World Business Report

Baltimore's Key Bridge collapsed after a container ship crashed into a supporting pylon. The port near the bridge is the largest in the US for specialised cargo. We get the latest. A huge amount of food is wasted every day, often because farmers are unable to keep it cold after it’s harvested. We look into some of the potential solutions. And as more countries around the world tighten rules around vaping, we talk to Tadeu Marocco, CEO of British American Tobacco, who says that a blanket ban of e-cigarettes could drive an illegal market.

Rahul Tandon reflects on the departure of the company’s Chief Executive David Calhoun. He is set to leave at the end of the year. Could Pakistan be set to resume trade talks with India? We hear from a former Pakistani ambassador to the UK and the US. And we examine why rental costs have risen sharply in some parts of Spain.

The big event of 2021 that will shape economies all over the world for decades to come was the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. The meeting saw a deluge of promises, but what was actually achieved? Martin Webber speaks to Tim Gould, chief energy economist at the International Energy Agency and economist Irwin Stelzer, from the Hudson Institute in the United States. It was another boom year for the pharmaceutical industry as it crafted the vaccines that have saved so many lives. Of the 8 billion coronavirus vaccinations worldwide, one billion have been delivered by the US logistics company, UPS. We hear from Wes Wealer, President of UPS healthcare. And small business owners have had a bleak time for much of the past year. But many of those that have survived now feel optimistic. We hear from the owner of the Aroma speciality coffee shop in Bologna in Italy, Cristina Caroli, about her year.

Covid-19 is set to prompt radical long term changes to how we live and work, so what lessons can be learnt when we eventually emerge from the pandemic? Could the changes in the way we work herald higher productivity and happier people in the future? We hear the stories of the people who managed to thrive during a very difficult year, including the milkman who saw a boom in deliveries and the dancer who found work in South Korea when the London stage went dark. Martin Webber is joined by Professor Devi Sridhar who holds the Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh; economist Roger Bootle, of Capital Economics; Robert Reich, former Labour Secretary under President Clinton; Tomas Philipson, who was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Mr Trump; and actor Thomas Inge who is currentl starring in the musical Cats in South Korea.