This year has plagued a number of countries with tremendous natural disasters and extreme weather events. Greece was challenged with extensive fires and South Africa with a shortage of water. As late as November this year, the US was still struggling to tame forest fires. Something is certainly happening with the climate. These problems arise from society only being concerned with growth.

Is it possible to make long-term predictions on how climate change and the economy co-evolve as a means to understand the impact climate change has on the economy? Or for that matter, in what ways governments could encourage technological innovation in order to assure the continuation of economic growth?

An open call for prospective enterprises developing cleantech products, systems, processes, or services has been announced. The projects should offer solutions in the area of climate change adaption or mitigation, ecosystem services, renewable energy, water, and sanitation or urban development.

Why go small when you can go big in committing your multilateral development institute to concur with climate change? This is the exact intent of nine presidents of major financial institutions, amongst them the African Development Bank, the World Bank Group, the New Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Perhaps as an early Christmas gift to the international community rooting for a cross-sectoral solution on combatting climate change, HSBC has announced its commitment to establish the world’s first bond. As explained by HSBC themselves, the bond is closely linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Following seven selected SDG targets, HSBC will fund 1 billion USD through the bond and thus financially support projects set out to increase the sustainable well-being of communities and the environment.