A Visa card is displayed on May 15, 2024, in Portland, Ore. Credit: AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File
The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.
The complaint filed Tuesday says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network.
According to the DOJ’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.
“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing—but the price of nearly everything.”
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Department of Justice sues Visa, saying the card issuer monopolizes debit card markets (2024, September 24)
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Credit: David Moreno et al, Interim Report Number 2 – Macquarie Harbour Maugean skate population status and monitoring (2024)
For the first time in nearly a decade, scientists have recorded an increased presence of young Maugean skates—a ray of hope for the survival of the endangered species.
The research by the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies offers a promising sign for the Maugean skate, a species endemic to the unique environment of Macquarie Harbour.
Data collected between 2021 and September 2024 suggests the population may be stabilizing after a decline reported over a decade leading up to 2020.
“Although the population remains significantly lower than historical levels, catch per unit effort data—a standard measure of relative abundance—shows the skate population has stabilized since 2021 and there has been no overall further decline,” IMAS researcher and Maugean skate captive breeding program leader Professor Jayson Semmens said.
“It takes approximately six years for Maugean skate hatchlings to reach maturity, so while immediate recovery of adult biomass is not expected, the presence of juveniles at a similar proportion relative to adults in the sampling as we were seeing in 2014 is a positive sign. Continued monitoring will be crucial to understanding the long-term trajectory of the species.”
While the skate remains endangered, IMAS researcher Dr. David Moreno said it was too early to predict long-term outcomes and stressed the importance of ongoing research and monitoring to guide effective conservation efforts.
“Additional data are needed to determine whether the observed presence of young skates will lead to a sustained recovery,” Dr. Moreno said. “Updated population models and action plans are needed to ensure the species’ survival in Macquarie Harbour, its last remaining habitat.”
The extended dataset and early signs of stabilization in the population underline the critical need for ongoing support and monitoring efforts, which will be pivotal in guiding effective conservation efforts for the Maugean skate.
“This is science in action,” IMAS Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre Head Professor Sean Tracey said.
“All the work presented to date has been based on the best available information at the time. Funding support from the Tasmanian and Australian governments has helped us improve our understanding of the Maugean skate. As we learn more, our role is to ensure that we’re updating and reassessing that information so that decisions are made based on the best contemporary data.”
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Signs of hope for endangered Maugean skate (2024, September 24)
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A snapshot of the order parameter in a fluctuating quark gluon liquid. Green regions are in the quark gluon phase, blue regions in the hadron phase. Credit: J. Ott, North Carolina State University
Scientists are conducting experiments in search of evidence of a possible critical point in the Quantum Chromodynamics phase diagram. Quantum chromodynamics describes how the strong force binds quarks and antiquarks together to form protons, neutrons, and other particles known as hadrons.
The critical point is analogous to the endpoint of the transition from liquid to gas in ordinary water. The main signatures of this critical point that scientists can observe are related to changes in the number of particles produced in particle accelerator collisions.
Modeling these observables requires an extension of the standard framework of how liquids and gases behave. In a study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, scientists have now developed an algorithm for performing simulations of a critical fluid and have tested those simulations.
Observing critical fluctuation in a heavy ion collision would mark the first direct observation of a phase change between the quark gluon plasma and a hadronic phase. This is the point where quarks and gluons are confined in hadrons.
Interpreting the results of related experiments requires new theoretical tools. In particular, the interpretation needs a fluid dynamic framework that incorporates fluctuations—how pressure, velocity, and other factors can change in liquids and gases.
This work is an important contribution to this effort. In the future, researchers hope to use these methods to connect the data with theoretical ideas about the nature of temperature and pressure in quark-gluon matter.
The Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, a Department of Energy user facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory, studies the energy dependence of fluctuation observables in the collisions of heavy ions.
The goal of this effort is to locate a possible critical point associated with the phase transition to a quark gluon plasma. Interpreting the results of the BES program requires a fluid dynamic framework that incorporates fluctuations in the fluid dynamic variables, baryon density, entropy density, and fluid velocity.
In this research, scientists have constructed such a framework and tested it in simulation of a static fluid near the critical point. Future work will couple their results to the expansion of the fireball created in a heavy ion collision. This will enable researchers to either locate the critical point or place constraints on its location.
