this is worklife from bbc news, with victoria fritz and david eades. big data and the climate crisis. how our tech addiction is fuelling global warming — and what silicon valley can do about it. live from london, that's our top story on friday the 17th of january. microsoft has pledged to remove "all of the carbon" it has emitted since 1975 within the next 30 years — but is the goal achieveable? plus — bruised by the trade war. china records the weakest growth in three decades. but could the trade war that has

forced the economy to restructure fast actually done it a favour? and — it may only have a face value of £1, but a soveriegn like this one is now the uk's most valuable coin, worth £1 million. and we'll be getting the inside track on funding a small business — what can entrepeneurs do when they outgrow their bank balance? can technology provide the answer? and there's growing evidence that internet use can harm mental health, but research is still lacking, says the royal college of psychiatrists. today on #bbcworklife we want to know: should social media companies hand over children's data in order to protect them? hello, and welcome to worklife.

we start with the tech industry and its impact on the environment. the vast amount of data we use and store is a major source of carbon emissions — and energy consumption. microsoft is one of the world's biggest providers of computing power — along with google and amazon. on thursday it announced the industry's most aggressive plan yet to tackle the problem. by 2030 microsoft has pledged to become "carbon negative" — removing more carbon from the environment than it emits. and by 2050 it hopes to have wiped out its carbon footprint altogether — by removing all the carbon it has ever emitted since it was founded in 1975. this goes much farther than rival amazon — which has only pledged to be carbon neutral — removing as much as it removing as much as it emits, and only by 2040. here's the problem. there are now more than 500 "hyperscale data

centers" in the world — and counting. these are huge sites, set up by microsoft, amazon and their rivals — and housing thousands of computer servers to cope with our growing social media, video streaming and online shopping use. if that growth continues, by 2025, data could be using 20% of the world's energy — according to research from sweden. that's as much as transport consumes today. chris fox spoke to the president of microsoft — brad smith — and asked him what they are planning to do about it. we have a lot of confidence that we can achieve these goals, that we can achieve these goals. in part, we will need to become carbon negative by reducing our own emissions very substantially, not just for ourselves but across our supply chain, our so—called value chain as well. you're talking about ways you might be able to remove carbon from the atmosphere,

what are some of the ways you think that might be possible? ultimately, we need better technology. direct air capture, for example, runs the air through a machine and the machine removes the carbon from the air. it then sequesters that carbon under the earth, and that is one of the reasons among other things that we are announcing today, the launch of a $1 billion climate innovation fund. greenpeace has been very quick to point out that you offer your ai and machine learning to help oil and gas companies get more fossil fuels out of the ground. how can that sit side by side with a pledge like this? when we think about where the world needs to go, the first thing i think we should all recognise is that we want to create a world that is more prosperous than it is today. we want to increase per capital gdp everywhere in the world. the second thing we should recognise, is that that requires more energy. the world will need more energy,

a decade or two or three from now, than it has today. so, we need to work with the energy companies of today, to help enable them to become even stronger, and greener in the future. any company wants to use digital technology to become more environmentally sound, more carbon sensitive, and in our view that is a good day and we don't want to turn people away. ama seery, is an environmental, social and governance analyst at janus henderson investors. thank you forjoining us. brad smith has put out a big old pledge that, to go carbon negative, pledges are good i suppose, they don't know how to do it? i am really glad, first and foremost they have put out the pledge. let us look at the scale of the problem. climate change is the biggest problem that faces us as a

species today. so any company that is even trying to target dealing with the problem within their own capacity, frankly should be applauded rather than censured. that works if they manage to find a way to do it, doesn't it, and do you get a sense they are prepared to put in enough resource and effort to get there? absolutely, they have already set science based target even before this announcement, they had already made their data centres carbon neutral, and they had had a plan in place to already be carbon neutral by2030 place to already be carbon neutral by 2030 before putting out this announcement only yesterday, to now be carbon negative. which is frankly fantastic. all the other companies of that size should really be looking at what microsoft is doing and saying can we do the same? now there does appear to be growing awareness among tech companies and

finance companies about this issue and their social responsibility when it comes to climate change. do you think consumers have the same awareness? do you think people realise by scrolling their phone they are creating a carbon fingerprint? no, not at all. -- foot fingerprint? no, not at all. -- foot fingerprint print. i don't think it is the place of consumers to know that. there is lots of issues to this climate change science thing. it isa this climate change science thing. it is a science and it is not an easy problem, it is a complicated problem and consumers have other issues in their lives. what i would love to see is for the scientists, and the people who have the power to make a change on the consumer's behalf, to get about doing it and thatis behalf, to get about doing it and that is what microsoft are done. we need the leader, that is clear. there is one other thing that brad smith said. he said we want to raise per capita gdp everywhere in the world. there is a growing body of opinion that says no we don't, we

don't need to keep growth going up all the time: it is not the most important thing, is he failing to notice an important sort of growing strand of society now?” notice an important sort of growing strand of society now? i think that the argument is more nuanced nan what he communicated, so there is a growing amount of evidence to suggest when we consider an economy's growth we have to look beyond gdp, and i would argue that microsoft, it would be good for them to look beyond gdp in doing this, but it is still good start, because imean but it is still good start, because i mean for example i originally come from a country where the gdp has stalled, and it has led to people not actually doing well. and it has led to a lot of poverty and suffering. it has to improve in some parts of the world, that is clear. thank you forjoining us. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the boss of struggling airline flybe

has confirmed it's in talks with the uk government over a loan, but says the financial support would not constitute a bailout. rival airlines have called for more details of the government's role in helping flybe to be made public. they argue that support for the troubled regional carrier may break european competition rules. the boss of ryanair told the bbc that flybe wasn't a viable business. google's parent company alphabet has become the fourth us tech giant to hit $1 trillion in stock market value. investors are confident about strong advertising sales despite concern about more regulation. apple, microsoft and amazon have already hit the landmark. amazon says it plans to create another one millionjobs in india over the next five years. it comes after the country's trade minister said the tech giant's announcement of a $1bn investmnent in the country did india no big favour. founderjeff bezos has been visitng india this week and faced protests from small business owners who feel his company is harming their prospects.

the world's second biggest economy is now growing at its slowest rate in 30 years. china recorded growth of 6.1% last year. still within government targets — but the lending numbers were disappointing. a drive to cut bad debt, while pushing banks to prop up small risky firms, s squeezed healthier private companies. stephen mcdonell is in beijing. i suppose all in all, steve, given 2019 and the us—china trade issue, no great surprise? yes, i think we saw this coming, people predicted it, and yet there will be headlines that china has just posted its slowest, its gdp growth for three

decades, now, people will think what is going on in china, this is one of the great drivers of the world economy? it is a dampen being of domestic consumption and the trade war with the us really kicking in, in terms of having an impact on exports. but, the reason people aren't panicking here is there are sections of the economy which are still holding up pretty well. retail sales and the like, and also, some economists think that actually, funnily enough, the trade war might have been helping china's economy, because policy makers here for a long time have been trying to slow down growth, to have better, more sustainable growth, rather than the break neck growth from before, which was fuelling this credit boom, and people couldn't make the repayments. so this is hopefully leading to a more sustainable china's economy into the future. all right. thank you steve.

record highs over on wall street. we have seen rises in asia, the markets very much thinking that you know what, it could have been worse, the china growth story. 6.1% isn't bad. a few stories breaking here in europe. the european union's trade chief said the race is on to avert an escalation in transatlantic commercial tensions as a result of us objections to a french digital—services tax. the swiss asset manager gam has said it expects to report a sharp drop in profits amid a shrinking level of assets under management in its investment business. the ftse up just 38 the ftse upjust 38 points the ftse up just 38 points at the moment. the ftse up just 38 points at the moment. now to the us, ride hailings apps such as uber and lyft have had a major impact on the fortunes of traditional taxis, such as new york's famous yellow cabs.

drivers have been struggling with mounting debts, but help could now be at hand. here's michelle fleury. taxi medallions — that is the license to own and operate a taxi here in the city. they used to be a great investment, but their value has collapsed, and many cab drivers, most of them immigrants, are up to their necks in debt, leading to a spate of suicides and bankruptcy. some blame competition from ride hailing companies like uber for the bubble bursting. others say the real problem is predatory lending practises. at last, it seems, help is on the way. a panel appointed by new york mayor bill de blasio plans to propose a bail out to absorb some of the debt. and later today, congressman gregory meeks will propose legislation to stop any relief from being classified as taxable income, offering a ray of hope for drivers struggling to pay their medallion loans. time now for our daily look at some of the newspaper and website stories which have caught our eye.

joining me is a] brinnand, a journalist at the tech focused ten 80 magazine. thank you forjoining us. you picked out a story the guardian is having a look at. we have touched on it, which is the royal college of psychiatrists saying facebooks of this world have got to hand over data for us to realise why there are so many problems for youngsters in using their platforms basically. absolutely. i think you know as new platforms emerge, the research done round them is essential to make sure how the wider population are using them but also children and impressionable people. for social media it is vital. this is off the back of terrible story, whether it is suicides, harming, issues with dietand is suicides, harming, issues with diet and the idea being wejust don't really know how these

