Category: 3. Business

The European Innovation Council (EIC) is organising an online information session dedicated to EIC Pre-Accelerator on July 23, 2025.

This online info session will present the EIC Pre-Accelerator call – a joint scheme between the European Innovation Council and the Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area (WIDERA) programme funded under the WIDERA Work Programme 2025.

The speakers will present an overview and key features of the scheme and will answer questions from the attendees.

The event will be held in English and recorded. 

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Which airport workers are involved in industrial disputes?

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ERM, the world’s largest specialist sustainability consultancy, has supported SSE and Equinor’s Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project in becoming the first hydrogen-to-power project to receive planning consent in the UK.

ERM supported the planning application process alongside the environmental permitting, safety and marine licensing services it provides to the Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project, which is located within SSE Thermal and Equinor’s existing gas storage site on the East Yorkshire coast.

The project will enable green power to be sourced from the grid through a renewable Power Purchase Agreement. Hydrogen will then be produced via an electrolyser before being stored and then used in a hydrogen-fired open cycle gas turbine, exporting flexible green power back to the grid at times of system need. In future, hydrogen storage will also benefit offtakers in industry, heat and transport sectors.

In addition to the Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project, ERM is supporting the consenting process for the Aldbrough Hydrogen Storage project and the Humber Hydrogen Pipeline project, which will connect regional producers and users to a low carbon hydrogen network.

Russell Cullen, Partner at ERM said: “ERM welcomed the opportunity to support this pioneering project that will pave the way for wider deployment of hydrogen power. We look forward to working further with SSE and Equinor to navigate the energy transition and help the UK deliver on its low-carbon economy ambitions.”

Sally O’Brien, Senior Project Manager on the Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder Project, said: “ERM’s technical expertise helped us deliver a complex planning application that was critical to securing consent for the Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project.”
 

About ERM

Sustainability is our business.

As the world’s largest specialist sustainability consultancy, ERM partners with clients to operationalize sustainability at pace and scale, deploying a unique combination of strategic transformation and technical delivery capabilities. This approach helps clients to accelerate the integration of sustainability at every level of their business.  

With more than 50 years of experience, ERM’s diverse team of 8000+ experts in 40 countries and territories helps clients create innovative solutions to their sustainability challenges, unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations.

Learn more here.   

By Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s budget carrier in March for not timely changing engine parts of an Airbus A320 as directed by the European Union’s aviation safety agency, and falsifying records to show compliance, a government memo showed.

Air India Express told Reuters it acknowledged the error to the Indian watchdog and undertook “remedial action and preventive measures”. Reacting to the Reuters story on Friday, the EU agency said it will investigate the matter.

Air India has been under intense scrutiny since the June Boeing Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad which killed all but one of the 242 people onboard. The world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade is still being investigated.

The engine issue in the Air India Express’ Airbus was raised on March 18, months before the crash. But the regulator has this year also warned parent Air India for breaching rules for flying three Airbus planes with overdue checks on escape slides, and in June warned it about “serious violations” of pilot duty timings.

Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group. It has more than 115 aircraft and flies to more than 50 destinations, with 500 daily flights.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency in 2023 issued an airworthiness directive to address a “potential unsafe condition” on CFM International LEAP-1A engines, asking for replacement of some components such as engine seals and rotating parts, saying some manufacturing deficiencies had been found.

The agency’s directive said “this condition, if not corrected, could lead to failure of affected parts, possibly resulting in high energy debris release, with consequent damage to, and reduced control of, the aeroplane.”

The Indian government’s confidential memo in March sent to the airline, seen by Reuters, said that surveillance by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed the parts modification “was not complied” on an engine of an Airbus A320 “within the prescribed time limit”.

“In order to show that the work has been carried out within the prescribed limits, the AMOS records have apparently been altered/forged,” the memo added, referring to the Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Operating System software used by airlines to manage maintenance and airworthiness.

The mandatory modification was required on Air India Express’ VT-ATD plane, the memo added. That plane typically flies on domestic routes and some international destinations such as Dubai and Muscat, according to the AirNav Radar website.

The lapse “indicates that the accountable manager has failed to ensure quality control,” it added.

Air India Express told Reuters its technical team missed the scheduled implementation date for parts replacement due to the migration of records on its monitoring software, and fixed the problem soon after it was identified.

It did not give dates of compliance or directly address DGCA’s comment about records being altered, but said that after the March memo it took “necessary administrative actions”, which included removing the quality manager from the person’s position and suspending the deputy continuing airworthiness manager.

The DGCA did not respond to Reuters queries. In a statement issued after the Reuters story was published, the EU agency said it “will investigate this matter further with” CFM and the DGCA.

Airbus and CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Safran, did not respond to Reuters queries.

The lapse was first flagged during a DGCA audit in October 2024 and the plane in question took only a few trips after it was supposed to replace the CFM engine parts, a source with direct knowledge said.

