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Hype in the Energy Access Sector (Finally!)
Leaders at Persistent Energy, an impact investor focused on the renewable sector primarily in West Africa, push back against a recent NextBillion post by Ceniarth positing the industry has become overhyped. While there has been some hype about a handful of established companies, they argue, the bigger concern is that not enough capital is flowing into the sector to give it the opportunity to prove itself.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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How Can Inclusive Business Advance the SDGs?
Two recent publications released in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals' first anniversary share the view that inclusive business is a part of the solution to deliver on the SDGs. That's a sign of progress, according to Jenny Melo, but we still need to go deeper in the conversation and ask for impacts, measurements and specific connections.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Environment Month Takeaway: It’s Time to Bust Some Business Models
The business, technological, financial and political (notwithstanding the U.S. government) tailwinds have never been moving in such alignment toward a cleaner and more sustainable world economy. But as NextBillion editor Scott Anderson points out, it will take truth tellers and, yes, some persistent agitators to make sure this ship stays on course.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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Energy Urgency: Why the Global Mining Industry is Embracing Renewables
November’s elections have given the 2015 Paris agreement unprecedented urgency, as 194 signatories race to keep temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. Yet COP21’s enduring challenge for investors – scaling climate-resilient industries in the developing world – remains elusive. Meanwhile, according to Joseph Kirschke, mines around the world are innovation and energy-intensive ecosystems brimming with solutions just below the surface.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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India aims to become 100% e-vehicle nation by 2030: Piyush Goyal
The government is working on a scheme to provide electric cars on zero down payment for which people can pay out of their savings on expensive fossil fuels, for becoming 100 per cent electric vehicle nation by 2030. "India can become the first country of its size which will run 100 per cent of electric vehicles. We are trying to make this programme self financing.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- renewable energy
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Why Fossil Fuel Companies Must Evolve or Die: An Interview with Carbon Tracker Founder Mark Campanale
To keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius and (hopefully) avoid the harshest consequences of climate change, up to three-quarters of known fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground. That's the thesis of the Carbon Tracker Initiative and its founder, Mark Campanale. If that sounds like a heavy lift for an oil-dependent world, he raises a compelling point: With collapsing margins and emerging competition from renewables, the fossil fuel industry has no choice but to evolve. Campanale elaborates on these views in this video interview.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Three Reasons Impact Investors Aren’t Sweating Trump’s Climate Policies: An Interview with Nancy Pfund
This week, President Trump signed what's been called a "sweeping demolition of Obama-era policies on coal mining, fracking, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change." So why isn't Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner of DBL Partners, worried? We discuss politics and the environment with the impact investing pioneer in this video interview.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Competition Heats Up in Kenya’s Off-Grid, Mobile Pay-Go Solar Market
Home to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Kenya is a hive of activity and a magnet for sustainable development-minded off-grid solar and energy storage startups. Having raised $40 million of capital over the course of the last four months of 2016, d.light announced that an average 800 Kenyan households a day are signing up for its D30 Pay-Go solar home system.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy