Newsletter #4

In the News

USAID and Department of State Release 2022 U.S. Global Water Strategy
 
This month, USAID and the U.S. Department of State released their 2022 U.S. Global Water Strategy – a whole-of-government strategy that is delivered to Congress every five years. This iteration of the strategy will be the first ever to operationalize the White House Action Plan on Global Water Security that was introduced in June of this year.
 
New strategic priorities for this plan include going beyond community-managed services for a comprehensive, professionalized, and scalable approach; Prioritizing local leadership of water and sanitation systems and services; Integrating climate resilience to respond to the growing threat that climate change poses to water security; and Increasing coherent implementation across humanitarian, development, and peace-building contexts.
 
To read the full Global Water Strategy, as well as a summary of the strategy and USAID’s specific approach, visit this page.
Oxford Net Zero Report – Defining Net Zero for Organizations
 
Corporate net zero commitments are on the rise. By the middle of this year, one in three businesses in the Forbes 2,000 list had set a net zero target, up from one in five a year earlier (Net Zero Stocktake, 2022). Despite the rise in target setting, we are still not on track to reach global net zero emissions by 2050. A ‘conveyor belt’ of governance of Net Zero has emerged, ranging from voluntary action to binding regulation (Hale, 2021). Oxford Net Zero assessed 33 of these initiatives across the governance landscape to identify areas of convergence and divergence in terms of guidance offered to corporate actors. 
 
Read the full report here.

Featured Expert: The Importance of Climate Adaptation

Peter Soyka
Environmental Policy and Management Expert

As one of the greatest Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) challenges of our time, climate adaptation – the effective management of risks and corresponding business opportunities of our changing climate – should be on the minds of every corporate executive, investor, and rating agency seeking success. Instead, SDI expert Peter Soyka highlights a major adaptation and resilience gap in the context of ESG and climate disclosure – a gap which could lead to trillions of dollars in corporate losses over the coming decades.

In his special report, “Climate Change Adaptation – ESG Investing’s Most Important Missing Piece?”, Mr. Soyka emphasizes the need for bold leadership, new ways of thinking in the private sector, and a commitment to public-private partnerships that focus on inclusivity, collaboration, and innovation to facilitate the development and implementation of adaptation strategies and policies that holistically address climate risks. 

To read the full report, click here. To learn more about the work of Peter Soyka, visit his page on our website.

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