Business News Weekly Roundup, June 26 2015

By Helen Vaudrey Updated Jun 26, 2015

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Introduction
Greece facing default as EU reaches crisis talks
Minnesota tops list of best states for business
Gates Foundation to invest US$2 billion in renewable energy projects

Greece facing default as EU reaches crisis talks

Talks between European Union finance ministers over the Greece bailout have reached a standstill. Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, still appears unwilling to commit to curb spending on pensions, raise sales taxes or scale back planned tax increases on business.

Greece is required to repay the IMF €1.5 billion (c.US$1.7 billion) by Tuesday, but without a deal being struck, repayment will not be possible. The IMF has stated that the payment deadline will not be extended any further.

Tsipras has increased tensions within the union by stating that any deal struck with the EU over the Greece bailout would ideally relieve the burden of his country’s debt with even lower interest rates and longer repayment schedules.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has indicated that a deal must be reached within the next two days, but has warned that the EU will not be “blackmailed” by Greece.

Earlier, officials reported some progress had been made between Athens, the IMF and Europe, but not enough to release the remaining €7.2 billion Greece desperately needs.

"For the last few weeks the three [creditor] institutions have been working together, we are coming up with a joint proposal, it has been focused and disciplined work and unfortunately the other side is not there yet, so still a lot of work to do,” said IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, in a statement to CNN.

Minnesota tops list of best states for business

CNBC made a shock announcement this week by naming Minnesota at the top of its best states for business in the US annual rankings, despite Minnesota’s notoriety for high taxes and favor of labor unions.

“Never since we began rating the states in 2007 has a high-tax, high-wage, union-friendly state made it to the top of our rankings. But Minnesota does so well in so many other areas — like education and quality of life — that its cost disadvantages fade away,” CNBC said in a statement.

The rankings analyze the best states for business through factors such as economy, infrastructure, transportation, and workforce, access to capital, business friendliness, cost of living and cost of doing business.

CNBC also ranked Minnesota third for quality of life, noting a low crime rate, clean air and water, and access to quality healthcare.

“Minnesota is on the right track overall for business growth, for job creation, for improved standard of living, quality of life, not that we don’t have our deficiencies; we do … but overall, and the fact that businesses look at state’s circumstances overall, we’re on the right track,” said Minnesota’s governor, Mark Dayton, at a news conference on Thursday.

Minnesota’s neighbors also did well with North Dakota, Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin ranking sixth, 10th, 11th and 15th respectively in the best states for business stakes.

Gates Foundation to invest US$2 billion in renewable energy projects

In a bid to tackle climate change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced that it will be investing US$2 billion in renewable energy technologies initiatives, but Gates has refused to divest from companies that ignore international carbon burning rates in defiance of international agreements to limit global warming.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Gates said that he will spend the next five years doubling his investments into renewables in an attempt to “bend the curve” on climate change.

According to the Gates Foundation, which is the world’s largest private foundation, the nonprofit organization currently has US$1.4 billion invested in fossil fuel companies, including BP – the company responsible for the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gates’ announcement comes after Christiana Figueres, the leading UN spokesperson on climate change negotiations, wrote to six leading oil companies urging them to support December’s milestone climate change conference.

Gates told the FT that the only way current technology could reduce global emissions is at “a beyond astronomical cost” and that innovation is the only way to reach a positive scenario.