EMIA Notes - March 24, 2023

Join Spencer Glendon and Alison Smart from Probable Futures, a non-profit climate literacy initiative, for an educational session on the effective use of their resources on climate science. 

Probable Futures develops practical tools and offers narratives on climate adaptation cases to public and private institutions to help them manage climate change. These tools and resources are available online to everyone, everywhere. Spencer and Alison will describe their work and give practical examples of how to deploy climate science to manage the challenges ahead, a tool that can likewise assist investors in their advocacy with firms and governments in emerging markets regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Jim Valone, member of the Board of Directors of the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance (EMIA) and formerly head of Wellington Management’s emerging markets debt effort, will moderate the webinar.


Speakers:

Spencer Glendon, Founder, Probable Futures

Alison Smart, Executive Director, Probable Futures

Jim Valone, Member of the Board of Directors, EMIA (moderator)

Global plastic waste generation has more than doubled over the past two decades, posing serious threats at all levels. The plastics lifecycle contributes significantly to global carbon emissions and public health issues related to toxic chemicals and air pollution. Besides its environmental and human health threats, plastic pollution has resulted in lost economic value ranging between $80 and $120 billion.

In this webinar, Rosa Pritchard from ClientEarth will explore the global plastics crisis, the role of plastic packaging in perpetuating the problem and offer solutions. She will discuss best practices and help investors understand the requirements they should demand of food and beverage companies. Additionally, she will present existing investor activities focusing on European multinationals to demonstrate the positive contributions institutional investors can make.

The webinar will also feature Miko Aliño from Break Free From Plastics, who will present the most problematic form of plastic packaging used by South East Asia’s food and consumer goods sector. 


Speakers:

Rosa Pritchard, Plastics Lawyer, Client Earth

Miko Aliño, Project Coordinator for Corporate Accountability, Break Free From Plastics

Nadine Cavusoglu, Director of Consumer Staples Program, EMIA (moderator) .

The planet is nearing an important inflection point in terms of emissions from the power sector.

Last year, 92% of the growth in electricity demand was supplied by clean energy sources, according to the UK think tank, Ember-Climate. This year could be the first year when demand growth is fully met by renewable energy, due to the rapid deployment of solar and wind power in emerging markets, including China and India.

The Director of EMIA’s Utilities Program will host Ember-Climate speakers to help our attendees understand the progress being made in the power sector and how they can help accelerate it.
 
 
Speakers:

Dave Jones, Head of Data Insights, Ember Climate
 
Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, Senior Electricity Analyst, Ember Climate
 
Lars Schonander, Director of Utilities Program, EMIA (moderator)

The World Economic Forum estimates that half of the world's GDP depends on biodiversity. However, according to the WWF, 69% of our planet’s wild animal populations have declined since 1970. One more million species are also facing extinction due to human activity. In addition to these high level risks, businesses negatively impacting biodiversity are likely to incur regulatory, reputational, and other risks.

The Consumer Staples Program and the Extractives Industries Program have jointly organized a webinar focused on biodiversity and the tools available to investors who want to integrate it into their decision-making process. 

WWF's Rebekah Church, Regula Hess, and Florian Oeschger will highlight the biodiversity risks that are particularly acute for the mining and agriculture industries. They will also present the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter, a tool that helps investors assess these risks for companies in their portfolios.


Speakers:

Rebekah Church, Global Lead Biodiversity Stewardship, WWF

Regula Hess, Senior Advisor Sustainable Finance, WWF

Florian Oeschger, Advisor Sustainable Finance, WWF

Pavel Laberko, Director of Extractive Industries Program, EMIA (moderator)

The Emerging Markets Investors Alliance could not function without its many volunteers who contribute their skills to our future. If you want to be part of our project, please send us an email at applicants@emia.org including your resume/ or LinkedIn profile, and mentioning "Volunteer Opportunities" in the subject line.

The Emerging Markets Investors Alliance (EMIA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to enable institutional investors to use the power of their collective capital and voices to advocate for a more sustainable future. EMIA "Programs" are activities that bring together investors, policy experts, and governments or companies for the purpose of improving ESG best practice adoption. EMIA Programs focus on sovereigns (e.g., Government Debt and Fiscal Governance Program, Sovereign Decarbonization) and on sectors (e.g., Agricultural Program, Extractive Industries, Financials Program and Telecom, Media, and Technology Program).