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Vote for NextBillion’s Most Influential Article of 2021
As an open forum for emerging markets business, NextBillion publishes around 150 original, guest-written articles per year, covering enterprises, innovations, challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors and geographies. Each December we select the 12 most-read articles of the past year to include in our "Most Influential Article of the Year" contest. We invite you to vote for the article that impacted you the most in 2021. You can vote up to one time per hour during the two-week voting period, which runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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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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How Recovery From COVID-19 and Climate Policies Might Affect the Use of “Clean” Cooking Fuels
A group of IIASA researchers shows how recovery from the pandemic and climate mitigation policies might affect access to clean fuels.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy
- Region
- Global
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Africa Is the Key To Ending Harmful Use of Polluting Fuels in the Home
In wealthy countries, most people can barely imagine using anything other than electricity or gas to cook in their homes.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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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Optimizing Results-Based Financing for Off-Grid Energy: Why Localization Can Provide a Pathway to More Effective Investment
Leading investors across the energy access sector have embraced results-based financing (RBF) as a key mechanism to unlock private capital for small-scale solar and mini-grid businesses, and to advance the world toward universal electrification. But according to Audrey Desiderato at SunFunder and Martijn Veen at SNV, the remote design and management of RBF programs increases the risk that these funds will exclude local actors and innovation. They share findings from a recent white paper exploring the need for more localization in results-based financing for off-grid energy.
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Press Release: DFC Approves More Than $1.4 Billion in New Investments for COVID-19 Response, Global Health, Gender Equity, Technology, and Renewable Energy
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Board of Directors has approved nine investments totaling $925 million this quarter.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Global
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How to Solve Clean Cooking for 4 Billion People: The Disruptive Potential of the ‘Impact Flywheel’
Roughly 4 billion people lack access to clean cooking technology. This leads to almost four million annual deaths, particularly among women and girls, and costs the global economy approximately $2.4 trillion each year. But though these challenges have persisted despite many high-profile efforts to address them, Ben Jeffreys of ATEC* International argues that clean cooking is uniquely solvable with the right technology and business models. He discusses how the flywheel model could unlock the disruptive potential of clean cooking technologies to create sustainable change.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications