3 Million Euros
Tea Rochlitz
Air Liquide has successfully issued a new 500 million euros green bond, in line with its ambition to combine growth and sustainable development. The Group intends to use the proceeds from the issuance to finance or refinance flagship energy transition and sustainable projects, in particular in low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and low-carbon air gases. This new issuance confirms Air Liquide as a regular ESG issuer, after its inaugural 2021 green bond issue.
Munich. The BMW Group continues to focus on the implementation of its electro-mobility strategy, with the company concentrating all its technological expertise relating to battery cells at a new competence centre. Klaus Frhlich, member of the BMW AG Board of Management, responsible for Research and Development, and Oliver Zipse, member of the BMW AG Board of Management, responsible for Production, were joined by Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Ilse Aigner for the symbolic ground-breaking of the BMW Group Battery Cell Competence Centre in Munich today. This interdisciplinary competence centre aims to advance battery cell technology and introduce it into production processes. The company will invest a total of 200 million euros in the location over the next four years, creating 200 jobs. The centre will open in early 2019.
The battery cell is the heart of the battery. It determines performance, energy content, charging capabilities and lifespan, thereby making a significant contribution to the performance of an electrified vehicle.
In the labs, research and prototyping facilities, which will make up the battery cell competence centre, specialist departments will analyse cell design and cell technology. They will also create prototypes of future battery cells, focusing on the chemical composition of the cells, use of different materials, how the cell behaves in critical or extremely cold conditions, charging and rapid-charging behaviour and evaluating cell sizes and forms. This in-house technological expertise is key to enhancing the battery, thereby enabling higher performance capabilities.
The BMW Group has already completed years of research into battery cells and acquired a high level of evaluation competence, especially through the development of the BMW i models. The company will concentrate know-how from various specialist departments and locations at the new Battery Cell Competence Centre and step up its efforts in this area to achieve faster impact. Research findings will be incorporated directly into the latest battery generation.
The BMW Group is already developing the fifth generation of its electric drivetrain, for release in 2021, in which interaction between the electric motor, transmission, power electronics and battery have been further optimised.
A decisive advantage of this future electric drive is that the electric motor, transmission and power electronics are combined in a new and separate electric-drive component. With its compact design, this highly integrated new component takes up significantly less space than the three separate components used in previous generations. Its modular concept means that it is also scalable and can be modified for a wide range of different packages and performance levels, increasing flexibility and making it easier to install the new electric drivetrain component in different vehicle derivatives. Integrating the electric motor, transmission and power electronics into a single component uses fewer parts and therefore saves costs.
The fifth-generation electric drivetrain also uses new, more powerful batteries. Their scalable, modular design means they can be used flexibly in the respective vehicle architecture at different production sites.
Thanks to further development of the battery in particular, the new electric drivetrain extends the range of pure battery-electric vehicles to up to 700 km. In plug-in hybrid models, distances up to 100 kilometres are possible. In this way, the BMW Group continues to expand its innovation leadership in this field.
With the electric motor and battery developed and produced in-house, the BMW Group already possesses a high level of core competence and value creation for electric drivetrains. In-house production gives the BMW Group a decisive competitive advantage, by securing know-how in new technologies, gaining important systems expertise and leveraging cost benefits.
The BMW Group benefits from a highly flexible production network that can respond quickly to demand for electrified models. All electrified vehicles are integrated into the existing production system.
The company already produces electrified vehicles at ten locations worldwide. The batteries needed for these models come from the three battery factories in Dingolfing, Germany, Spartanburg in the USA and Shenyang, China. The BMW Group plant in Dingolfing plays a leading role within the network as the centre of competence for electric drive systems.
Following a formal notice which remained unaddressed, the CNIL imposed a penalty of 20 million euros and ordered CLEARVIEW AI to stop collecting and using data on individuals in France without a legal basis and to delete the data already collected.
CLEARVIEW AI collects photographs from many websites, including social media. It collects all the photographs that are directly accessible on these networks (i.e. that can be viewed without logging in to an account). Images are also extracted from videos available online on all platforms.
Thanks to this collection, the company markets access to its image database in the form of a search engine in which a person can be searched using a photograph. The company offers this service to law enforcement authorities in order to identify perpetrators or victims of crime.
Facial recognition technology is used to query the search engine and find a person based on their photograph. In order to do so, the company builds a "biometric template", i.e. a digital representation of a person's physical characteristics (the face in this case). These biometric data are particularly sensitive, especially because they are linked to our physical identity (what we are) and enable us to identify ourselves in a unique way.
As of May 2020, the CNIL received complaints from individuals about Clearview AI's facial recognition software and opened an investigation. In May 2021, the association Privacy International also warned the CNIL about this practice.
During this procedure, the CNIL cooperated with its European counterparts in order to share the results of the investigations, each authority being competent to act on its own territory because CLEARVIEW AI's has no establishment in Europe.
CLEARVIEW AI had two months to comply with the injunctions formulated in the formal notice and to justify them to the CNIL. However, it did not provide any response to this formal notice. The Chair of the CNIL therefore decided to refer the matter to the restricted committee, which is in charge for issuing sanctions.
On the basis of the information brought to its attention, the restricted committee decided to impose a maximum financial penalty of 20 million euros, according to article 83 of the GDPR.
Regarding the very serious risks to the fundamental rights of the data subjects resulting from the processing carried out by the company, the restricted committee decided to order CLEARVIEW AI to stop collecting and processing data of individuals residing in France without a legal basis and to delete the data of these persons that it has already collected, within a period of two months. The restricted committee added to this injunction a penalty of 100,000 euros per day of delay beyond these two months.
In order to be lawful, a processing of personal data must be based on one of the legal basis referred to in article 6 of the GDPR. The Clearview AI's facial recognition software, which does not comply with this rule, is therefore unlawful.
Clearview AI does not have a legitimate interest in collecting and using this data either, particularly given the intrusive and massive nature of the process, which makes it possible to retrieve the images present on Internet of the millions of Internet users in France. These people, whose photographs or videos are accessible on various websites, including social media, do not reasonably expect their images to be processed by the company to supply a facial recognition system that could be used by States for law enforcement purposes.
The seriousness of this breach led the CNIL restricted committee to order Clearview AI to cease, as long as it lacks a legal basis, the collection and use of data from people on French territory, in the context of the operation of the facial recognition software it markets.
Throughout the procedure, CLEARVIEW AI failed to cooperate with the CNIL. Indeed, the company only replied very partially to the investigation form that was sent to it and did not provide any response to the formal notice issued by the Chair of the CNIL on 26 November 2021.
Despite all global efforts and progress made in family planning, the number of unintended pregnancies worldwide remains high, at 121 million per year (331,000 per day). The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) views these unintended pregnancies as a global failure to uphold a basic human right: the choice of whether to become pregnant.
In addition to the production, Bayer is involved in a range of key activities that support girls and women in LMICs. These include partnerships with organizations such as UNFPA, various digital initiatives, and awareness campaigns like Your Life with its annual World Contraception Day. The World Contraception Day, marked on September 26th every year, works towards a world where every pregnancy is wanted and raises awareness among adolescents and youth regarding sexual and reproductive health.
About World Contraception Day
The World Contraception Day (WCD) taking place every year on September 26th raises special awareness among adolescents and youth regarding sexual and reproductive health. Providing young people access to scientifically accurate and non-judgmental information about a range of contraceptive methods, their pros and cons, and related sexual health topics encourages them to take control over their reproductive and sexual lives and helps them make informed choices.