platforms are grabbing youngsters, and then some would say manipulating, their thought process. that is what the royal college of psychiatrists are saying, regulators should enquire with companies at not just how long children are using social media but what are they looking at, what are the trends, what topics and is that causing them to spiral and leading to some of the worst case scenarios. your magazine looks at digital ethics, this is your area. looks at digital ethics, this is yourarea. iwant looks at digital ethics, this is your area. i want to read out this statement from someone who is the national director for mental health nhs england. if the tech giants want to bea nhs england. if the tech giants want to be a force for good take their responsibilities seriously until then, they cannot confidently say whether the good outweighs the bad. do you personally agree with that?|j do you personally agree with that?” think so, you know, ithink do you personally agree with that?” think so, you know, i think untilt more is done, tech company, it is like the wild west out here, there is such a lack of regulation, and i think it is important to note that

all this data, that will be researched is anonymous data and it is trends, looking at the overall picture, so i think until that is done, we can't confidently say that you know, social media is a force for good orfor bad. you know, social media is a force for good or for bad. we are going to pick up on one other story, amazon, they want to create a million new jobs in india, but they are going to create 600 in manchester. this is building on the 6,000 jobs they already have in the north—west region, so they have said they will be building and moving into their new office in manchester, picking it over london. interestingly. they are already all over the north—west in bolton, warrington, manchester airport forfulfilment bolton, warrington, manchester airport for fulfilment centres but this bringing specialised tech jobs to the region. manchester is a great tech hub now, it has that draw it would seem. absolutely. we will leave it there, thank you. we will leave it there, thank you.

still to come. we'll be getting the inside track on funding a small business: what can entrepeneurs do when they outgrow their bank balance? can technology provide the answer? you're with worklife from bbc news. yesterday, sir david attenborough‘s told the bbc. "the moment of crisis has come". but how can we really tackle climate change and cut emissions? glasgow thinks it might have the answer. nina warhurst is there to explain as we know the uk target for reaching net zero emissions is 2050. scotla nd reaching net zero emissions is 2050. scotland says they can go one better and reach it by 200045. but glasgow and reach it by 200045. but glasgow and edinburgh are racing to hit that target by 2030. lots of scottish companies are behind them. one of them is scottishpower. let us speak to hazel. you are already leading

the way, you have stopped using fossilfuel, the way, you have stopped using fossil fuel, what else are you doing? there is so much more we can doing? there is so much more we can do with renewable. we are adding batteries to wind farm, whitelee is the biggest, we will put a battery there the size of a small supermarket and that will provide the energy to the grid that it needs, really and we are looking at some other sites, there might be a possibility to put solar panels, to create hybrid sites. people would say you generate, transmimt energy, profits of 300 million, you could be doing more? we would love to do more. the amount we can do offshore is limited and. on shore the mechanic any mores aren't in place to build to the scale required. lots of companies we have been speaking to have said that the guidance, the funding, the infrastructure needs to be place from central government and local authorities, and perhaps only

legislation can make sure that happens. i want to know where your yellow top and black trouser are today. the uk chairof and black trouser are today. the uk chair of shell has been on the radio talking about how they are trying to become more environmentally—friendly. she says we have to transform we are offering carbon neutral off setting for customers, it is enough however, because shell is still an oil company and it is spending $2 billion a year, only a small fraction on green initiatives. more on the live page, including rebuttals on flybe as well.

you're watching worklife. a reminder of our top story: microsoft has pledged to remove "all of the carbon" from the environment that it has emitted since the company was founded in 1975. when it comes to growing a business, many entreupeneurs find it can be a struggle to get the cash they need to push on to the next level. when the initialfunding has dried up many small and medium businesses find that it can be difficult to convince traditional lenders to increase their loans. but technology could provide the answer. nadia sood is co—founder and chief executive of creditenable. thank you very much forjoining us. i want to start with this simple first question. why is it, then, if

they have got the funding in the first place, and they have established themselves, why would it be difficult for the second stage? that should be easier? . one would think. it is very difficult. there area think. it is very difficult. there are a few reasons for that, really, in orderfor a are a few reasons for that, really, in order for a bank are a few reasons for that, really, in orderfor a bank to are a few reasons for that, really, in order for a bank to underwrite a loa n in order for a bank to underwrite a loan it needs to have confidence and trust in the business and confidence comes from being able to forecast that the business will be able to pay back that loan over a period of time. that doesn't just pay back that loan over a period of time. that doesn'tjust depend on revenue, it depends on many factor, how well is the company performing, how well is the company performing, how well is the company performing, how well is the sector performing. how fast does it get paid by customers? so there are many complicated factors that go into this decision and small businesses often don't know how to have that discussion, and get the documentation together in the right way. we seem to have two different models. we have the traditional lenders and then we have peer—to—peer lending, on the other end of the scale. how can technology

