Natural Capital on African Governments’ Balance Sheets initiative introduced at COP16
The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Africa Council has unveiled a new initiative aimed at making natural assets a core component of national balance sheets. The Natural Capital on African Governments’ Balance Sheets initiative is an institutional investor-public partnership led by the SMI Africa Council, which brings together institutional, technology and legal partners such as the African Union Commission, Africa Investor Group,...
What Are Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Why Are They Important?
The impacts of climate change have been on stark display this year, from severe flooding in Brazil and East Africa to droughts in Mexico and Europe and wildfires in Canada. Record-breaking heat has claimed lives around the world. These disasters are evidence that the world has not yet done nearly...
GEMs Consortium Issues More Granular Data; Critics Seek More Transparency
The Global Emerging Markets Risk Database (GEMs) Consortium Oct. 15 reported on country-by-country loan default and recovery rates for the first time, but the Consortium has still not met the key transparency demand: making the database accessible. The new data was called insufficient by critics in the private and nonprofit sector who say that issuance of more detailed information is necessary...
Private Sector Observers Seek More Information From GEMs Database
Partially lifting the lid on a “treasure trove” of international economic data has not dampened interest in getting a closer look inside, but the crystal ball for the future is hazy. The valued data in question is known by the acronym GEMs. There’s information from 26 development finance institutions covering 20,000 contracts over 30 years. GEMs is run by a consortium...
Major MDBs Have Rating Headroom for USD480 Billion in New Lending
Major multilateral development banks (MDBs) could increase lending by nearly USD480 billion collectively before the decline in capital positions would lead to downgrades, Fitch Ratings says in a new report. Fitch does not expect MDBs to use their lending headroom in full. We assessed how much lending would be consistent with unchanged ratings for each of the 12 largest Fitch-rated MDBs,...