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Redefining What It Means to be a Next-Generation Energy Company in Africa
More than 650 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack electricity. Distributed energy service companies face many obstacles in serving this market - from finding the right capital investors to cultivating on-the-ground expertise. Mansoor Hamayun, CEO of solar distributed energy firm BBOXX, says his company is taking aim at several of those challenges with a new financing mechanism. In partnership with Bamboo Capital Partners, BBOXX is launching an investment platform that aims to break down barriers preventing energy companies from scaling up in developing markets.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Why India’s air pollution is so horrendous
A whopping nine in 10 people on Earth breathe highly polluted air, and more than 80 percent of urban dwellers have to endure outdoor pollution that exceeds health standards, according to the WHO’s World Global Ambient Air Quality Database.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: No Blank Check for Development Banks
The kind of large-scale, sustainable infrastructure projects needed to forestall catastrophic climate change are rarely attractive investments for the private sector or even most governments. That means development banks have a crucial role to play, so long as they put the climate first.
- Categories
- Environment
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It’s Time to Measure the Effectiveness of Investing in Global Goals
Climate change is a defining issue of our time, and the global financial community has responded with a series of investing frameworks, stock exchanges and other activities to encourage private investment in climate change-focused initiatives. Despite these efforts, evidence suggests we are still off track to hit global targets. William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg of The Investment Integration Project discuss their new report, which advocates a new paradigm for measuring the effectiveness of investing in SDGs – and uses climate change investment to illustrate how this approach could work.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Press release: Government of India and the World Bank Sign a New Project to Benefit Over 25 Million Small and Marginal Farmers in Maharashtra
The project is expected to benefit over 7 million people spread over an area of 3.0 million ha and cover 5,142 villages across 15 most climate vulnerable districts of the region.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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Five Key Questions for Managing Impact – And How to Apply Them in Your Business
Hundreds of investors, entrepreneurs, social scientists and evaluators from around the world recently joined together to devise an easier way to manage and comprehend business impact. They came up with five dimensions for assessing a business’ impact on people and the planet, whether for good or ill – in a way that others can understand, both within and outside of the company. Amanda Feldman of the Bridges Impact+ team explores how businesses – from startups to multinational corporations – can go about assessing their true impact.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
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We know how food production needs to change if crisis is to be avoided—so why isn’t this happening?
With the global population to reach 9 billion in decades, global food systems must change in order to feed the planet. Is agroecology the solution?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Tags
- food security, SDGs
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Reconciling Paris Agreement goals for temperature, emissions—study finds two targets don’t always go hand in hand
As society faces the challenge of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, new research finds an apparent contradiction: Achieving that goal doesn't necessarily require cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero, as called for in the Paris Agreement. But under certain conditions, even zero emissions might not be enough.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- climate change
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