bridge the gap and provide more mainstream funding? such a great question, that is where credit enable comes in, we are an enable bler and bring tech into the market place, we try to maximise the power of formal lender, they hold the largest balance sheet, the lowest cost of capital and the greatest potential to help smes get finance atan potential to help smes get finance at an affordable cost. the reason a lot of money lenders and alternative financers have come up is they can be faster, the problem with them is that the interest rates are very high and we heard a story earlier about what the issue can be when people are indebted to those lenders. it is interesting when you talk about the technology and ai and different ways of gathering information quickly, i think you have said that lenders can make a decision within seconds, that sounds slightly discouraging, you don't wa nt to slightly discouraging, you don't want to make a decision too quickly, do you? that is true. of course, parts of the underwriting process can be limited to a few moments, but

of course, in largest loans the bank will want to see the customer, understand their business model before they make the edecision, so we are able to do in a complex loan is take a process that would normally take four to six weeks for a bank to build a financial model and shrink it to a second seconds so they can distribute the loan in a few days rather than six to eight weeks. i do worry about that. al, artificial intelligence could perpetuate bias, if you are making decisions in split second, we know thatis decisions in split second, we know that is what we do as people and we are told off for it, it is not what we should be doing, so, is there a risk here that technology could actually exacerbate the problem when it comes to lending for these businesses? there are those issues of course and many examples of companies trying to build algorithms that exclude huge parts of the

population like women or minorities from getting job, it is crucial the data set isn't biased and you are i thinking about the algorithms you are trying to build. in the case of are trying to build. in the case of a small business, what is really important is whether they generate cash, what is not important is what the gender is, so in fact ai can help you lend to women where you might never have done that in the past. you have a huge network going already, that is clear. how much of your business is about the uk and how much is about india? you have an interesting balance. we started in india was a the problem is so huge there, there are so many businesses that need financing and it is a growing economy but of course being based in the uk, we are looking very, at this market as welltor, see what we can do to help here. the problem is the same in every country, unfortunately. it takes so long and it is so expensive for both parties to transact and making technology come into the fore, and enables that, that market place through a network effect is what will help. it is a fascinates

insight. thank you very much indeed. we have some response from you. let us we have some response from you. let us look at some. peter says five minutes on facebook on twitter should confirm doubts people may have about the effect of social media. i think that is a negative connotation. i would say so. kerry is asking why not have parents monitor and limit what kids do? kerryer i think as a parent, and you area kerryer i think as a parent, and you are a parent too, i think you do your best, don't you. not any more. mine are fartoo your best, don't you. not any more. mine are far too old to pay attention. sophie says the they shouldn't be child ren's attention. sophie says the they shouldn't be children's data to start with. but i would be

anonymised. as if... thanks for being with us, and have a jolly good weekend. bye. good morning. in rainbow behind me might give you an indication of the type of weather we expect today. across the uk. that is right, a mixture of sunny spells, and showers. most of the showers will be focussed on a couple of wetter fronts, moving from west to east. 0ne fronts, moving from west to east. one in england and wales, the other one across scotland and northern ireland. low pressure to the far north. blustery winds in the far north. blustery winds in the far north of scotland. you can see as the showers progress east ward, this afternoon, sunshine to the east and to the west of that, there will be sunshine widely in scotland and northern ireland, just that band of rain moving through south—west scotland, and moving through northern ireland. maximum

temperatures today getting up to 7-10, temperatures today getting up to 7—10, maybe 11 in east anglia and the south—east. through tonight, many of the showers is across england and wales will clear away, but there will be across scotland and those will be with snow over the higher ground of scotland. generally speaking clear skiesings light winds, a chilly night. temperatures getting close to if not below freezing, so frost first thing on saturday morning. for the weekend, we have a big area of high pressure, moving its way in, becoming established across the uk by sunday. that is going to settle things down, so lighter winds, lots more sunshine than we have been having in the last week or so, and with that it will be plenty of dry weather as well. one or two showers in the north to north east, especially through the morning in scotland. 0therwise drier, with lots of sunshine and maximum temperatures, seven or eight degrees. going through saturday night, again, with the light winds, with the clear skies you can see by

the blues, a widespread frost developing into sunday morning, temperatures down to minus three, minus four degrees in more rural area, to start off on sunday, but again, it will be a frosty start but lots of sunshine, lots of blue skies round on sunday. there will be a bit of cloud to the far north but again light winds, really pleasant to be out and about, maximum temperatures about six to eight, maybe nine degrees celsius. we keep this area of high pressure for a time going into next week. lit start to slip further southwards, allowing weather fronts coming close to the far north of scotland. generally speaking, for the first part of next week it stays mostly settled. bye.

you're watching bbc news at 9 with me, rebecca jones. the headlines: psychiatrists and campaigners call for social media companies to be forced to hand over data to universities for research into the potential harms of using the technology. we asa we as a world, notjust a country, would better understand the sort of pressures and problems being forced upon young people by social media platforms. iran's supreme leader, ayatollah ali khomenei, leads friday prayers in the capital tehran for the first time in eight years. we're in glasgow for our series our planet matters. the city has committed itself to become the first net zero emissions city in the uk.