Cast your minds back a couple of weeks. The headlines about John Browne's resignation from BP were everywhere. The scandal was broken. What, exactly, the scandal was supposed to be escaped us (while we don't condone lying under oath, it was hardly the stuff of a criminal mind).

One of the allegations, or discoveries, was that Browne had twice been to Libya to visit Colonel Gadaffi with security guards in tow. We pointed out that Libya has oil. And, historically, hasn't been the most stable of nations. So the revelation was nothing more than common sense to us.

We wonder if today's news that BP has announced a $900m gas exploration deal with Libya will satisfy any remaining curioristy over Browne's visits to the country...

A consultation document on nuclear power was released earlier this week alongside the energy white paper. The debate on nuclear energy heated up after the prime minister backed its development, saying that the country wouldn't be able to meet energy demands with renewable sources alone.

However, nuclear power is estimated to increase the cost of energy by about three times the current amount.

According to trade secretary Alistair Darling a decision on whether to build nuclear power plants must be addressed by the end of the year as depleting fossil fuels means that within 20 years the UK will have to rely completely on other sources of energy.

The government is asking that the private sector, the public sector, non-governmental bodies and the general public all have their say (whether they will stick to this agenda remains to be seen). Click here to make your opinion known.

Today's Wall Street Journal carries an interesting story about Lenovo, the Hong Kong-based technology company which bought IBM's PC division for $1.25bn a couple of years ago. The company has just returned to profit, largely thanks to its chief financial officer, Mary Ma.

As Citigroup analyst, Kirk Yang, told the newspaper, "Mary Ma is the person who put Lenovo on the map." Her departure is seen as something of a blow by investors.

Happily, help is at hand in the form of her replacement Wong Wai Ming (cue Ming the merciless puns by the thousand), the current chief executive of Roly International Holdings Group. I'll repeat that. A current chief executive is moving to become chief financial officer.

We congratulate him on his promotion.

Has anyone noticed that it is exactly 1,000 days between 30 September 2004, the day on which Tony Blair announced that he would serve a third term but not a fourth and 27 June 2007, which will be his last day in Downing Street?

Could it possibly have been orchestrated like that? And if so, why? Very puzzling...

Tony Blair's angst at leaving Downing Street will no doubt be eased by the prospect that he's got a possible £10m nest egg lying in wait, once he completes his memoirs and hits the speaker circuit big-time.

Come on, Gordon: you've got time to slip in one more windfall tax before you leave No 11...

The subject of today's Insider Business Club, a web seminar available to finance directors and financial controllers, was "The Designer FD" - a discussion on the skills and attributes that the modern finance director needs in order to be successful.

Joining us were Carolyn Bresh, global head of finance at Reuters; Steve Dunn, finance director of Microsoft UK and Chris Jackson, head of the ICAEW's Finance and Management faculty.

We started with the assumption that the traditional bean-counting FD is no longer, which left us plenty of time to get into the nitty-gritty of exploring what finance directors must do to ensure that they make time for all the new, business-focused elements of their roles.

So, here's a few brief pointers:

• Talent management: make sure you recruit the right people to allow you to focus on the bigger picture;
• Especially, ensure you have an excellent financial controller;
• Trust your team: again, this will allow you to move on to other aspects of the business;
• Develop your negotiation, communication and management skills;
• But: absolutely challenge decisions where necessary;
• Maintain a balance in your roles as FD;
• Investigate technology and new ways of working, such as shared service models and outsourcing, to free up more time.

We'd be interested to hear more from readers.

If you missed the discussion, it will be available for download from the Insider Business Club website later today.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases a report on the global economic state of climate change tomorrow (4 May). The Panel's economic report will be used by governments around the world to draft their climate change policies and prove that reduction is both achievable and affordable.

However, the negotiations, being held in Bangkok, have been met with opposition from many developing countries, in particular China, which believes that 75% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are from the developed world and, as previously stated in the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change, the developed countries should cut emissions first. In a further twist, the US has blamed China for pollution even though America emits six times more pollution per capita than China.

It was recently discussed at the May Day Business Summit on Climate Change (held here in England) that the environment is high on board room agendas; and that companies that don't adapt "would be left behind", as one participant said.

It seems in stark contrast to world leaders who are still laying blame, rather than accepting the situation and working out how, as a global economy, we are going to tackle the effects.

A meeting with Kurt Ramin of the XBRL International Steering Committee earlier this week proved something of an eye-opener.

Not only was Ramin clearly passionate about the XBRL accounting technology standard (which was something of an eye-opener in itself) but he provided an interesting update about the state of global XBRL adoption.

Currently, the US leads the way, where the Edgar Online database allows analysts, investors and businesses to search easily through the financial statements of thousands of companies for analysis and benchmarking purposes. See this earlier story.

But, it now seems that China has caught up, with all the companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzen Stock Exchanges providing access to their financial statements through Edgar Online. In English.

This is only made possible with the adoption of XBRL which, ultimately, will pave the way for truly global markets. But, some countries are more advanced than others and with this they are set to gain competitive advantage.

Unfortunately, the UK is lagging behind.

Lord Browne, the chief executive of BP, has resigned with immediate effect after details of his private life were published by Associated Newspapers. In an astonishing series of events, Browne left the company today after the UK courts lifted an injunction which had prevented Associated, which owns the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard, from publishing the story. By resigning, Browne has waved goodbye to a potential £12m windfall.

Analysing the story, however, offers little scandal. The biggest issue, it seems, is that Browne, himself a bachelor, lied in court over how he met his gay lover of four years, Jeff Chevalier, and that he had used BP resources (computers and technical support staff) to help him in a business venture.

Revelations about Browne twice visiting Colonel Gadaffi in Libya (itself an oil producer) with either a secret service agent or former agent as protection, reads nothing more than common sense.

We could go on, but, Enron it certainly isn't.