Climate Now

Financial innovations for climate and clean energy impact

May 31, 2022 Marilyn Waite Season 1 Episode 58
Climate Now
Financial innovations for climate and clean energy impact
Show Notes Chapter Markers

“Inertia is a hell of a thing. Inertia is there, and there is very little motivation for an incumbent to change course. So you have to have that disruption from the outside. The same thing with financial services.” - Marilyn Waite, Climate Finance Fund

In the 2019/2020 fiscal year, the global climate finance sector reached a record 632 billion US dollars. Unfortunately - that is a little short of the more than $3 trillion US dollars needed each year to keep warming under 2 degrees C, according to the IPCC. The Climate Finance Fund (CFF) is a philanthropic organization whose mandate is to close that gap by mobilizing capital towards climate solutions.

How do they do that? CFF focuses on bringing creative climate solutions to market with early investing, and supporting industry-led initiatives and regulatory changes that encourage financial institutions to divest from fossil fuels and invest in clean technology. Managing Director Marilyn Waite joined Climate Now to share the changes CFF’s projects have already brought about, who the big disruptors are in climate finance, and how to get the world’s biggest banks and lenders to take note that it is time to go green.

01:23 - Marilyn Introduction
04:09 - What is CFF?
07:58 - Clean Energy Credit Union
10:41 - Clean energy borrowing today
12:14 - Impact-first VCs and Climate Fintech
17:43 - Banking on Climate Chaos
20:50 - Systems change - Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials

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