Groenewegen, along with Rachel Benepe of First Eagle Investment management and Juan Carlos Artigas of the gold council, all sharing a panel on gold at the aforementioned conference, made a case for gold as a hedge, not only of inflation, but of risk.

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Clearly, when the biggest player in the industry reverses itself on sharing POS data and then adds panel data to the mix, there are going to be some huge ramifications.

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In 2007, he was recognised for his work as a Principal Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice-President Al Gore.

UNESCO: Professor Martin Price