This will help to meet the ever-increasing demand for mobile Internet, video and data in the world's largest smartphone market.

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While such initiatives are certainly helping to reduce aviation's environmental footprint, however, the rapid growth of the airline industry, with an ever-increasing number of flights catering to an ever-increasing demand for air travel, means that their impact is at best limited.

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This level of unmet need will expand as the world's largest generation ever of young people enter their reproductive lives - increasing demand for contraception by 40 per cent by 2050.

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Demand has soared for HDDs due to the ever-increasing amounts of digital content such as music, photographs, and videos.

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Global demand, meanwhile, continues to rise, thanks to an ever-increasing thirst for oil in fast-growing developing countries such as China and India.

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