Your commercial news round-up: COP28, train strikes, Nigel Farage, Spotify wrapped

Reading time: three minutes

In this week’s round-up, we take a look at the COP28 summit (which began today), train strikes, the controversy surrounding Nigel Farage and Spotify wrapped. Find out more in the round-up below.

• The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, begins today and will run until 12 December 2023 as world leaders meet to discuss climate change. The summit, which is the 28th annual United Nations (UN) climate meeting, aims to:

  • continue the goal of limiting long-term temperature rises to 1.5C;

  • discuss fast-tracking the move to clean energy; and

  • provide money to poorer countries for climate action.

This year’s conference is being held in Dubai, with more than 200 governments invited – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles will be in attendance. The conference location has been described as “controversial” given that, among other reasons, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the world’s top 10 oil-producing nations. In addition, the UEA appointed Sultan al-Jaber, chief executive of a state-owned oil company, as president of the summit – Jaber has previously argued that he’s a good fit for the role, given his position as chair of renewable energy firm Masdar, in which he’s overseen the expansion of wind and solar power in the past. Previous COPs have also received criticism, with Greta Thunberg among the critics accusing the summits of “greenwashing”. However, others argue that there’s potential for agreements to be forged that could fight climate change on a global scale. 

• Following the long-running series of train strikes, RMT has voted to accept a new pay deal. As part of the deal, workers will receive a backdated pay rise of 5% for 2022/23, as well as job security guarantees (eg, no compulsory redundancies) until the end of 2024. Transport Secretary Mark Harper called this “a significant step towards resolving industrial disputes on the railway, giving workers a pay rise before Christmas and a pathway to delivering long overdue reforms”. Despite this, train drivers who are represented by the union Aslef are still staging a strike between 1 and 9 December. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It is disappointing that Aslef continue down this path. We very much believe Aslef should follow the RMT’s lead and give their members a say.”
   
• Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence party, plans to seek legal action against NatWest following the closure of his Coutts bank account, which is part of NatWest’s wealth management division. He wrote on X, formally Twitter, that “NatWest must be held accountable”. The closure of his account is allegedly due to his balance falling below the limit, according to a source who spoke to the BBC. In a video Farage released about the matter, he notes that claims he had received a £548,573 bribe from a Russian television station could be a possible reason his bank account was cancelled. These claims, which were denied by Farage, were raised by Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant. The scandal eventually caused NatWest’s Chief Executive Alison Rose to step down. In addition to this controversy, Farage has also allegedly caused fans to boycott TV reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! More than 10,000 people expressed outrage about the casting of Farage on X, using the hashtag “Boycott I’m A Celeb”.
   
• From TV boycotts to music superstars, Spotify has released its annual Spotify wrapped. The campaign releases users’ listening stats, including their top artists and songs for 2023. Spotify wrapped releases new data each year, with this year’s new addition matching users to a “sound town”: a city that best fits your listening habits and tastes. If you had Taylor Swift as one of your top artists this year, you weren’t alone. She was the most streamed global artist on Spotify in 2023, with 26.1 billion global streams. Swift has rereleased many of her older albums, in a bid to own the rights to this music after they were sold to Scooter Braun, entrepreneur and music executive. Following the success of her re-recordings, some artists have been asked not to re-record their releases until between 10 and 30 years after leaving record companies.

Check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Or prefer to listen to your commercial news? Why not check out our Commercial Connect podcast?            

Follow LawCareers.Net on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram for regular business news updates.