Quick Take — At COP 29 climate conference very bitter agreement for countries of the South

States at the Baku climate conference pledged on Sunday to pay USD 300 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change by 2035. A much smaller sum than they were asking for. While the sum tripled the initial target agreed in 2009(100 billion aid reached in 2022, two years late), it falls far short of the expectations expressed by the South and non-governmental organisations. To cope with the immense needs created by climate disasters, but also by the energy transition, the Africa group had initially spoken of USD 1.3 trillion. The money that will not come from the richest countries will be taken away from health, schools, etc. .On climate change in Albiate read here

The Caprotti family and relatives: the formidable Aunt Virginia, sister of great-great-grandfather Giuseppe

Aunt Virginia was the family peacemaker at a time of great feuds: the good work of keeping at bay two men who were able to tear each other apart at work whether they were competitors or partners had to be continued successfully by spouses and nephews, as the two, in their older years, used to spend Christmas together and with relatives

The Caprotti family and Coop: the sale of Esselunga, Aldo Soldi and ‘Sickle and Cart’

... This news is almost contemporaneous with a proposal of mine, in October 2004, to buy the majority share of Esselunga, a proposal that was rejected. At this point there was talk of four other offers, in particular one from the American giant Walmart; and Aldo Soldi, since 2004 president of ANCC - Coop, the National Association of Consumer Cooperatives, also expressed interest in buying it, because a move into foreign hands would have been a disaster for the Italian food economy. An unwise move, which will be among the reasons why Bernardo will publish his book Sickle and Cart in 2007.

The Caprotti family, innovation and tradition in an Italian factory: workers from San Vittore prison

When, in the early post-unification years, the Caprottis built their first large factory in the true sense of the term, eventually finding themselves with thousands of square metres of space, they were initially not quite clear what to put in it. They probably envisaged a kind of ‘centralised manufacturing’, and to this end they purchased various machines by turning to various manufacturers, including the Milanese prison of San Vittore whose director, Eugenio Cicognani, was personally passionate about and invented a newly developed regulator loom, built by the inmates.

The Caprotti family, innovation and tradition in an Italian textile manufacturer: Alessandro Belgiojoso and the ‘La meccanica della Caprotti’ exhibition

Alessandro Belgiojoso is an internationally renowned photographer, husband of Albertina, daughter of Gianni Albertini D'Urso, in turn daughter of Gianni Albertini, an explorer and my great-uncle. Years ago, in 2008, I approached him to photograph a documentary collection kept in my archive, from which a panel exhibition was to be created in 2011. His uncle Giuseppe Barbiano di Belgiojoso (1924 - 2022) was a friend of my father Bernardo and probably also of my grandfather Peppino

The Caprotti family, innovation and tradition in an Italian manufacture: Albiate and Switzerland

Bernardo Caprotti, an agricultural owner, founded Giuseppe Caprotti’s Bernardo Caprotti cotton weaving company on his land in Ponte Albiate. Caprotti’s company was still based on an almost pre-industrial production system: few simple machines, many warehouses, worker-farmers weaving mainly at home. In 1866 there were about 1500 of them. However, the great industrial revolution that would transform Europe was underway…