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The Battle for the Planet: How Climate Change Investments Can – And Must – Save the World
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the grim trendlines of global warming – a problem that, if left unchecked, will have a catastrophic impact on the planet. But as Bonnie Foley-Wong at Pique Ventures explains, the financial impacts of climate change have already begun, and investors – whether as individuals or institutions – can play a key role in developing and scaling solutions. She highlights seven areas and themes that investors can focus on to help build a planet where future generations can thrive.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Supporting Women Farmers in the Age of Climate Change: Why It’s Time To Look at Agriculture Solutions Through Both a Gender and Climate Lens
In sub-Saharan Africa, women smallholder farmers face a number of significant barriers, from lower access to resources, to entrenched sociocultural norms that limit their mobility, time and decision-making power. And these obstacles are exacerbated by climate change, which also places unique burdens on women. In response to these overlapping challenges, Bianca Samson, Flavia Howard and Charlie Habershon at Dalberg argue that agricultural support efforts must combine a gender and climate lens. They discuss ways to align these three priorities to drive catalytic impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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Beyond Energy Efficiency: Key Trends and Pathways to Scale in the Solar Appliance Market
Solar appliance uptake is a key element of global energy access efforts. But according to Yasemin Erboy Ruff and Lauren Boucher at CLASP, no appliance is close to reaching market saturation, despite considerable gains in recent years. They share highlights from Efficiency for Access' 2021 Solar Appliance Technology Briefs, which characterize the market, trends and pathways to scale for 11 off-grid-appropriate solar appliances and enabling technologies, and explore what these findings mean for the solar appliance market and the customers it serves.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Impact Reporting for All: Developing an Approach That Works for Both SMEs and Their Funders
In 2020, nearly $2.3 trillion was invested with the intention of generating positive social or environmental impact – but impact measurement was only used across 28% of that total amount. What is stopping the managers of the other 72% of impact capital from measuring their investments’ impact – and how can those obstacles be addressed? Kevin Horgan, Geoff Kendall and Joanna Robertson at Future-Fit Foundation explain why the difficulty of impact reporting is at the heart of this issue, and present a solution that they believe could revolutionize the impact investment landscape.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Digital Finance for Climate Resilience: An Urgent Opportunity for Startups and Stakeholders in Emerging Markets
The consequences of climate change are no longer hypothetical scenarios or predictions – they are a global reality, and they’re getting worse, especially for the poor and vulnerable. But according to Malika Anand at BFA Global's Catalyst Fund, this crisis presents an opportunity for digital finance to power greater climate resilience. She explores several types of climate resilience solutions, and shares a framework to help both digital finance and climate stakeholders begin allocating more resources toward these solutions in emerging markets.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance, Telecommunications
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Bringing Cooking Poverty off the SDG Sidelines: A New Study Takes a Fresh Look at the Clean Cooking Challenge
Dirty cooking negatively affects almost four billion people and kills over 4 million each year – more than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-AIDS combined. As Phil LaRocco at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs argues, the issue is one of the largest unsolved public health and equality crises humanity has ever faced – and failing to address it will put the Sustainable Development Goals out of reach. He explores why previous and ongoing clean cooking efforts have failed, and outlines some potential solutions that could finally turn things around, based on a recent study out of Columbia University.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Curbing Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Why Woodfuel Alternatives Are a Key Sustainable Solution
Deforestation is rampant in sub-Saharan Africa – the only region where the pace of forest loss has increased in each of the last three decades. According to Ian Otula and Aaron Pattillo of Vuma Biofuels and Wassa N’Gandjo Cisse of the BESTSELLER Foundation, the root cause of this crisis is the fact that woodfuels provide over 80% of the region's energy, and there's an alarming imbalance between supply and demand. They explore how woodfuel substitutes can offer a solution to this issue – and how Vuma Biofuels is leveraging these sustainable fuel sources to address a key driver of deforestation in Kenya: the tea industry.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Three Reasons Why Zero Waste is Essential to a Green, Fair Economic Recovery from COVID-19
The global waste problem is tremendous — the amount of plastic the world produces is set to quadruple in the next 30 years, and yet we’ve only been able to recycle 9% of existing plastic. But according to Claire Arkin of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, there are solutions. She explores the multiple benefits of a waste management approach that prioritizes waste reduction and material recovery, lays out three reasons why this zero-waste model is key to producing jobs and building healthy economies, and highlights some businesses that are working toward this goal.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Environment
- Tags
- circular economy, COVID-19, recycling, waste
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