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Simulating a critical point in quark gluon fluid (2024, September 24)
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Governments, regulators and global financial institutions are overlooking major opportunities to unlock the estimated US$9.2 trillion worth of financing needed each year to fund the net zero transition, new research suggests.
To deliver the funding, a recent report from King’s College London argues for an urgent focus on three key areas of the financial system:
Governments should engage with the new forms of partnerships between banks and other financial institutions that free up their lending capabilities;
Multilateral development banks should make more use of their balance sheets to attract private sector funding through blended finance;
Regulators should develop global carbon markets with a focus on integrating national emissions trading systems and enhancing trust in voluntary markets.
The report highlights that the multilateral development banks alone could more than double their stock of lending to release a further $1.2 trillion of net zero financing without harming their AAA ratings and estimates that governments could release £8.5 billion of new bank lending through every £1 billion they invest in loans to decarbonization projects.
The report and its recommendations were developed by Professor David Aikman, a former Technical Head of the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Division, and Professor Raúl C. Rosales, a member of the Management Committee of the Singapore Green Finance Centre.
“Mobilizing enough finance to achieve our net zero goals is a major challenge, but our research highlights the potential of three avenues that should become a focus for policymakers in the run up to COP29 and beyond,” says Professor David Aikman, Director of the Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance at King’s Business School.
The banks’ role in financing the transition to net zero
The report outlines how, ahead of the full implementation of the Basel III capital adequacy rules, banks are increasingly partnering with non-bank players in innovative ways that allow them to de-risk in line with existing regulatory and supervisory frameworks.
These include strategic partnerships and new investment fund platforms with private credit, as well as the increased use of so-called “synthetic risk transfers” that move credit risk to third parties such as investment funds, freeing up funds for further lending. EU banks alone issued €102 billion in synthetic risk transfer securitizations in 2023 and 11% of these were linked to sustainability lending.
The authors argue that governments and policymakers can support this transfer of risk between the banks and other parts of the financial sector;
By fostering the globally harmonized regulation of de-risking mechanisms such significant risk transfers and synthetic securitizations
As investors: The authors estimate that a £1 billion government investment in the junior tranche of a pool of loans for decarbonization projects would generate additional bank lending capacity of around £8.5 billion. In the UK, the new National Wealth Fund could play a role both as a guarantor and coordinator of private sector lending for net zero technologies and projects.
Blended finance
Blended finance uses catalytic capital from public or philanthropic sources to mobilize private sector investment in sustainable development projects, primarily in developing countries. Public investment is led through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). While climate finance accounted for over half of the value of blended finance deals in 2023, the report highlights that at $15 billion of new transactions, the overall sector remained relatively small, and sets out how it could be expanded.
The authors calculate that MDBs and DFIs draw on private sector investors for only 11% of their annual overall financing commitments. Their analysis of credit rating agency reports suggests that there is significant potential for MDBs to increase their leverage while still maintaining their AAA credit ratings. They estimate that collectively, the 13 MDBs focused on developing countries could increase the stock of development assets they finance by around $1.2 trillion, a 2.5-fold increase, without harming their current credit ratings.
Furthermore, if MDBs operated under an AA rating instead of AAA, their financing capacity would increase by a further $1–1.2 trillion, significantly boosting their development and financial impact.
Carbon markets
By putting a price on carbon, carbon markets create economic incentives for businesses and governments to invest in clean technologies and implement carbon pricing policies. They are also a source of revenue for government investments in net zero projects: in 2023, Emissions Trading Systems generated $74 billion in government revenues. Alongside the ETSs are voluntary carbon markets offering trading in ‘carbon credits’ issued by the developers of carbon removal and reduction schemes.
The authors argue that these markets can be made more attractive through:
Linking the UK and EU ETSs as envisaged in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement governing post-Brexit trade relations. This is also a necessary condition for exempting UK exports from the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Stronger regulatory oversight, with clear rules on carbon credit usage, and a global standard for the financial accounting of certified carbon offset credits.
Further integration, for example integrating the voluntary carbon markets with the established emissions trading systems, which would provide a strong pricing signal.
