Ν Ε WS Ο fir Η Ë f W Ε ΕΚ ENVIRONMENT
GREENHOUSE GASES Firms set up emissions exchange; President Bush pushes voluntary cuts
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tional companies and the city of Chicago are setting up a program called the Chicago Cli mate Exchange (CCX) to reduce and trade greenhouse gas emis sions. The companies have made a commitment to cut their green house gas emissions 4% below the 1998-2001 baseline by 2006. The 13 company members in clude American Electric Power (AEP), Baxter International, DuPont, Ford Motor Co., Motorola, and Manitoba Hydro. "These companies have dem onstrated tremendous leadership. They really believe that a proac tive approach to climate change advances everyone's long-term in
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terests," CCX Chairman Richard L. Sandor says. CCX will enable its members to buy and sell emissions credits in order to find the most cost-ef fective way of achieving reduc tions. Trading will begin in the spring of 2003. "Through CCX, we hope to demonstrate the via bility of a multisector greenhouse gas trading program," says Dale E. Heydlauff, AEP's senior vice president of governmental and environmental affairs. AEP itself says it is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the Western Hemisphere. On a related front, White House officials are touring the country asking industries from all
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WOMEN OPT OUT OF U.K. CHEMISTRY Report calls for action to retain women in academic chemistry ON THE WAY Cambridge University graduate student Amy Kieran studies host-guest interactions.
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RITISH UNIVERSITIES AND
their chemistry depart ments need to adopt meas ures to increase the number of women in chemistry particularly in senior positions, according to a report released at the Royal Society of Chemistry in Lon don last week. The report, "Re cruitment and Re tention of Women in Academic Chem istry" reveals that the total percentage of women in chemistry in the country drops
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from 38% at the undergraduate and graduate stage to 25% for postdoctoral researchers. Wmien account for 18% of academic chemistry staff overall, but a mea ger 2% at the professorial level. The current situation is unac ceptable, says Julia S. Higgins, professor of polymer science at Imperial College, London. She chaired the working group that carried out the study and also chairs the Athena Project, which aims to advance women in sci ence, engineering, and technolo gy in U.K. higher education and increase the number of women recruited to top posts.
sectors to promise to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to help reach the Administration's goal of reduction in the amount an of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of gross domestic product from 2002 to 2012. Industry achieved roughly the same re duction in greenhouse gas inten sity from 1990 to 2000, but at the same time total emissions rose by about 12%. The White House plans to make the pledges public on Feb. 6 in answer to critics of President George W Bush's rejection of the Kyoto protocol. But, says Eileen Claussen, pres ident ofthe Pew Center on Glob al Climate Change, "while we applaud the voluntary efforts of all those in the business commu nity ... until our government is willing to embrace an equitable, mandatory system {for emissions reductions], we have no hope of solving this problem."—BETTE HILEMAN
The study, however, found a number of examples of good practices that positively influence the recruitment and retention of women in academic chemistry "The departments that are most successful are open, friend ly, and supportive," Higgins tells C&EN. "They have a culture that allows individuals to thrive and be rewarded for their contribu tions, regardless ofgender or fam ily circumstances." Trudy Coe of Evaluation UK, a consulting group that did much of the project work, notes that good practices in recruiting and retaining women are patchy in departments of chemistry and other sciences in Britain. "Good practice is embedded in depart mental cultures, histories, and personalities," she observes. "In general, departments need to take short-term initiatives to im prove the immediate position of women and also plan to sustain long-term change in their cul tures."-MICHAEL FREEMANTLE HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
