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Host Joy Anderson welcomes her brother, the philosopher Joel Anderson, to discuss how AI is changing the way we work. While AI can …
Extreme heat at London Climate Action Week kicks off a scramble to adapt
London Climate Action Week opened with what the British call a “marmalade dropper.” Things got even stickier from there. Just as conference-goers took to their seats inside Guildhall last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared outside No. 10 Downing…
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The Brief
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Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: Climate Action Extreme heat at London Climate Action Week kicks off a scramble to adapt. …
Today’s brief
Featured: Climate Action
Extreme heat at London Climate Action Week kicks off a scramble to adapt. London Climate Action Week opened with what the British call a “marmalade dropper.” Things got even stickier from there. Just as conference-goers took to their seats inside Guildhall last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared outside 10 Downing Street to announce his resignation. A brutal, record-breaking heatwave was already gripping large parts of the UK and Europe as more than 75,000 people gathered for the annual climate confab, providing “a very clear and timely illustration of why Climate Action Week matters,” as Michele Giddens of Bridges Fund Management put it. The sweltering heat disrupted transit, strained energy grids, and prompted the UK to issue a rare “red alert.” Some of Bridges’ investors were unable to attend the firm's annual investor day, also held last week in London, due to the heat. Climate Week organizers canceled dozens of events in buildings without air conditioning, including one hosted by the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance on addressing extreme heat. That, CarbonTracker’s Mark Campanale told ImpactAlpha, “is climate science moving from the footnotes into everyday life.”
Dealflow: Pathways to Growth
KfW backs Open Startup to finance African startups in health, climate and artificial intelligence. Tunisia-based Open Startup launched a decade ago as an entrepreneurship competition for university students. It has evolved into an accelerator for African deep tech startups. The accelerator is launching Openers First, its first special purpose vehicle which aims to raise $3 million to support startups in health, climate, artificial intelligence, blue tech, agtech, energy and insurance, and get past the proof of concept stage. It will provide local currency SAFE notes of between $20,000 to $50,000. The solutions sitting in labs and research centers “could completely transform the way we access health and other services,” if they had early funding, Open Startup’s Houda Ghozzi said. “Africa has always been using and spending money on technologies that are coming from the Western world.” It secured backing from the AfricaGrow Fund, German development bank KfW's small business-financing initiative.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Léa Dunand-Chatellet is appointed CEO of Mirova… Save the Children is hiring an impact intelligence director… VF Corporation is on the hunt for a senior manager of product sustainability and circularity…
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Shaping the Algorithm
The deals, people and strategies optimizing AI for the public interest. In partnership with Siegel Family Endowment.
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Zambia centers small businesses in its bid for a more inclusive economy
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