Through collective action individuals can strong-hand financial institutions into divesting from environmentally damaging projects. Winner of the 2022 Goldman Environmental prize, Julien Vincent, explains how climate advocacy revolves around bringing the right information and solutions to the right people at the right time.
With a draft agreement reached on November 10, and China and the US releasing a joint declaration a few hours later, policymakers, experts and observers start to get a glimpse of what the likely outcomes of the COP26 will be.
A low carbon world is being shaped, and the private sector is in the spotlight. While the pandemic is teaching the importance of getting prepared to future risks, the big actors of the financial system are refining the criteria for the allocation of capital to get safe from the coming challenges. For businesses, keeping up with the change is not a matter of reputation anymore. Dealing with climate change is now about financial survival.
Low prices for oil and other fossil fuels, the Covid-19 crisis, the recovery package, and the opportunity to combine an urgent response to social needs with long-term sustainable strategies. A vision of the future that combines investments and climate resilience. International experts discuss perspectives and solutions for green finance, in the name of the “do no significant harm” principle.
Although fossil fuels have powered and shaped the modern era they have also been a major contributing factor in the current climate crisis. However, energy will also be a key factor in coping with the consequences of climate change: a global clean energy revolution whose economic implications bring newfound hope for our future.
Climate change will have a growing influence on the stability of the banking system, potentially contributing to future financial crises. A new paper published in Nature highlights the detrimental effects of climate change on the banking system, adding to established literature on the effects of climate change on economic growth and productivity of labour. However, financial regulation authorities can act to reduce climate-related risks by implementing targeted measures.
Historically adaptation projects have received less funding than ones for mitigation. Furthermore, the burden of implementing adaptation is falling ever more on the public sector, whereas for mitigation private sector interest and investments are on the rise. This is leading to consequences in how climate finance allocates resources which are failing to support at risk areas and Least Developed Countries. The Green Climate Fund aims to bridge this funding gap and has secured its second round of funding, this time obtaining 9.78 billion USD in pledges.
Not only does climate change have a more significant impact on the economies of lower income countries, these also have to pay more for adaptation, recovery and redevelopment loans, leading them into the climate debt trap. With the added “cruel irony” that those less responsible for climate change are being made to pay a larger share of the price.
Climate Finance is the key to drive urbanization toward Smart Cities. It also means shifting investments towards building a vision of our common future. And we already know how to do it, on both global and regional scales.
Since 2012 the number of commitments on fossil fuel divestment has increased rapidly, reaching over 1000 institutions worth 7 trillion euro.
Finance to provide electricity to millions of people who live without it is rising, but too slowly to meet the global goal to achieve universal
The end of 2018 is a crucial date for the implementation of the climate agreement adopted in Paris in 2015 and currently ratified by 178 countries. At COP24 in Katowice, Poland, countries are due to finalized and adopt the operational guidelines of the treaty, also known as “the Paris rulebook”.
