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Funding the Fight Against the World’s Oldest Fuel Source: How New Financing Mechanisms in Clean Cooking Can Succeed Where Grants Have Failed
The use of biomass fuel for cooking has remained consistent over the centuries, despite the development sector's efforts to scale global access to clean cookstoves. As Paul Ronalds at Save the Children Global Ventures argues, a key reason for this failure is the estimated $5.5 billion annual funding gap facing clean cooking initiatives — a gap that traditional sources of finance, like private donations and government grants, have been unable to fill. He discusses several funding solutions, including carbon credits, that could help the clean cooking sector finally end the era of biomass fuel.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Press Release: Gates Foundation Report Calls for Targeted Global Health Spending to Save Millions of Children from Malnutrition and Disease
New modeling shows 40 million more children will suffer from hunger’s worst effects by 2050 due to climate change, but immediate action could instead boost health, spur economic growth.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: One Health Approach Can Help Ease Climate-Driven Health Crises; Adaptive Strategies, Climate-Resilient Health Systems will be Vital
Creating a climate-resilient health system requires adaptation planning, research, continuous evidence gathering, capacity building and clear policy making.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Global
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Scaling Impact in the Last Mile Distribution Sector: The Pros and Cons of Different Pathways to Scale
The last mile distribution sector has gained significant momentum. But as Russell Lyseight at the Global Distributors Collective and Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact point out, there is still a huge discrepancy between the size of the problem (i.e., last mile consumers’ lack of access to beneficial products and services) and the distribution solutions that currently exist. They explore several approaches last mile distributors can use to close this gap.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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Report: Climate Change a Health Risk for 70% of World’s Workers, UN Warns
As average temperatures rise, heat illness is a growing safety and health concern for workers throughout the world, including in the U.S.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: Global Verification Body Verra Certifies d.light’s Clean Cookstove Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
Initiative to distribute 600,000 clean cookstoves in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda is verified by leading certifier as a trusted source of high-quality carbon credits.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Private Business Alone Can’t Bring Energy to the Last Mile: Why Philanthropy Should Shift its Focus to Scalable Non-Profit Models
Africa is home to countless failed pay-as-you-go energy businesses that couldn't sustain themselves after their grant funding dried up. According to Aneri Pradhan at New Energy Nexus, this highlights the shortcomings of market-led approaches to last-mile energy access across the continent. She argues that philanthropic funding has largely failed to create sustainable energy businesses in these communities, as customers cannot afford clean energy at their current income levels. Instead, she encourages funders to support non-profit models that have proven their ability to reach these communities at scale.
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Energy Poverty is Not Gender Blind: How Companies, Funders and Policymakers Can Empower Female Energy Consumers Across Africa
While both men and women in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity and clean energy technologies, women pay a bigger price for this lack of access in nearly every imaginable way. Mutale Ngaba, Katie Brauer, Nathalie Gogue-Ebo and Duda Slawek at Open Capital argue that this crucial aspect of the energy access conversation is often overlooked. They explore the gender inequities in energy poverty, and share learnings from Open Capital's work that can guide the efforts of energy companies, funders and policymakers to put women’s needs at the center of energy access efforts in the region.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology