Haigh emphasises that climate change causes disasters like droughts and floods, and “people and communities who are poorer are less likely to be able to prepare for such events.”
“This means the effects are worse, poverty worsens, and the cycle continues.
"This applies both internationally (farmers living on the edge of existence) and also in the UK, where the impacts of climate change on the health of the poorest communities have been well documented.”
Philanthropy
Rapley’s passion for change led him to create a theatre play to convey the immediacy of climate crises and the need to do something urgently to change the trajectory.
At a recent seminar in the City of London to business leaders and investors, Rapley described how the will exists to change the future positively and the technologies are being rapidly expanded, but the scalability depends on financial backing.
He urged investors and philanthropists to consider giving to climate charities who often have the knowledge, scalability and networks to have significant impact.
Swiderski agrees with Rapley that people are aware that something needs to be done and want to do it.
However, he says “many of the most powerful barriers to climate action are behavioural ones. The immensity of the climate crisis often makes people feel as though they can’t take meaningful action.
“They don’t know where to start, don’t know what matters, and feel overwhelmed by the possible options."
The team at the Global Returns Project has therefore focused on removing as much friction as possible from the process of taking effective climate action through charitable giving.
Swiderski explains: "Informed by the behavioural scientist on our advisory board, we’ve removed choice overload by selecting a portfolio of the best climate and biodiversity charities."
The team provides information to donors and investors on the portfolio of charities, through monitoring and reporting.
Need to act
He adds: "We need to act now because many of the climate ‘solutions’ we think about most frequently will not act at the speed and scale necessary to make a difference before 2030.
"Governments, for example, will be too slow to deliver solutions. Climate technologies will be too slow to scale up and become mainstream in six years.
"Sustainable investing can act quickly, but the scale of its impact remains hindered by the ongoing challenge of ‘greenwash’.
As the Financial Conduct Authority and its European counterparts have already worked to counteract through regulation such as the sustainability disclosure requirement, greenwashing in investment management has been an issue.
