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The Big 'Impact' Opportunities for 2024
It’s been a hot summer, and as we watch global weather conditions become increasingly volatile, it can be hard to stay optimistic about the work we’re doing.
It can feel like a seesaw.
It's a feeling that sways between optimism about all the progress we’re making in decarbonisation and climate impact investing, and then pivoting back to pessimism, as another glacier sinks into the sea, and another dozen species are lost to rising temperatures and pulped rainforests.
It’s a malaise that many people are feeling at the start of 2024, and so I wanted to start the year with some good news, about the work I’m doing, as well as insights from global impact leaders.
On a personal note, I did manage to escape the heat with a trip to Tasmania, to enjoy a welcome week amongst the trees.
But when I got home, I stayed busy.
I’m putting the final touches on my new Impact Strategy Offering for my consulting clients. It will come with a new brand, and a new website.
It’s got me energized, and I’m excited to share it with you… so stay tuned.
Looking big-picture, I also wanted to share some of the articles and reports I’ve been reading over the summer. It’s a long list of global and local sustainability leaders, highlighting the big impact developments for the coming year.
A few were published in the last weeks of December, so you may have missed them, and the rest are fresh for January.
Have a read, then hit reply and let me know which ones you found most interesting.
When the Bee Stings: Counting the Cost of Nature-Related Risks
Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Mismanaging nature risk has burned billion-dollar holes in many corporate balance sheets. In collaboration with TNFD and its newly released recommendations, BloombergNEF examines 10 instances of companies suffering material financial losses from poorly handled interactions with nature.
Tideline: Ten Year Milestone Report
Tideline Impact Advisory
Tideline were always pioneers, and after ten years they remain global leaders in guiding investors to integrate impact management systems with integrity. This report traces not only the evolution of the firm, but also the progress the broader industry has made. Here’s to another decade of growth!
Impact Report, 2023
Australian Impact Investment (Aii)
Aii holds a unique space in the Aussie impact sector, as a vital source of analysis and due-diligence, they give investors large-and-small confidence that the funds they recommend have the right systems and intentions in place to deliver on both their impact and financial goals. This year’s report also offers a rare insight into the returns earned by a selection of private market funds that have closed.
Final Report of the Australian Social Impact Investing Taskforce
Treasury
This has been a long time coming. The taskforce was established in 2019, and the report was submitted to the government in 2020, but it was never released to the public. There was little political energy behind ‘social impact’ at the time, but a new government has shown a pragmatic interest in how private capital can offer huge gains in delivering social services, and the 2020 report has finally been released.
Sustainable Finance Strategy
Treasury
From social impact to sustainable finance, Treasury has released Australia’s Sustainable Finance Strategy, to support our pathway to net zero, by providing an ambitious and comprehensive framework for reducing barriers to investment into sustainable activities. Currently open to feedback.
The Impact Taskforce: State of Play 2023
Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG)
From the local to the global, here the Impact Taskforce covers a lot of ground as they report on global progress in growing the market for impact finance. “We believe that we are moving towards a world in which impact is likely to become an increasingly important factor in optimizing cost of capital and financial return. We continue to advocate for systemic change in investment decision-making to ensure that impact is taken into account in every business and investment decision as a 'third lens' alongside risk and return.”
Biodiversity Credits: A Guide to Support Early Use with High Integrity
WEF and McKinsey
We won’t solve climate change without a focus on nature and biodiversity. This report identifies a set of interrelated use cases for biodiversity credits: to enhance carbon credits for better nature outcomes, to access ecosystem services as inputs, to contribute to nature recovery beyond our own impact, and to catalyse projects bundled with nature recovery.
We need to transform how we power the world—for the benefit of people and nature
WWF and BCG
In a first-of-its-kind analysis, WWF and BCG compare a rapid transition to renewable energy to our current approach dominated by fossil fuels, across key areas including mining, air quality, water quality, ecosystems, biodiversity, human well-being, and area footprint. The results show that a rapid transition to renewable energy is dramatically better for nature, human health and jobs.
Carbon removals: How to scale a new gigaton industry
McKinsey
Removing carbon from the atmosphere is hard, and I tend to roll my eyes when another oil company announces their failed attempt to attach a ‘carbon capture and storage’ system to their facility. Yes CCS is expensive and so far not economic, but as this report explains, nature-based strategies that remove C02 are both more effective and far cheaper. Time will tell if technology-based solutions can close the gap.
Where capitalism and conservation meet
The Economist
Whales have always made for great storytelling, and here, The Economist traces the many ways humans have tried to commercialise these huge, beautiful animals, in order to explain the emerging concept of ‘natural capital’. It explores the pros and cons of trying to put a dollar value on the ecosystems around us (those we depend on for our very existence) and offers powerful insights about the failings of our economic system.
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John Treadgold
The Business of Sustainability
By John Treadgold
Stopping climate change is the biggest investment opportunity of our lifetime, and its already driving radical change in how financial markets operate. Sign-up for the latest insights into sustainability, ESG and impact investing, and all the episodes of the Good Future podcast as they're released.
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