How Climate Change Is Changing the Marketplace

Climate change is a major crisis and the ideal solution is still being sought out.

This is one of the issues right at the forefront of the SDGs. In fact, sustainable development goal 13 is “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”

Climate change impacts us all and can seriously harm our economic development, prosperity, justice, health and society.

What is being done? Across the globe both governments and independent groups are working to find solutions.

Sustainable development has an incredible amount of potential in it. Properly harnessed it will lead to truly healthy economies and a healthy planet. Obviously this is a solution that should be supported by the majority of society.

A major part of successfully implementing sustainable development and tackling climate change is getting the business world on board. How to go about this and what has already been done is what I will look at this week.

Whether you are aware of it or not, sustainable development is already a part of the business world. When the UN released the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, laying out the steps needed to fight climate change, extreme poverty and inequality, they stressed the need for businesses to play their part. Canada adopted the agenda in 2015 and the goals of the agenda have been impacting the market ever since.

The good news (for the planet) is sustainable development is proving to be imperative for success in the modern and future marketplace. Consumers in today’s market are becoming savvier when it comes to social justice and sustainability and choosing to ignore this vital area will prove to be a death sentence for companies as awareness grows.

Modern businesses need to show their green base if they want to maintain a positive image in the marketplace.

Of course that may not matter if you don’t have the money to keep the startup running.

The business world runs on money and even the noblest causes need financing.

Green bonds are one of the ways financing is being directed towards sustainable development. This funding initiative is also one of the ways we can fight climate change. With investment funds going towards startups and businesses that have a positive environmental impact these initiatives have a real chance to create the change we desperately need.

The good news is it’s a growing market. 2018 is expected to reach $250-300 billion, almost double 2017’s levels ($155 billion).

Smart entrepreneurs see the potential in this market and set out to make a difference by helping investors invest their money in the right green initiative.

This is what CoPower is doing. The investment team is set up to help people get access to green bonds and then monitor its progress. For people just discovering the market who are very interested in the field but unsure about the logistics and returns this is a great way to safely invest in green bonds.

Climate change is a real (and pressing) issue. If it’s not taken seriously it may seal our doom. Green bonds, if embraced by the market, could prove to help us live another day.

Blockchain is proving to be a major ace in humanity’s sleeve when it comes to tackling climate change. The technology, when properly used, can help in myriad ways, from powering microgrids to managing our shrinking water supply. But perhaps its most direct link to climate change can be seen in its connection to carbon credits.

Carbon credits or offsets are a slightly controversial concept, but their ability to get major corporations involved in environmentalism and the war on climate change needs to be noted. They may prove to be the best way to keep our emissions below catastrophic levels while providing a sense of equalization to the parts of the world that did not have as big a role in climate change.

How does blockchain play in? Innovators are looking at the potential that exists in the tokenization of carbon credits. This new use of cryptocurrency technology would radically improve the process of carbon credit trading, which is currently time consuming and expensive.

Veridium, for example, has created an “environmental and social impact token” called VERDE and is creating an app called the VERDEPAY that will allow users to track their carbon footprint and convert purchases into positive environmental impacts.

Reducing emissions is imperative if we want to limit the effects of climate change and this method of tokenizing carbon credits will likely prove to improve the process and bring more players on board.

Technology may be our saving grace when it comes to saving the planet and our society. The business world knows this and is doing all it can to use technology to the best of its ability. Sustainable development, gold bonds, blockchain, these are all very important when it comes to protecting our world.

The environmental market is set to change the business world. Billions of dollars are being funneled into innovations that will change the world. I can’t think of a better use of our money.

Learn more about FinTech by reading Leadervest's articles here.

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At Leadervest, we believe innovation is the key to a stable financial services industry and that leaders who innovate will change the world.

Leadervest is Canada’s leading FinTech consulting incubator-accelerator to launch and globally scale Canadian startups. We support FinTech startups creating a FinTech eco-system in Canada, as this will create more competition for our global financial systems, which will in turn make services cheaper and more accessible and ultimately improve financial equality and inclusion around the world.

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