The facts are irrefutable. The planet is getting hotter year after year. Catastrophic events are rapidly intensifying, triggered by hotter temperatures and changing weather patterns. This is with the planet having heated up by only 1.2°C. Yet we are on track to see a global temperature rise of 4.4°C (7.9°F) by 2100 without meaningful mitigating action and by 2.6°C on current policy. Temperatures on land area are going to rise significantly more. A fact that is often overlooked.
Will humanity end up living Canada and Siberia? World heat map in 1980s vs. 2100 in a +4.4°C (7°F) scenario.
Nature.com. Vargas Zeppetello, L.R., Raftery, A.E. & Battisti, D.S. Probabilistic projections of increased heat stress driven by climate change. Commun Earth Environ 3, 183 (2022).
The price to pay
The World Bank estimates that $90 trillion in infrastructure investments is required through 2030 to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C (2.7°F). To put this into perspective, the 2022 US climate bill amounts to just $375 billion. The conclusion is obvious: the private sector and private resources must fill the gap.
Private enterprise is the key
Companies are the number one lever to keeping climate change in check. In capitalist societies, and even in China, they power pretty much anything: energy, transport, housing, food production, financing, resource extraction, engineering and the list goes on. But they are not doing nearly enough. In fact, that’s actually putting it nicely. Over 6 years on from the Paris Climate Agreement, cumulative emissions by publicly traded US firms are still trending up.
Based on data by Impact Cubed
What to do?
We can keep our fingers crossed hoping that governments worldwide manage to create effective impulses and that the large majority of corporations will embrace the fight against climate change. However, we at Ziggma can’t shake the feeling that this is not going to cut it. We believe there is no alternative to mobilizing private enterprise and resources.
3 key premises
We are working of three key premises:
- Enterprises are the number one lever to tackle climate change. They heat our homes, produce our food, provide our transportation, and much more.
- Enterprises are not doing nearly enough. The level of emissions per unit of revenue is actually trending up (see previous chart).
- Mobilization of private resources is imperative to fund the $90 trillion in infrastructure investment needed by 2030 alone.
Ziggma’s mission and contribution
Our mission is to be the premier platform for climate impact investing. There are three parts to this:
- Provide transparency on corporate performance to cut emissions. You would think there is a centralized resource to get information on companies’ performance when it comes to cutting emissions. Astonishingly, there is very little out there. Carbontracker and Net Zero Tracker are valuable resources. But their coverage is limited. Powered by market-leading data, Ziggma has set out to change this with company Climate Scores and portfolio carbon footprint tracking.
- Impact investing. To save our climate, it is imperative to facilitate the allocation of private resources to climate impact investments. As a society we can no longer afford to waste resources on greenwashed or ineffective solutions. Our dedicated team presents curated climate impact investment opportunities that actually make a difference.
- Participation. As a company’s co-owners, shareholders are ideally placed to push companies to act more decisively to reduce carbon emissions. We are actively developing solutions to empower investors to vote when it comes to climate matters at their portfolio holdings.
IT IS STILL POSSIBLE. But we must act now.
As monumental as the task appears, it is still possible to stay within the budget of CO2 emissions that will limit the rise in temperature to below 2°C (3.8°F). But we must act now.
It cannot be stressed enough that climate impact investing is as much about appropriate resource allocation as it is about holding corporations accountable.
Step up to the challenge with us.