Climate Finance
Sustainable Finance for Power Utilities: Latin America Leading the Charge
Latin America is at the forefront of decarbonizing the energy sector, mostly due to the innovation and commitment demonstrated by companies in the region. These energy companies, many of which are IFC clients, are deploying resources and experience in the face of unprecedented climate change impacts to support the penetration of renewable energy, increase access rates, and improve efficiency.
The Case for Mission-Driven Climate Finance
As sea levels rise, Tuvalu, a small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, is slowly disappearing under water. Australia recently signed a landmark agreement with the island state that offers residency to Tuvaluans displaced by climate change – a sign of the emerging economic, geopolitical, and humanitarian implications of global warming. Tuvalu’s reckoning with its potential extinction offers a glimpse of what the future holds on a rapidly warming planet.
Businesses urgently need to break barriers to Net Zero, with credible transition plans crucial
Large businesses are struggling with their Net Zero plans, with sustainability experts outlining the barriers they face in the Carbon Trust’s Net Zero Intelligence Unit’s latest report, including a lack of engagement from senior leaders, concerns climate change work will be unfairly scrutinised, and tackling supply chain emissions.
Transformative Finance: Key to Accelerating Equality
With International Women’s Day around the corner, governments as well as civil society are negotiating the advancement of women at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. This day is also a sad reminder that equality is far from where it needs to be. Women only enjoy 64% of the same legal protection than men according to the latest Women, Business and the Law report. Women are also disproportionately enduring climate change impacts and are less able to participate in shaping mitigation and adaptation solutions.
Greening social accountability for climate finance
Citizens and civil society must be at the center of climate finance to direct funding, implement solutions, and hold decision-makers accountable for effective and equitable climate action. The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) is expanding opportunities to demonstrate how civic engagement and civil society leadership can improve development outcomes from climate finance and action — both for mitigation and adaptation. Click for the full story on the World Bank blog.
Photo: Jairo Bedoya, World Bank Why partnerships are key to bridging the finance gap for nature-based solutions to climate change
There is no denying the urgency of the climate crisis. Yet we overlook a solution readily at our disposal. Nature-based solutions (NbS) that protect, restore and sustainably manage forests and other ecosystems could provide 37% of cost-effective climate change mitigation efforts needed by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement goals and stabilize warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Click to read the full story by Reuters.
Achieving the just transition: A toolkit for city leaders across the globe
To limit warming to 1.5°C, global emissions need to drop drastically by 2030. This requires systemic change towards a net-zero and resilient economy at an unprecedented scale and pace. A just transition is about leaving no one behind in this shift, protecting livelihoods and maximise the employment benefits of climate action. Full article on C40 Knowledge Hub.
How a new financing pact can help climate-vulnerable countries
Amid an escalating climate emergency and a global debt crisis, calls for a new “fit for climate” global financial architecture are growing louder throughout the developing world. The urgent need for decisive action has been underscored by Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative, the V20 group of climate-vulnerable countries, and the recent Paris Summit for a New Global Financing […]
Financing Net Zero: How to incentivize credible climate action through sustainability-linked and transition finance
Achieving Net Zero requires US$ 125 trillion of finance globally to support the scale up of low-carbon solutions and the transition of high-emitting sectors. How can transition financing mechanisms can be reformed to deliver genuine progress on emissions reductions? Read the full article on The Carbon Trust.
Green and Social Investments in the Global South will Show Returns Worldwide
If you want to predict the effects of global warming in Europe, just look to Bangladesh. Despite producing merely 0.56% of global CO2 emissions, this country in South Asia is among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis. Floods, storms, intensifying cyclones, rising sea levels: the consequences of the climate crisis are numerous and visible, […]
Gender-smart climate finance is critical for progress, results, and impact
We know all too well that the multiple crises facing the world – food insecurity, energy access, global health, conflict and climate change – have disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable. The frightening reality is that these crises are also splintering our efforts to address critical social development challenges, such as the stubborn gaps that exist between […]
Biodiversity Finance for Infrastructure Companies in Emerging Markets: How to Move from Objectives to Actions
Halting degradation and restoring biodiversity represents an important business opportunity for infrastructure companies, and emerging markets seeking to create new green jobs. This opportunity, estimated at over $6.5 trillion per year, is expected to generate more than 204 million new jobs by 2030. To help companies and investors identify opportunities for biodiversity finance, IFC has […]
The quest to fill the infrastructure financing gap for people and planet
After spending two weeks at COP27, something that struck me is the triad of urgent needs: supporting the transition to net-zero economies, protecting emerging and developing economies from mounting and increasingly severe climate risks, and promoting universal access to basic services for millions of households around the globe that are left behind. Low-carbon, climate-smart infrastructure […]
Financing the Transition to Net Zero; How sustainability-linked financing, bonds, blue loans, and other new financing tools target the climate crisis
The question of how the world finances the transition to net zero by 2050 hangs in the balance. Sustainable finance is the future of finance. However, to avoid ‘sustainability washing,’ issuers and investors must do their homework even more thoroughly to ensure targets are material, ambitious, and robust.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Climate Adaptation: It’s Everybody’s Business
The impacts of the climate crisis are rapidly intensifying, as evidenced by deadly heatwaves. Beyond slowing the pace of global warming, we must also protect our communities and adapt to living in a changing climate.
People and the planet together: Why Indigenous Peoples and local communities are at the heart of climate action
As we build the global climate finance architecture, Indigenous Peoples and local communities must have a seat at the table.
Sustainable Finance’s Next Big Act Will Tie Social Targets to Returns
Companies’ efforts to improve their environmental, social and governance credentials have given birth to a new type of debt – sustainability-linked finance – that links interest rates to ESG performance. But the majority of these instruments’ targets are mostly linked to issuers’ environmental impact, and not the impact they may have on the people they employ or the communities they affect.
With the pandemic bringing social issues to the fore and calls for a just transition to Net Zero, this could soon be about to change.
