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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.
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- Agriculture, Environment
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Avoiding the Great Divergence: How Community Investment Trusts Could Help Developing Countries Recover from COVID-19 and Achieve the SDGs
As the global economy gradually recovers from COVID-19, some fear the world is heading towards a “Great Divergence,” in which the recovery gathers momentum in richer countries while leaving developing countries behind. To avoid this outcome, emerging economies will need a surge of investment. To that end, Norman A. Bailey at The City University of New York and Alfred Watkins at the Global Solutions Summit explore why Community Investment Trusts provide an innovative model to finance pandemic recovery while building a foundation for sustainable growth.
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- Coronavirus, Investing, Social Enterprise
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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.
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- 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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Shifting from Financial Inclusion to Financial Health: Strategic Focus Areas for Providers and Other Stakeholders
In the past decade, 1.2 billion people around the world have obtained a financial account. But according to Nishant Kumar and Sonal Agrawal at Lakshya, this growing financial inclusion isn't leading to similar gains in financial health – and addressing this challenge will require stakeholders to boost engagement on the demand side rather than just maximizing supply-side efficiency. They propose three key strategic focus areas for improving global financial health, and explore how they differ from the approaches taken to boost financial inclusion.
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- Finance
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A Business Opportunity With Exponential Benefits: Linking Agriculture and Energy to Improve Livelihoods in Africa
Agriculture contributes around 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, and energy access can help drive agricultural development. However, Scarlett Santana at RMI points out that the region has few businesses enabling productive energy uses in agriculture, and the lack of electricity for mechanization is limiting growth in rural communities. She explores the opportunities that exist for agribusinesses that link their investment and other business decisions to energy considerations – and for energy businesses that link their efforts to agriculture.
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- Agriculture, Energy
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How Blockchain Can Support Social Impact: Three Innovative Use Cases that Highlight its Potential
When it comes to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin seem to dominate the headlines, whereas blockchain itself – cryptocurrencies’ underlying technology – often gets overlooked. But according to Raj Jain at the Social Finance Fund, blockchain may actually have a more compelling future than cryptocurrency – and the technology is flourishing in a variety of different spaces, including the social impact sector. He highlights three organizations that are putting blockchain to innovative use in social impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology