1.

“Business leaders are under pressure to address the climate crisis, but they can’t do so alone,” argue Matteo Gasparini, Knut Haanaes, Emily Tedards and Peter Tufano in “The Case for Climate Alliances“(Stanford Social Innovation Review 22, no. 4 (Fall 2024): 48–57), asserting that “climate alliances can help leaders and firms be more ambitious, responsible, and effective in driving the systems change necessary to save the planet.” With a shifting landscape in 2025 for members and prospective members of global and regional climate alliances across finance and industry, the article sets the context for understanding why these alliances were formed, what benefits they have aspired to offer their members and the world at large, and how they might address governance and other challenges ahead.

Read here.

2.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ “Assessment report on the Interlinkages Among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health,” estimates that annual private-sector financial flows directly damaging to biodiversity stand at $5.3 trillion. We won’t lie: This is a hefty report chock full of alarming statistics on the acceleration of direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change. The watchword is “nexus.” The 165 leading international experts from 57 countries caution against “single silo” solutions that, for example, prioritize climate change or health challenges alone. Instead, they propose a “nexus approach” that minimizes trade-offs between the interconnected risks and opportunities. (Short on time? We found that the graphics on pages 10, 11 and 18 plus the case studies on page 30 conveyed the essential points).

Read here.

3.

Our colleagues from MSCI’s Carbon Markets group published “Understanding Carbon Markets,” a veritable tome that covers all the basics you need to know about the state of compliance and voluntary carbon markets, carbon credit usage, governance, and the U.N.-backed carbon credit mechanism agreed to at COP29. With governments supporting international trading, carbon markets will be a pivotal focus for 2025. Take a flip through now, as the guide will be your go-to reference throughout the coming year.

Download here.

4.

On the “Great Simplification” podcast, Nate Hagens interviews Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of GMO Asset Management, about the societal impacts of toxic chemicals, particularly plastics and endocrine disruptors. Grantham warns that these “forever chemicals” pose a faster, less recognized threat than climate change, with profound risks for all life if action isn’t taken in the coming decades. Unaddressed toxicity is one contributor to a collapse in fertility rates worldwide that are unsustainable economically and societally, suggests Grantham. It isn’t the most hopeful message to start the year, admittedly. But the alarm is timely, as public awareness of the link between human and environmental health is triggering more governments to impose restrictions, such as those for businesses in New York and California that will start this year.

Watch (or listen) here.

5.

The “Conceptual Note on Adaptation” published by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) lays out the relevance to central bank and financial supervisors of the “potential economic losses and price fluctuations that could arise due to a failure to take action on adaption.” For practitioners in financial institutions, this report provides a preview of what role policymakers and regulators may expect the financial sector to play in shoring up “financial resilience,” as economies grapple with potentially crippling shocks in the coming decades from severe weather events and other climate-related physical risks. Our takeaway: Expect insurance availability and affordability to become a focal point in 2025 and beyond.

Read here.

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