BASE is excited to announce the launch of a new podcast series dedicated to demystifying the world of climate finance! Climate change is a complex and cumulative issue. Despite several conversations about and commitments to taking climate action, financing flows still need to meet the scale of the challenge in quantity and quality. More distressingly, funding still fails to reach the most vulnerable. But, the field is evolving. As development agencies, think tanks, and policymakers increasingly think of newer ways to mobilise climate finance, the web of terminologies that risk making the field inaccessible continues to intensify.
Students’ Insights: What inspired you to create this podcast?
For over 20 years, BASE has worked on financial and business models that help various stakeholders (banks, technology providers, governments, and enterprises) test and incubate innovative approaches that catalyse climate mitigation and adaptation.
“But business and financial models are fairly broad terms. What do they really entail?”
Last year, while working with student researchers from the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) to create a toolkit for mainstreaming gender in climate projects as a part of the Applied Research Projects, this simple yet pertinent question served as a reminder that many frequently used climate finance terms lacked well-established and commonly understood or agreed upon definitions. The student group made up of Duanxia Xu, Signe Skov Jensen and Zheting Liu, along with the BASE team, realised that while gender considerations are featuring increasingly in climate conversations, their inclusion from the perspective of climate financing is still sparse. From here arose the idea to establish a practical, short toolkit to help project practitioners in this field include gender considerations at all stages of their activities.
Students’ Insights: What is the gender toolkit and why does understanding the terminologies matter?
The first and foundational step in their journey of developing a concise and actionable toolkit for climate financiers was to break down technical terms from the sector. The team applied for a grant from the Open Society University Network that gave them the opportunity to create a podcast to package their learnings from interviews with financial experts into easy-to-follow conversations. In addition to exploring the terminology, the podcast delves into how innovative financial tools support self-sustaining and holistic climate action through examples of BASE’s ongoing projects.
BASE takes this opportunity to launch the three-episode series created by the student team, focusing on leveraging on-wage and on-bill financing for advancing energy efficiency in Africa, channelling remittances for climate-resilient housing in the Pacific, and creating an enabling environment to make agri-food systems more sustainable.
Students’ Insights: What were your key takeaways regarding climate financing from your interactions with the experts?
Market-based solutions such as business models and financial mechanisms are critical enablers of climate projects, and shedding light on such technical concepts is necessary to spread the word about their potential.
Hear from finance specialists on why innovations to fight climate change should be matched by innovations in the finance sector, along with insights on how this is currently happening. Tune into the first episodes here:
Climate finance has immense potential to accelIn this episode, BASE’s Senior Climate Finance Specialist, Aurélien Pillet, covers climate finance’s potential to accelerate the uptake of energy-efficiency solutions and pave the way for a low-carbon future. Aurélien has a long-standing experience in energy efficiency, energy access, and renewable energy project financing, but also in policy analysis and technical assistance in Africa and Asia. The on-wage financing mechanism implemented in Ghana to enable salaried workers to acquire modern and efficient cooling appliances under the ECOFRIDGES initiative is mentioned as a real-life example.
Climate adaptation is necessary to protect people, communities, and ecosystems from the impacts of a changing climate, it should be guided by the principles of equity and justice, and be integrated into decision-making at all levels. Preventive or reactive, adaption solutions need to be urgently deployed. In this episode, Veronica Corno, who worked on the adaptation needs of Pacific island small states and mechanisms to finance them, explains these needs and what solutions exist.
Agriculture is in dire need of more adaptation efforts to the effects of climate change. In this episode, BASE’s expert Celina Schelle gives you a tour of the existing and potential solutions to save food while saving CO2 emissions. Celina is a Climate Finance Specialist, focusing on business model innovation and adaptation finance for building resilient communities. Her areas of work range from agriculture, food and health systems, nature-based solutions and energy access across which she has been implementing projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.
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