David Jones

Very excited to share my latest piece in Forbes - "Adaptation and resilience in corporate climate agendas" If any of the below resonates, esp. with those working on adaptation resilience and/or corporate climate sustainability - our team at Riffle Ventures would love to hear from you! Main idea - climate adaptation and resilience can be an innovation driver for companies and we need to accelerate this agenda. 🏭 Most discussions around corporations and their climate agendas focus on if, how, and how quickly, big businesses are reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as decreasing their own negative externalities on the natural environment. 💰 However, in parallel climate change is creating growing financial, infrastructure, health and other risks that could disrupt large companies, some of which is already happening. While the tools and strategies for decarbonization are fairly well-covered, we are only scratching the surface when it comes to building resilience and adapting to a warming planet. 🈺 Of course, emissions and corporate sustainability targets need urgent attention and commitment, but in parallel we need to make sure companies writ large are adapting to and building resilience against climate risks - e.g. droughts, floods, fires, grid instability and weakening infrastructure - are all a growing reality on a warming planet. 🆘 Corporations, regardless of industry and geography will require support across the board in navigating climate change's most pressing threats. The risk of not doing so could have near-term, material impacts on protecting critical infrastructure as well as access to necessary products and services - food and medicine - and could also negatively impact human's themselves - heat stress, job loss, etc. 🤖 There is a growing technology solution set focusing on climate adaptation and resilience, and we need to bridge the gap between between these climate tech startups and the corporate sector. In turn, corporations can have an enormous impact in helping to scale climate innovations and bolster the surrounding ecosystem. Many thanks to Jackie Roberts for providing time and insight for the article, Dhruv Jesrani for being the design wizard and to Suma Reddy Connie Bowen Abrar Chaudhury Alhan Fakhr Laith Kawar Madeleine Futterman Emmanuelle Palikuca Omar Saif Andrew Chang Hope Petraro Tom K. Deepa Lounsbury for their guidance along the way while we did the research for this, and for Dahna Goldstein for being the connection to Jackie! #ClimateAction #SustainableBusiness #CorporateResponsibility #SustainabilityGoals #ClimateLeadership #CorporateSustainability #SustainableDevelopment #ClimateInnovation #ClimateChangeAdaptation #ResilienceStrategies #SustainableSolutions #ClimateResilience #BuildingResilience #ClimateChangeResponse #AdaptationStrategies

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Is the antidote to 'doomism' - action? Or is it understanding? One of the clearest messages in changing public mindset on climate change is not just stark data or a 'to do list of actions' but bringing people into a shared understanding of the "why" behind action - the cause and effect of human consumption on the planet and how we can, together, shape a better, more resilient and just society. #climate #communications #public #climateAction

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With four days to go to the election, the Kibbo Kift Agency team did a great job with securing this piece in Forbes by Felicia Jackson for Zero Hour's Climate and Nature Bill. The next few years will be absolutely critical if we are to restrict global temperatures from rising past 1.5, which is why this election is so important. Recent analysis from Greenpeace UK and Friends of the Earth ranked party manifestos based on the strength of their climate and nature commitments. The Green Party led with a points score of 39/40, Liberal Democrats came second with 31.5/40, with Labour only achieving 20.5/40 and the Conservatives scoring 5/40. The Climate and Nature Bill presents a real solution for any party that comes into power (likely Labour); Amy McDonnell explains further in this piece: “The CAN Bill calls for a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy that joins up the UK’s responses to climate change and the destruction of nature. These are interdependent issues that must be addressed together in order to achieve holistic, long-term solutions for the dual crises we face.” James Sutton Oliver Sidorczuk Matthew Fletcher-Jones Lara Prince Alex Brzezicka https://lnkd.in/ekMmq3si

