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Australia’s Coalface Jan 11, 2020

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Australia is stubbornly sticking to providing much of its power through coal. While many countries around the world are eschewing fossil fuels, (because of their environmental impact), the Australian government continues to give the all-clear to new coal mines, including one called the Carmichael mine. It’s being constructed by the Indian company, Adani. Much of the coal it produces will be exported to Asia. The mine was an issue in the country’s 2019 general election, and has been the site of many protests. Heidi Pett has visited the area in Queensland where the mine is being built – speaking to locals who’re on both sides of the heated debate about Australia and its continuing reliance on coal.

Presenter: Heidi Pett Producer: Phoebe Keane

Picture Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Gettty Images

Zimbabwe's Food Crisis: Can Old Crops Fix New Problems? Jan 09, 2020

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Every day people dig into sadza, a maize based meal, but there’s a problem. Zimbabwe’s getting much drier and maize can’t cope. Crop failures have partly contributed to food shortages this year leading to more than 7 million people needing food aid. The economic crisis has made the situation more serious and things will only get worse as the climate heats up. How can Zimbabwe feed itself? It turns out grains like millet and sorghum could hold the key. Unlike maize, these small grains are indigenous to the region. For In Business, Charlotte Ashton meets the remarkable business people fighting to put them back on Zimbabwean plates. From convincing smallholder farmers that traditional crops are the way forward, to advertising the health benefits of small grains to busy parents, this is a campaign for hearts and minds as much as full bellies.

Presenter: Charlotte Ashton Producer: Phoebe Keane

Picture Credit: BBC

Germany’s Energy Transition Jan 04, 2020

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Germany has long been considered a leader in renewable energy – a model even for others to follow with its subsidies for wind and solar. Householders were encouraged to put solar panels on their rooves as early as two decades ago. But its so-called “Energiewende” or “energy transition” from fossil fuels to renewables is facing challenges and the country still relies on coal for 30 per cent of electricity generation. That will be phased out within the next eighteen years and nuclear energy will end too by 2022, leading to fears within industry about adequate energy capacity. Meanwhile the German government has admitted that it won’t meet its climate emissions targets for 2020. Caroline Bayley has been to the industrial Ruhr region to an enormous open cast mine, as well as to Steinfurt, a rural area where they’re pushing community renewable energy schemes and to the former coal town of Bottrop which is undergoing its own energy transition.

Presenter/Producer: Caroline Bayley

Picture Credit: BBC

Selling Britain Jan 02, 2020

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Whatever happens in British politics, Britain's reputation has changed. What does this mean for its global business image? Chris Bowlby discovers what's ahead for Brand Britain.

Clean Cooking in Rwanda Dec 28, 2019

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More than seventy percent of households in Rwanda cook over wooden and charcoal fires. This means women often sit for hours every day in smoky conditions which can damage their health, increasing the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease, strokes and lung cancer. These traditional cooking methods are also the cause of widespread deforestation. The Rwandan government is aiming to halve the number of people using these cooking fuels in the next six years. They're investing in infrastructure and offering tax incentives to try and support businesses to entice customers to other products which could give them a cleaner and safer way to cook. In other countries who’ve made this move though, changing from traditional stoves to modern clean cooking took the best part of a century - can that really be achieved here in just six years?

Producer/Presenter: Kate Lamble

Picture: Lady cooking meal in pan over an open fire in Rwanda Credit: Wayne Hutchinson/Farm Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Business of Beethoven Dec 26, 2019

Show notes

"Beethoven's arms were bigger than the piano" says concert pianist Stephen Hough at his Steinway. "I sense him pushing at every moment - as if he's in a cage saying 'Let me out'". To mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth in 2020, Clemmie Burton-Hill looks, not at Beethoven the composer, but at a little-known aspect of the composer's life, Beethoven the entrepreneur. In the company of some of the foremost Beethoven proponents - pianist Stephen Hough, violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daniel Hope and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, Clemmie investigates how Beethoven pushed and cajoled music publishers, music printers and piano makers to turn convention on its head and create a music "industry". Could he even have invented the gig economy?!

Presenter: Clemmie Burton-Hill Producer: Adele Armstrong

Picture Credit: REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

The pub is dead! Long live the micropub! Dec 05, 2019

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Since 2001 the UK has lost a quarter of its pubs. They've shut their doors for good. High taxes, high prices, supermarket competition, even the smoking ban have all been blamed. But there are new types of pub, the micropub, and community-owned pubs, which are bucking the trend. While larger, traditional establishments have been under pressure, these have flourished. So why have they been able to succeed where others have not? For In Business, John Murphy visits his local boozer - and others - to see what these new pubs have to offer.

Presenter: John Murphy Producer: Ruth Alexander

Picture: Micropub Credit: BBC

Keeping the Lights On Nov 28, 2019

Show notes

As Britain’s sources of electricity change, along with significant changes in demand, how will the lights stay on? The major power blackout that hit the UK in early August – the worst in more than a decade – was an indication of how increasingly complicated our electricity grid is becoming. Hundreds of thousands of people, as well as major transport hubs, were affected as electricity supplies were cut to restore balance to the system and prevent an even greater blackout. The National Grid, which is the energy system operator, said two generators, including a major wind-farm, tripped out after lightning struck a high-voltage transmission line. The episode raised many questions about how stable the UK’s electricity supply system is. What is clear is that the traditional coal-fired generators, which used to supply much of the UK’s electricity, are being rapidly phased out. Now many more - and varied - generators supply the grid, including small and huge wind-farms, solar farms, nuclear power stations, gas-fired plants, hydro-electric turbines and other sources. This makes the management of the system more tricky. Then there’s the demand side. Electricity demand is growing, not least with the prospect of electrical cars becoming commonplace. Without building the right infrastructure, with the right storage, and without the correct planning, the electricity grid will not be able to cope.

David Baker speaks to the National Grid, to major electricity suppliers, and to smaller, community-based generators, asking how the system is changing and what needs to be done to make sure it remains reliable, affordable and sustainable, so that the future is not one of widespread blackouts.

Presenter: David Baker Producer: John Murphy

Picture: National Grid's Electricity Control Centre

What is the value of women’s work? Oct 26, 2019

Show notes

Iceland has taken radical measures to reduce its gender pay gap. These aren't just about equalising pay when men and women do the same job but when they do different jobs of equal value. That's proved to be quite a sticking point in many countries around the world; ensuring that the jobs routinely occupied by women are paid as well as those that men do. Lesley Curwen meets the people tasked with comparing a production line worker with an office administrator, an HR professional with an accountant and a camera operator with a social media marketeer. What has the financial and cultural impact been on companies that have had to adjust their pay rates and what do their employees think about the process? Is the Iceland model one that other countries could follow?

Presenter: Lesley Curwen Producer: Rosamund Jones

Picture Credit: Getty Creative

Belarus: Harvesting the whirlwind Oct 19, 2019

Show notes

The irradiated lands around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor were large, prosperous, and lively collective farms until the reactor exploded in 1986. Seventy percent of the toxic radiation fell in Belarus – a small, agrarian country in which most people lived on the land. Hundreds of villages were evacuated, but much of the population has since returned. A generation later Global Business visits the Belarussian contamination zone and its hinterland to see how the local economy and way of life has adapted to a world turned upside down. We meet the beekeepers developing a honey farm in the depopulated part of the zone, visit an unexpected herd of horses and hear about the innovations in arable farming designed to resist radioactive toxins.

Produced and presented by Monica Whitlock

Image: Horses in Belarus Radio-Ecological Zone Credit: Ilya Kuzniatsou

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