Sustainability
Latin America is at the forefront of decarbonizing the energy sector, mostly due to the innovation and commitment demonstrated by companies in the region. These energy companies, many of which are IFC clients, are deploying resources and experience in the face of unprecedented climate change impacts to support the penetration of renewable energy, increase access rates, and improve efficiency.
As sea levels rise, Tuvalu, a small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, is slowly disappearing under water. Australia recently signed a landmark agreement with the island state that offers residency to Tuvaluans displaced by climate change – a sign of the emerging economic, geopolitical, and humanitarian implications of global warming. Tuvalu’s reckoning with its potential extinction offers a glimpse of what the future holds on a rapidly warming planet.
Climate change poses a significant threat to infrastructure, with rising sea levels, extreme weather phenomena, and escalating temperatures posing substantial physical risks. These hazards can lead to the degradation of crucial infrastructure assets, undermining social, economic, and environmental stability.
Recent analysis by EDHECInfra, as featured in the Global Infrastructure Hub’s Infrastructure Monitor report, underscores the scale of the situation. Projections based on current climate and policy scenarios indicate that by 2050, infrastructure assets could see a net value decline of 4.4% on average, and up to 26.7% in the most severe scenarios. This depreciation is a direct consequence of the lack of resilience of global infrastructure to the effects of climate change.
This year, New York City will start enforcing the most ambitious building performance standard legislation in the world. Local Law 97 (LL97), enacted in 2019, caps emissions from buildings over 25,000 square feet and applies to more than 40,000 buildings.
Floods, heatwaves, drought, and forest fires are only some of the impacts of climate change that are upending lives and livelihoods in Türkiye. These disasters cause loss of life and injuries, displace people, and inflict severe damages to homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, roads, and more.
This International Women’s Day, it’s time for the industry to inspire inclusion, by creating more opportunities for women and for social mobility. Infrastructure is at the bottom of the table when it comes to percentage of women in the workforce, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report.
Large businesses are struggling with their Net Zero plans, with sustainability experts outlining the barriers they face in the Carbon Trust’s Net Zero Intelligence Unit’s latest report, including a lack of engagement from senior leaders, concerns climate change work will be unfairly scrutinised, and tackling supply chain emissions.
During my childhood, I often used to go boating in one of Delhi’s picturesque lakes. I loved the wobbly feeling of standing on the floating jetty before boarding the boat. Little did I know that these age-old platforms could one day play a pivotal role in generating solar power, contributing to India’s transition to renewable energy.
Transportation is a hot topic in the 21st century, touching on topics ranging from achieving net zero emissions to developing inclusive urban infrastructure. But developing inclusive, climate-friendly transportation is expensive. Government budgets are strapped, and in some cases, transport projects are perceived as risky investments that give the private sector pause.
With International Women’s Day around the corner, governments as well as civil society are negotiating the advancement of women at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. This day is also a sad reminder that equality is far from where it needs to be. Women only enjoy 64% of the same legal protection than men according to the latest Women, Business and the Law report. Women are also disproportionately enduring climate change impacts and are less able to participate in shaping mitigation and adaptation solutions.
In the sphere of sustainable development, financial innovation is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity. The Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) recently issued its first Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB), setting several precedents along the way, including being the first development bank globally to do so.
Discover how businesses tackle carbon emissions through product footprinting, navigate evolving regulations, and build consumer trust with credible climate action.
Promoting women in science is a key focus of the African Higher Education Centers of Excellence (ACE) program, launched in 2014 to support higher skills development in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Mbassally “Sally” Manneh is one of those “Girls in Science” who has successfully achieved her dream to become an architect. Read her inspiring story on Worldbank.org
Citizens and civil society must be at the center of climate finance to direct funding, implement solutions, and hold decision-makers accountable for effective and equitable climate action. The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) is expanding opportunities to demonstrate how civic engagement and civil society leadership can improve development outcomes from climate finance and action — both for mitigation and adaptation. Click for the full story on the World Bank blog.
