Why VC investors need a 1.5 degree Celsius goal for responsible tech. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and other disruptive technologies are transforming labor productivity, human-machine and human-nature relations, and the social fabric. To deliver long-term value for themselves and society, tech innovators and investors need a North Star akin to the globally agreed goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, argue Paul Fehlinger of Project Liberty Institute and Johannes Lenhard of Venture ESG. “Venture capitalists and limited partners need to align on processes, incentives and alternative investment models that go beyond the high-risk ‘move fast and break things’ mentality of the 2010s,” the authors write in a guest post in ImpactAlpha. The 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for global warming is the result of four decades of research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This North Star metric serves as a guide that uses science-based targets, incentives for climate-positive innovation, and penalties for negative externalities.
Rize scores $14 million to reduce emissions and boost livelihoods for rice farmers. Rice is a staple crop for more than half of the global population. Demand is projected to double by 2050. But traditional rice cultivation practices, such as flooding fields, consume large amounts of water and release methane gasses. “Mitigating the environmental impact of rice cultivation is essential in the fight against climate change,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Breakthrough, along with Wavemaker Impact, Temasek and Temasek’s GenZero, launched Rize last year to reduce the environmental footprint of rice cultivation. The Singapore-based startup helps small rice farmers implement sustainable farming practices, while lowering costs and increasing crop yields. “We are not just aiming to cut down 100 million tons of carbon emissions, we are also enhancing the economic stability of farmers, ensuring that improved farmer livelihoods and reduced emissions go hand-in-hand,” said Rize’s CEO Dhruv Sawhney.
With more than $700 billion for fossil fuels, global banks retreat on climate pledges. “Energy pragmatism” is the new euphemism for continued investment in fossil fuels. Emboldened by high oil prices, producers are orchestrating megamergers and doubling down on oil and gas. Their enablers: global bankers. The world’s largest banks provided some $706 billion in financing for oil, gas and coal last year, even as the planet experienced its warmest 12 months since record-keeping began in 1850. JPMorgan Chase boosted its fossil fuel financing by $2 billion, to just under $41 billion for the year, making it once again the largest fossil fuel funder, according to a new report, “Banking on Climate Chaos.” “Major banks have squandered yet another year to take decisive and ambitious action on climate,” says Sierra Club’s Adele Shraiman, an author of the report released today.
Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The divergent vibes at Mission Investors Exchange and …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The rebound in blended finance; how Big Tech …
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Venture capital invested nearly $500 billion in 2022. By investing into startups seeking transformational scale, successful venture-backed companies have the potential to change …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 29 – “Net zero is not going to get us anywhere,” Ariane Mahler of Veridien Global Investors told David Bank of ImpactAlpha …
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
U.S. impact investors, we have a problem. In truth, there are several, and they all center around just how challenging it is to …
Achieving net-zero emissions requires transitioning from a fossil-fueled economy to one energized through metals and materials. Nearly $2 trillion in investment in mining …
In the dynamic economic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, a significant investment opportunity is emerging: institutional investors’ capacity to champion gender equality through …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This series of guest posts is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Editor’s note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Latin America is witnessing a transformative trend in family office philanthropy: the shift towards impact investing. Traditionally, philanthropy in the region has been …
Rural economic development is a complex issue, including in Colombia. Rural regions are often culturally diverse areas, but have limited access to quality …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
“We’re a narrative-change studio in a town that is in a time of flux,” director Ava DuVernay told Ford Foundation’s Roy Swan at …
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is seeding green projects in primarily low-income communities by sending $27 billion through a network of nonprofit lenders. …
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ines Schiller got the idea for seaweed tampons while training in South Africa to be a marine environment guide. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline we’ve used for the dozens of Agents of Impact we profiled …
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished …
Sustainable development? “More of the same.” Forest carbon credits? “Outside-imposed extraction.” Impact investing? “Are we really going far enough? Or are we just …
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — In 15 years in impact investing, Christopher Bentley noticed “a lot of for-profit companies focused on the criminal justice …
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Monica Brand Engel’s advice to impact investors is this: Imperfect execution is ok. “Authentic impact is about accepting imperfection …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 11 – Samuel Yeboah isn’t discouraged by the economic storm battering his home country of Ghana and many other emerging economies. “As …
Many investors look at promising new climate solutions and say, ‘Great, come back to me when you have traction.’ Azolla Ventures is more …
ImpactAlpha, June 30 – The first thing that Katherine Stodulka does when you meet her is suggest you meet someone else. Then she’ll …
Why VC investors need a 1.5 degree Celsius goal for responsible tech. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and other disruptive technologies are transforming labor productivity, human-machine and human-nature relations, and the social fabric. To deliver long-term value for themselves and society, tech innovators and investors need a North Star akin to the globally agreed goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, argue Paul Fehlinger of Project Liberty Institute and Johannes Lenhard of Venture ESG. “Venture capitalists and limited partners need to align on processes, incentives and alternative investment models that go beyond the high-risk ‘move fast and break things’ mentality of the 2010s,” the authors write in a guest post in ImpactAlpha. The 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for global warming is the result of four decades of research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This North Star metric serves as a guide that uses science-based targets, incentives for climate-positive innovation, and penalties for negative externalities.
