The start of lithium-ion battery production at Northvolt’s large-scale ‘gigafactory’ in Sweden is the latest milestone in Europe’s drive to establish a homegrown battery manufacturing sector to meet the surge in demand for electric vehicles..
he reluctance of mainstream institutional investors to make impact investments in the high-risk regions where they are most needed, according to a recently published report by the Impact Taskforce, a G7-backed think tank..
The Swiss government has announced a blended finance initiative intended to leverage up to 1bn Swiss francs ($1.09bn) in private sector impact investments in the developing world to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
The EU’s sustainable finance framework is already shaping the bloc’s investment landscape regardless of ongoing uncertainties around the full implementation of the new regulatory environment. But will it go far enough?
Mirjam ‘t Lam, the new managing director of Oikocredit, has to hit the ground running, faced with steering the impact investment institution and its beneficiaries through the pandemic and charting a new strategic course.
Oikocredit has appointed Mirjam ‘t Lam as its new managing director. Her task: steer the Dutch cooperative and social impact investor through the post-Covid recovery.
The debt-for-nature swap (DNS) formally announced by Belize and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) during the COP26 climate change meeting in Glasgow could trigger a resurgence of the financial instrument.
Pioneering financial institutions are stepping up the pressure on the companies in which they invest to take stronger measures to cut biodiversity loss in their operations and those of their suppliers.
Millions of financial support have been mobilised for off-grid energy companies in need due to the Covid pandemic. But how do fund managers ensure it’s disbursed fast and effectively to those most in need?
The mobile money revolution has changed lives in some of the world’s poorest communities. But not everyone is reaping the benefits. Microfinance banks are trying to fill the gap.
The provision of off-grid solar energy to households and small businesses in low-income countries has been one of the development success stories of the last decade.
Convergence Partners invests in better and cheaper internet access in Sub-Saharan Africa. “We treat a whole block in a township as if it’s a single home in a higher-income suburb”, says CEO Brandon Doyle on how to combine impact with financial profit.
A report from the International Finance Corporation shows sharp growth in global impact investment in 2020. The IFC also underlines that the private sector’s impact investments remain a tiny fraction of its overall investment.
EKA Ventures, a new €80mn venture capital fund, aims to foster the development of UK-based early-stage consumer technology companies whose businesses tackle social or environmental challenges at scale.
A new impact investment fund, Impact 12, aims to finance mission-led social ventures coming out of UK universities, for which traditional funding models do not provide high enough levels of support during their early-stage development.
There is a flurry of announcements of climate-related policy and investment initiatives in the run-up to COP26. What is this conference all about? What’s at stake? We answer the basic questions.
Confidence in the blended finance approaches pioneered over the last decade by companies such as Finance in Motion (FIM) is growing. FIM managing director Sylvia Wisniwski shares her experience with us.
Unlike climate change, the biodiversity crisis is not so much on investors’ radar yet. WWF lobbies hard to encourage investors to take the issue seriously. Its latest report assesses tools measuring impact on biodiversity.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), a global initiative to quantify risks and opportunities presented by investments impacting on nature and biodiversity, was formally launched last week.
