International financial markets have opened a window for African governments to diversify their funding sources from traditional multilateral institutions and foreign aid. For example, they can now borrow through issuing Eurobonds – these are international bonds issued by a country in a foreign currency, usually in US dollars and euros. South Africa was the first to issue Eurobonds in 1995. To date, 21 African countries have sold Eurobonds worth ...

This week the World Economic Forum is holding its Industry Strategy Meeting 2021.Leaders met to identify opportunities where sectors can collaborate on how industries can drive growth and put stakeholder capitalism into practice.Here are some of the takeaways from the four plenaries. More than 400 participants from the World Economic Forum's communities of Industry Strategy Officers, as well as senior deputies to the CEO Industry Action Groups, c...

"It's time to stop subsidizing them and start facing the climate crisis," says a BailoutWatch analyst. Bolstering arguments against providing further public benefits to the fossil fuel industry, a BailoutWatch analysis published Friday reveals that 77 companies got a collective $8.24 billion tax bailout last year, then laid off tens of thousands of employees. The tax benefits for major polluters resulted from two provisions of the Coronavirus Aid...

The world is struggling to tackling climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the sovereign debt crisis.Old-style 'debt-for-nature swaps' were designed to relieve debts for low-income countries while safeguarding nature.Attention is now turning to new financial instruments like 'nature performance bonds' which could help countries achieve ambitious climate targets. As the world continues to struggle with COVID-19, it is faced wit...

Companies with better ESG ratings were in a better position than others in 2020.Only by measuring on common standards, will we be able to deliver a meaningful, quantifiable impact.It will take time for government agencies to fully adopt a unified system and may be difficult, and costly for some companies. 2021 doesn't yet feel that much different from 2020. Infection rates are spiking, healthcare systems are buckling, and people are suffering. Th...

Affluence is the biggest threat to our world, according to a new scientific report.True sustainability will only be achieved through drastic lifestyle changes, it argues.The World Economic Forum has called for a great reset of capitalism in the wake of the pandemic. A detailed analysis of environmental research has revealed the greatest threat to the world: affluence. That's one of the main conclusions of a team of scientists from Australia, Swit...

China's national emissions trading scheme (ETS) is expected to eclipse that of the European Union to become the world's largest carbon trading scheme.The scheme is designed to include all major industrial sectors, from construction to power generation.While first mentioned in 2015 ahead of the Paris climate agreement, technical problems have plagued the scheme, delaying it for a further 5 years. China is targeting the launch of a nationwide emiss...

For every dollar invested into girls' rights and education, developing nations could see a return of $2.80, according to a new report.Targets to improve girls education are included in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, signed by world leaders in 2015.Around 130 million girls worldwide were out of school before COVID-19, according to UNESCO, and more than 11 million may not return to classes. Making sure all girls are finishing secondary edu...

• Last year, OECD members only gave 0.3% of their GNI to aid – less than the 0.7% promised. • 0.7% would help the world's poorest countries meet the SDGs for a decade. • Stable aid flows are needed more than ever during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. On 24 October 1970, the world's richest countries made a promise that would better the lives of people around the world. They committed to give a small percentage of their income – just 0.7% – in i...

A new study examines the impact of carbon pricing on emissions.Growth in annual carbon dioxide emissions was about 2 percentage points lower in countries with a carbon price than those without.The study also found that increasing the price by 1 euro per tonne was associated with decreasing emissions by a further 0.3% Putting a price on carbon should reduce emissions, because it makes dirty production processes more expensive than clean ones, righ...