Clean hydrogen, including green hydrogen, is a building block for the energy transition. It can potentially eliminate the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, especially in hard-to-abate sectors, and contribute to achieving net zero emissions. We can produce green hydrogen by harnessing renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. Read the full blog on Worldbank.org
In a culture where job roles are often prescribed based on gender, it’s one thing for a company to emphasize hiring women; it’s another to achieve results that transform the very nature of the company. It all starts with changing hearts and minds about the kinds of jobs women can do. A group of municipal […]
Beyond its environmental benefits, offshore wind energy projects also have the potential to deliver significant socioeconomic advantages for the communities involved. Success relies heavily upon harnessing local knowledge and leveraging community engagement. Read the full story by Utilities One
Sustainability-linked finance (SLF) is a significant market in which most incentives have been tied to borrowers’ environmental commitments – the “E” in ESG. We argue that there is untapped potential for companies to be more ambitious on the “G.” Governance targets— that help manage corporate risk and benefit stakeholders.
A clear link exists between economic prosperity and the health of women and children. For business, engaging in global health aligns with strategic economic decisions that promote gender equality, enhance economic growth, and build prosperous societies. Read the full article on businessfightspoverty.org
When rain forests are destroyed, we understand what is lost; when hyperinflation wipes out wealth, the costs of economic mismanagement are clear. But what does sustainability look like when people are at stake, when inequality leads to social unrest, or infrastructure projects destroy indigenous communities? In short, what is social sustainability, why does it matter, and how can it be bolstered?
The shift to a low-carbon future will rely on critical minerals such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, and mining will be key to making the transition a reality. To meet these needs in sustainable ways, mining companies will have to become not only more climate-responsive but also equitable, including increasing women in the workforce, on […]
Amid an escalating climate emergency and a global debt crisis, calls for a new “fit for climate” global financial architecture are growing louder throughout the developing world. The urgent need for decisive action has been underscored by Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative, the V20 group of climate-vulnerable countries, and the recent Paris Summit for a New Global Financing […]
Achieving Net Zero requires US$ 125 trillion of finance globally to support the scale up of low-carbon solutions and the transition of high-emitting sectors. How can transition financing mechanisms can be reformed to deliver genuine progress on emissions reductions? Read the full article on The Carbon Trust.
The global climate crisis is only going to worsen, exacting huge tolls on people, urgently needed resources, and local, regional, and national economies unless commitments by governments to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and hit Net Zero by 2050 are met. These commitments continue to be a work in progress, but a more […]
Today’s intertwined crises have brought new challenges for the health of women, children, and adolescents, particularly those in the hardest to reach communities. The tepid post COVID-19 recovery in developing countries, along with shocks such as climate change, fragility, debt distress, food shortages and energy price increases, are constraining fiscal space and burdening already stretched health […]
We know all too well that the multiple crises facing the world – food insecurity, energy access, global health, conflict and climate change – have disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable. The frightening reality is that these crises are also splintering our efforts to address critical social development challenges, such as the stubborn gaps that exist between […]
As the world transitions away from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy, justice for Indigenous Peoples in this process needs to be emphasized, not last since a just transition is a requirement in the Paris Agreement. To ensure justice, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous Peoples need to be involved in the decision-making and benefit-sharing, […]
Shareholders are increasingly aware of Indigenous rights as part of a wider push towards more environmentally and socially responsible mining. The industry has a dark history associated with the treatment of land traditionally inhabited by Indigenous communities, and involvement of Indigenous communities in mining governance could be a meaningful route to partial reconciliation. How can […]
The demand for investment in the affordable housing sector has never been greater. More than one billion people live in slums globally – a figure that is expected to double by 2030 – and another 1.6 billion live in sub-standard housing. More housing will need to be built between now and 2050 than has been built […]