Rize scores $14 million to reduce emissions and boost livelihoods for rice farmers. Rice is a staple crop for more than half of the global population. Demand is projected to double by 2050. But traditional rice cultivation practices, such as flooding fields, consume large amounts of water and release methane gasses. “Mitigating the environmental impact of rice cultivation is essential in the fight against climate change,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Breakthrough, along with Wavemaker Impact, Temasek and Temasek’s GenZero, launched Rize last year to reduce the environmental footprint of rice cultivation. The Singapore-based startup helps small rice farmers implement sustainable farming practices, while lowering costs and increasing crop yields. “We are not just aiming to cut down 100 million tons of carbon emissions, we are also enhancing the economic stability of farmers, ensuring that improved farmer livelihoods and reduced emissions go hand-in-hand,” said Rize’s CEO Dhruv Sawhney.
With more than $700 billion for fossil fuels, global banks retreat on climate pledges. “Energy pragmatism” is the new euphemism for continued investment in fossil fuels. Emboldened by high oil prices, producers are orchestrating megamergers and doubling down on oil and gas. Their enablers: global bankers. The world’s largest banks provided some $706 billion in financing for oil, gas and coal last year, even as the planet experienced its warmest 12 months since record-keeping began in 1850. JPMorgan Chase boosted its fossil fuel financing by $2 billion, to just under $41 billion for the year, making it once again the largest fossil fuel funder, according to a new report, “Banking on Climate Chaos.” “Major banks have squandered yet another year to take decisive and ambitious action on climate,” says Sierra Club’s Adele Shraiman, an author of the report released today.
Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The divergent vibes at Mission Investors Exchange and …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The rebound in blended finance; how Big Tech …
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Venture capital invested nearly $500 billion in 2022. By investing into startups seeking transformational scale, successful venture-backed companies have the potential to change …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 29 – “Net zero is not going to get us anywhere,” Ariane Mahler of Veridien Global Investors told David Bank of ImpactAlpha …
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
U.S. impact investors, we have a problem. In truth, there are several, and they all center around just how challenging it is to …
Achieving net-zero emissions requires transitioning from a fossil-fueled economy to one energized through metals and materials. Nearly $2 trillion in investment in mining …
In the dynamic economic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, a significant investment opportunity is emerging: institutional investors’ capacity to champion gender equality through …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This series of guest posts is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Editor’s note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Latin America is witnessing a transformative trend in family office philanthropy: the shift towards impact investing. Traditionally, philanthropy in the region has been …
Rural economic development is a complex issue, including in Colombia. Rural regions are often culturally diverse areas, but have limited access to quality …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
“We’re a narrative-change studio in a town that is in a time of flux,” director Ava DuVernay told Ford Foundation’s Roy Swan at …
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is seeding green projects in primarily low-income communities by sending $27 billion through a network of nonprofit lenders. …
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ines Schiller got the idea for seaweed tampons while training in South Africa to be a marine environment guide. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline we’ve used for the dozens of Agents of Impact we profiled …
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished …
Sustainable development? “More of the same.” Forest carbon credits? “Outside-imposed extraction.” Impact investing? “Are we really going far enough? Or are we just …
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — In 15 years in impact investing, Christopher Bentley noticed “a lot of for-profit companies focused on the criminal justice …
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Monica Brand Engel’s advice to impact investors is this: Imperfect execution is ok. “Authentic impact is about accepting imperfection …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 11 – Samuel Yeboah isn’t discouraged by the economic storm battering his home country of Ghana and many other emerging economies. “As …
Many investors look at promising new climate solutions and say, ‘Great, come back to me when you have traction.’ Azolla Ventures is more …
ImpactAlpha, June 30 – The first thing that Katherine Stodulka does when you meet her is suggest you meet someone else. Then she’ll …