“Such issues should be fixed immediately. It’s a grave mistake. The risk increases when you are flying over sea or near restricted airspace,” said Vibhuti Singh, a former legal expert at India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.

The Indian government told parliament in February that authorities warned or fined airlines in 23 instances for safety violations last year. Three of those cases involved Air India Express, and eight Air India.

The Tata Group acquired Air India from the Indian government in 2022 and the Dreamliner crash has cast a shadow on its ambitions of making it a “world class airline”.

While Air India has aggressively expanded its international flight network over the months, it still faces persistent complaints from passengers, who often take to social media to show soiled seats, broken armrests, non-operational entertainment systems and dirty cabins.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah; Editing by Kim Coghill and Susan Fenton)

SEOUL, July 4, 2025 – Hyundai Motor Company has published its 2025 Sustainability Report, detailing the company’s comprehensive efforts, achievements, goals, and future plans for sustainable business operations.

Since 2003, Hyundai Motor has published annual sustainability reports to disclose a wide range of information demonstrating its commitment to sustainable management and facilitate active communication with stakeholders, including investors, customers, and communities worldwide.

“Hyundai is committed to sustainable mobility in the vehicles we offer and the processes we use to produce them. Hyundai has made incredible progress in reducing the environmental impact of our vehicles throughout their lifecycle, including the manufacturing process, with our ultimate goal of carbon neutrality by 2045,” said José Muñoz, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company. “Our ‘Progress for Humanity’ vision reflects our belief that advancing emissions-free mobility is not only sound business, but a shared responsibility to ensure cleaner air and a better quality of life for future generations.”

The 2025 report is structured around three core pillars: Environment, Social, and Governance.

Environment

The report highlights innovative projects to enhance vehicle circularity, including the Car-to-Car Project, which incorporates materials recycled from end-of-life vehicles into new car production. It also details significant investments in renewable energy expansion, including Korea’s largest corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) and the introduction of renewable energy initiatives at international facilities.

Social

This section covers Hyundai Motor’s participation in major global sustainability initiatives, including joining the Responsible Business Alliance ¹⁾ and Drive Sustainability ²⁾ . The report outlines the company’s supply chain risk screening programs and new diversity initiatives, including updated goals for executives and employees and comprehensive training for global leadership and staff.

Governance

The governance section details Hyundai’s efforts to strengthen board independence and diversity and enhance decision-making transparency and stakeholder communications. These efforts include the appointment of senior independent directors, the establishment of an independent director council, and two new female directors.

To improve accessibility and usability, the report includes a separate “Sustainability Factbook” containing three-year trends of key quantitative sustainability data and indices aligned with global disclosure standards. These include the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

The 2025 Hyundai Motor Sustainability Report is available in the Sustainable Management section of the company’s website at hmc-2025-sustainability-report-en.pdf

4 July 2025

The ECB has published its first consolidated annual report on TARGET Services, the TARGET Services Annual Report, which details the ongoing evolution, financial performance and system availability of TARGET Services in 2024. TARGET Services include T2 for large value payments, TARGET2-Securities (T2S) for securities settlement and TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) for instant payments.

In 2024 higher transaction volumes were recorded for all TARGET Services. Annual T2 traffic reached its highest level since the introduction of the euro, at nearly 108 million transactions. In TIPs there was a five-fold increase in the volume of transactions settled, up to around 1.35 billion, reflecting the uptake of instant payments in the European Union. T2S volumes also peaked, up 14% from the previous year and marking a significant rebound from two consecutive years of decline.

TARGET Services maintained high levels of performance and availability, with the technical availability of T2 standing at 99.97%, T2S exceeding its target of 99.7%, and TIPS achieving 100% throughout the year. In addition, the multi-currency capabilities of TARGET Services expanded when Sweden joined TIPS with its national currency, the krona.

The report highlights ongoing service enhancements, such as enabling T2 and TIPS access for non-bank payment service providers, moving towards a shorter standard securities settlement cycle in T2S and improving cross-border payments through cross-currency settlement in TIPS.

In 2024, the number of housing transactions increased in 13 out of the 17 EU countries for which data are available, compared with 2023. This marked the first time since 2021 that the majority of reporting countries reported growth in annual sales. 

The biggest increases in the number of transactions were recorded in Luxembourg (+47.1%), Hungary (+34.7%) and the Netherlands (+16.7%). By contrast, Slovenia (-17.7%), France (-9.1%) and Ireland (-2.8%) registered the largest decreases.

Source dataset: prc_hpi_hsna

The year before, in 2023, 13 out of 16 reporting countries registered decreases compared with 2022.

The largest decreases in the number of transactions in 2023 were observed in Luxembourg (-43.3%), Hungary (-31.4%) and Austria (-27.6%). By contrast, increases were registered in Cyprus (+31.0%), Poland (+6.7%) and Ireland (+0.6%).