home faces are not dissimilar to those of High Street fashion retailers, struggling to compete with cheaper and quicker internet giants. The group’s valuation, at less than one times this year’s forecast revenue according to S&P Capital IQ, reflects that.

Across the Atlantic, shares in US petcare chain Petco have slumped nearly 90 per cent in five years. Pets are easy to love; listed pet stores, it turns out, not so much.

gaia.freydefont@ft.com