Adriana Maria Eftimie and Mary Dominic dedicate their careers to ensuring the benefits from infrastructure operations are shared equitably within communities, including women and other underserved groups. As part of IFC’s Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory, they are working to raise the bar on how infrastructure businesses approach community development and engage stakeholders, particularly women—helping clients close […]
We begin with an intriguing question: Can the mining industry produce the minerals and metals that are essential to clean energy technologies, in green and inclusive ways? The short answer: Not yet. In fact, the mining industry is responsible for 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, including smelting and refining activities. Primary production of […]
Nature based solutions (NBS) aim to protect, restore, and manage natural ecosystems, often in combination with gray infrastructure, with the objective of strengthening climate resilience while providing environmental and socioeconomic benefits. However, if not designed correctly, women, persons with disabilities, low-income households, and other marginalized groups may face barriers to accessing these benefits. Local and indigenous […]
Amid all the attention to environmental, social, and governance factors in investing, better known as ESG, there has been relatively little emphasis on governance, and even less on data governance. This is a significant oversight that needs to be addressed, as data governance has a crucial role to play in achieving environmental and social goals. […]
Gender equity and environmental sustainability may seem like unrelated issues, but research shows that they are in fact closely intertwined. Women and other underserved groups are disproportionately impacted by the global climate crisis, but they are also uniquely positioned to lead the fight for sustainability. In this piece, the authors offer six strategies to help […]
It’s an unfortunate truth: Communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change—many of them located in developing countries and near the operating spheres of infrastructure companies—often have the least access to the information that could help them strengthen their climate resilience. This is a problem of global scale because failure to address local-level climate […]
Newsflash: Sustainability-Linked Finance (SLF) isn’t just about climate. In fact, leading infrastructure companies like Brazil-based energy firm Neoenergia and global mining consortium, Anglo American are embracing the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure their social performance, as part of their SLF frameworks. These social metrics must meet strict requirements to ensure relevance, benchmarkability, […]
It is frequently asserted that the S in ESG is difficult to define and monitor for impact. BNP Paribas’ 2019 global ESG survey shows that 46% of investors surveyed deemed the ‘S’ to be the most challenging to analyze and incorporate into investing strategies. I frequently made light of the fact that ‘social’ was the […]
From a macro-economic perspective, applying a gender-lens to infrastructure development would increase the total GDP in OECD countries by 2.5% by 2050. Developing safe and quality infrastructure that is gender-responsive is therefore vital to an inclusive green economy. While good practices and actions exist, many countries still face multi-faceted challenges, ranging from awareness and capacity to […]
Halting degradation and restoring biodiversity represents an important business opportunity for infrastructure companies, and emerging markets seeking to create new green jobs. This opportunity, estimated at over $6.5 trillion per year, is expected to generate more than 204 million new jobs by 2030. To help companies and investors identify opportunities for biodiversity finance, IFC has […]
After spending two weeks at COP27, something that struck me is the triad of urgent needs: supporting the transition to net-zero economies, protecting emerging and developing economies from mounting and increasingly severe climate risks, and promoting universal access to basic services for millions of households around the globe that are left behind. Low-carbon, climate-smart infrastructure […]
Urban areas need a variety of assets called social infrastructure combined with roads and buildings. Nature-Based Infrastructure (NBI) solutions harness nature to provide infrastructure service. Nature-based solutions take inspiration from forests, mangroves, wetlands, and grasslands, and the resultant can be engineered or grey structures. Apart from functioning as a basic infrastructure, it enables and supports […]
The mining industry remains one of the world’s biggest polluters, yet it remains a cornerstone of the world’s industries. Digital and data will play a key role in supporting miners to execute sustainability roadmaps, including through providing greater visibility across asset performance and operations, and better monitoring of energy and water consumption. Giles Crosse investigates […]
It’s amply clear that building resilience with an eye on sustainable growth is the only way forward in an increasingly uncertain world. Sustainability has already been a priority in emerging Europe. The devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and more recently the extreme drought hitting much of Europe, potentially the worst […]