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ClimateTech never stops evolving. And this week is NO exception This week's edition of ClimateHack is p-a-c-k-e-d with milestone fundraises and billion-$ partnerships. Take a look 👀 📈 What’s up? A report by Congruent Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank reveals that the “most promising” climate tech companies are hardware startups. 📉 What’s down? Carbon credit startup Nori announced that it has officially closed its doors 💸 Exclusive: 20 active Climate Tech syndicates and what they’re investing in 👀 Extantia and HV Capital just launched the largest open-source global Offtake Directory. 🎧 Cool: Gianluca Managò on design tweaks that lead to significant carbon emissions reductions. ✍️ Apply: Applications are open for the Inflection Award for young PhDs or PhD students working on research with “massive climate impact potential” 🎟 Lock in the best rate for the HackSummit in New York 🧀 Formo secured $61 million Series B funding for its animal-free cheeses made via microbial fermentation 🥩 NOVAMEAT closed its oversubscribed Series A funding round with €17.4 million. 🌾 US biotech Switch Bioworks raised $17 million for low-cost and sustainable fertilisers 🧑‍🌾 Soil Capital secured €15 million led by Trill Impact 🪰 SOLASTA Bio raised $14 million to develop its “nature-inspired”, peptide-based insecticide 🧪 REDUCED raised €8 million Series A funding 🌳 Open Forest Protocol closed its seed funding round, led by Übermorgen Ventures 🌲 BioTara AG secured investment from Ecosia 🏭 Ucaneo raised €6.75 million to build one of the largest DAC testing and development facilities in Germany. 🏭 Reverion raised $62 million Series A funding for its carbon-negative biogas power plant 🔋 Allegro Energy secured $17.5 million Series, in a round led by The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment 👨‍🔧 Reonic raised €13 million in a Series A funding round led by Northzone. 🛢 C-Zero secured $5 million at the first close of its $18 million funding round. 💨 Vind.AI closed its seed funding round, led by Norrsken VC 🌡 Zero Friction secured €2.5 million, in a funding round led by SHIFT Invest 🔎 Wattnow, based in Tunisia, closed a funding round 🌊 Brineworks raised €2 million in a funding round led by Pale Blue Dot ☀️ Bling Energy secured €2 million seed funding for its solar energy subscription model 🧂 UK-based Sunamp has developed a way to store solar power Funds: 🇩🇪 AENU secured €170 million 🇳🇱 SET Ventures closed its 4th fund with €200 million 🇺🇸 MCJ raised $80.6 million for its 2nd fund 🇬🇧 Atomico announced two new funds totalling €1.12 billion 🇺🇸 Raisewell Ventures launched 🇪🇸 Adara Ventures secured €35 million 🇳🇴 Deep Blue Fund I secured investment from MOL Plus 🇩🇰 Look Up Ventures has partnered with Giant Ventures ... And that's only some of it! Get the full recap: https://lnkd.in/eRjyaStT

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This was the first line of my introduction to our 2023 report, ESG & Green Finance: What Next?: “The planet is at zero hour. How often have we heard that phrase over the past decades?” As I write 17 months later, this is the lead of a story last week: “The world is on the verge of a climate abyss, the UN has warned, in response to a Guardian survey that found that hundreds of the world’s foremost climate experts expect global heating to soar past the international target of 1.5C.” In fact, one-fifth of female scientists polled say they have opted to have fewer or no children. How not to despair at this, and indeed at nearly every other environmental story these days? How not to obsess about the world my 2 1/2 year-old granddaughter will encounter as she grows up on an increasingly resource-challenged and crisis-ridden planet? How do I respond to her father/my son sardonically thanking me for the world my boomer generation has largely been responsible for leaving them to grapple with? While I sympathise with the burden of new regulations place on businesses, I applaud them, lament that they come so late, and worry that they’ll be insufficient to bring about the change we so desperately need. And, as a dual American-European, I also worry that retrograde US politicians and officials continue to deny the urgency of the current ‘zero hour’ and obfuscate the inevitable reckoning that has already begun and will only continue to hammer virtually every corner of the planet. We have just published a new white paper and I struggle not to despair. Let’s face it – greed brought us here. Short-sightedness, selfishness and self-interest fed our desire to take what we could, however we could, and magical thinking that the consequences either wouldn’t ever come or at the very least would not be ours to confront. Every legitimate study so far – and the fires, floods, and other man-induced disasters that are some of the factors triggering massive social instability and migration, financial ruin, and the climate scientists’ haunting and mounting panic – indicate that we won’t be able to run away from what we’ve done. Can anything other than greed get us out of here? Will the cures inherent in the various pieces of legislation – that alphabet soup – be effective in drawing us back from the abyss? For example, can greenwashing, a practical application of both greed and selfishness, be policed into extinction? We can legislate. We can name and shame. We can try to induce behaviour change at a fundamental level by forcing transparency on finance and industry. And we can hope. Selfishly in my case, for the sake of my granddaughter, I certainly do. For now, though, I encourage you to download our latest white paper - Sustainable Finance: Navigating Through Choppy Waters #esg, #sustainablefinance, #climatechange

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A new InfluenceMap report reveals that the clients of the Big Six PR and advertising holding companies (except Havas) have MORE clients in their database that are obstructing the goals of the Paris Agreement than those actively supporting it. One of the reasons we are building an alliance of ethical agencies, is to support clients that have made climate goals to actually hire and support agencies that won't jeopardise their reputation. Dentsu, Havas, IPG, Publicis, Omnicom, and WPP - we're looking at you 👀 Take a look, read the report and join the conversation 👇

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The belief that serious challenges cannot be solved by either the government, or the private sector or community alone - it needs them to work together - lies at the core of what we do at DGA-ASG everyday... we work to find sustainable solutions at the intersection of all three. Watch this interview and the fascinating examples of when these three sectors come together! Bipul Kiran Singh Roy George Mankavil Vineet Abraham Roopal Suhag Saumya Varma Mayuri Purkayastha Piyush Chakravarty Albright Stonebridge Group Dentons Global Advisors

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Climate Capital Guidebook: The Biden-Harris Administration is releasing a new Climate Capital Guidebook to provide a simple, comprehensive map of capital programs across the federal government that are available to climate-related start-ups, small- and medium-sized businesses, and their investors. While larger, institutionally-backed climate companies may have the resources to identify and access federal funding opportunities, smaller enterprises may face greater challenges in navigating these federal programs. https://lnkd.in/eJ3QV4Fw #climatechange #climatetech

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