“Partnerships between banks, investors, and regulators offer a critical opportunity to channel funds into low-carbon technologies by de-risking through regulated schemes. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) can amplify their impact by leveraging resources without straining government budgets, helping to establish sustainable infrastructure platforms in developing countries. Governments play a key role in integrating carbon markets through mechanisms like ETS and GGRs, enhancing transparency, and market efficiency, and sending a strong price signal for decarbonization,” says Professor Raúl C. Rosales, Professor of Practice in Net Zero Asset Management at King’s College London.
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Report sets out three overlooked opportunities to fund net zero transition (2024, September 24)
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Encino arroyero (Quercus brandegeei) (endangered) in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Credit: The Morton Arboretum
Over a third of threatened or understudied oak tree species in Mesoamerica are not held in managed botanical collections anywhere in the world, and for many species, protection of their native habitats is lacking.
These are among the findings in a new Conservation Gap Analysis of Native Mesoamerican Oaks, published in English and Spanish, which was conducted by researchers at The Morton Arboretum. Researchers stress in the report being released during National Hispanic Heritage Month in the U.S. that it’s critically important to conserve these trees now before land-use conversion, climate change and other threats further alter their natural environments. Mesoamerica is the region extending from the U.S.-Mexico border through Panama.
Oaks are valuable keystone species that perform critical ecosystem functions and provide food and habitat for myriad animals.
“Mesoamerica is a global hotspot for oak biodiversity,” said report lead author Kate Good, the Arboretum’s global tree conservation research program manager. “In the face of climate change and habitat degradation, there is an urgent need to increase the number of Mesoamerican oaks in collections within their native country to help prevent further biodiversity loss.”
As of 2022, 22 species, or 37%, are not held in managed botanical collections anywhere in the world.
“We hope this report can help identify potential areas for collaboration and set conservation priorities, both in native habitats and managed botanical collections,” Good said.
Silvia Alvarez-Clare (The Morton Arboretum) and Rodrigo Benavides (Osa Conservation) collecting data for a Q. insignis seedling at Asociación Ambiental Finca Cántaros in San Vito, Costa Rica. Credit: The Morton Arboretum
The report focuses on 59 species in the region on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species assessed as either threatened or Data Deficient. The IUCN Red List is the globally recognized and standardized system for assessing the extinction risk of the world’s plant, animal and fungal species.
Climate change was identified as a threat for all 59 threatened or Data Deficient Mesoamerican oak species. Additionally, agriculture and residential or commercial development represented threats to 72% and 69% of the species, respectively.
Overall, the report indicates that 85% of the analyzed oak species are projected to see a decrease in the areas they are most commonly found under climate conditions predicted for the years 2061–2080. A decrease in a species’ preferred “life-zone area” does not necessarily mean it will no longer survive in the new environment, according to the report.
However, it does mean conservation activities are strongly needed to prevent potential biodiversity loss. Education, outreach, research and propagation or breeding programs were the most commonly cited priorities in the report for future conservation efforts.
The analysis also showed 16, or approximately one quarter, of the target species have less than 10% of their native range in protected areas. Among the 59 oaks analyzed for the report were the critically endangered Muller oak (Quercus mulleri), known to live in only two locations in Mexico; endangered Encino arroyero (Quercus brandegeei) native to southern Baja California Sur, Mexico; vulnerable oak species Quercus gulielmi-treleasei native to Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama; and data-deficient white oak Quercus deliquescens from Chihuahua, Mexico, to name a few.
“For many species, little is known regarding population size, distribution or threats,” said report co-author Silvia Alvarez-Clare, Ph.D., director of the Arboretum’s Global Tree Conservation Program. “This analysis helps to fill those knowledge gaps and is a crucial step toward facilitating partnerships and spurring conservation action to help protect threatened Mesoamerican oaks before time runs out.”
The report findings will be highlighted during the Arboretum’s National Hispanic Heritage Month programming.
A free presentation about conserving threatened cloud forests and some of the most important oak species from the analysis will be held Sept. 26 at the Arboretum with guest speaker Tarin Toledo Aceves, Ph.D. She is a researcher from Instituto de EcologÃa A.C. in Veracruz, Mexico and a collaborator with the Arboretum’s Global Tree Conservation Program.
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The Morton Arboretum
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Mesoamerican oak tree species in urgent need of conservation, says report (2024, September 24)
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