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Renewable energy generates close to 2% of electricity in UK. In 2008, UK’s electricity generation totaled 389,650GWh, a decrease of 1.9% over 2007. During 2004–08, UK’s electricity generation decreased at CAGR of 0.3% mainly on account of financial crisis. At a national level, the ‘UK Renewable Energy Strategy’ (2009) suggests that the UK’s electricity generation from renewables would be more than 30% by 2020. UK’s renewable energy industry is driven by government incentives and mandates. The UK’s electricity market for renewables is driven by Feed-in Tariff system and the Renewable Obligation.

Fuelled by an aging population and rising rates of illness, the clinical nutrition markets in the US, Canada and the EU continue to expand. Each of the five major product manufacturers are attempting to differentiate their offerings through the development of new products tailored specifically for certain patient groups. These products offer significantly greater nutritive benefits than more general products, offering manufacturers a means to establish leadership in these segments and capture sha

The convergence of broadcast, broadband and mobile technologies is creating a dynamic ontent everywhere?consumer market context, forcing major transformation and potential restructuring in the consumer electronics, technology, telecoms and media industries, and especially for content creators, owners and publishers. It is the consumer that is driving these changes, forcing the seamless convergence of video content, and this is the essential background to this report. This report lays out the business case for the strategic adoption of video-centric direct consumer engagement, across multiple devices and multi-platforms, with a special focus on Internet connected TVs and other connected CE devices. These devices will create the opportunity for content publishers and brands to develop future over-the-top TV engagement and monetization strategies using a converged content planning discipline. The search for a winning consumer proposition is reflected in the convergence of a number of businesses onto the same ground, creating strong competition as well as potential for consumer confusion in the short term.

In 2007, due to the impending patent cliff and the consequent need to cut costs, big pharma began for the first time to outsource chemical API manufacturing to China and India. Prior to this only generic drug companies had manufactured in the two countries. Since then, big pharma has been undergoing waves of layoffs that have been accelerated by the economic downturn, with manufacturing and sales being particularly affected, and outsourcing levels in R&D and manufacturing are expected to increase further in the future.

The cardiovascular (CV) device industry is highly competitive and has reached maturity resulting in single digit growth rates of prominent devices such as pacemakers, defibrillators, and drug eluting stents (DES). Innovations in niche sectors such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and ventricular assist devices (VADs) are poised for double digit growth in the near to mid-term future. From 2007–09, the top three companies in the CV segment acquired other smaller firms to expand their product portfolios and to gain market share in new geographies. Some major companies also established manufacturing facilities outside the US to enhance cost containment and product distribution. The CV device market remained relatively resilient during the economic downturn compared with other healthcare segments. The 2007–09 period also witnessed a considerable rise in consolidation activities among major companies.

The Future of Front-of-Pack Nutritional Labeling in Food and Drinks’ report aims to dispel some of the myths, compound some of the confusion and clarify many of the complications surrounding the issue of point of purchase labeling in the food and drink market. Taking a global perspective, the report was written in the first half of 2010 during a time of economic turbulence, political changes and regulatory transformations around the world. It is therefore as forward focused as possible, while providing insight into current, emerging and evolving influential trends and market drivers. As one nutrition labeling expert told the author during the report research, there is “never a good time to write a report like this, as so much changes so fast”. However, there is significant demand for an independent report from within the food and drink industry that provides an overview into the nutrition labeling options being considered by the regulators and major players. This report contains analysis of the influence of mandatory and voluntary labeling regulations on new product development (NPD), marketing and branding strategies, alongside an outline of consumer, manufacturer, retailer and regulator perspectives.

Especially in the major market countries, more consumers are looking to buy food and drinks products comprised of ingredients that they perceive to be healthy. For many consumers, food and drinks products made with natural ingredients fall into this category, with artificial ingredients being perceived as inherently unnatural and unhealthy.

European gas demand was volatile through 2009, with some countries seeing slight declines in demand. However, the longer term forecast is continued growth for the Western European gas market as new gas-fired power plants come on-stream. ‘The Western European Gas Market Outlook 2010’ is a newly updated management report that examines the role of gas within each of the major Western European utilities markets and analyses the differences that exist in terms of gas self sufficiency, and future growth of demand. This report provides new and updated analysis of 19 Western European gas markets, with detailed data on supply and demand balances.

The global chemical industry which is over $3 trillion in size had a major setback in 2009. The US economic recession, exacerbated by the credit crisis had spread to all regions around the world. This was largely reflected among the major chemical manufacturers most of which had a significant decline in sales over 2008. Moreover, many chemical customers also reduced their purchases in the face of slower end market demand and reduced inventories in response to the adverse impact of the recent economic downturn.

The generic drug market is growing strongly as health plan payers around the world continue to implement incentives for participants, pharmacists, doctors and others to use generic, rather than branded, medications. Facing rising patent expirations, pharmaceutical companies are diversifying into their own generics businesses, creating a vibrant market for generic drug company acquisitions as they seek to capture market share. At the same time, startups and other generic drug companies are attempting to expand, seeking capital through private investments, public offerings and other means; and government-run companies in China, Latin America and other regions are privatizing.