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.

Forest fires pose a threat to human life and property. As we discussed in a previous article, most countries throughout the world, Georgia included, suffered from an unusually high number of forest fires during the summer of 2017. In Georgia, this topic was the subject of a spirited public debate about whether these fires were wild or man-made. In our previous article we discussed how natural causes generate wild forest fires.

In the summer of 2017, Georgia experienced an unusually high number of forest fires across the entire country. 35 forest fires were recorded just in August (official data reporting the size of area burned by these fires is not yet available). In almost all regions of the country, several fires were reported. Among them, the conflagration in the Borjomi gorge had the most dramatic consequences: it lasted for seven days (20-27 August), and more than 100 hectares of forest were destroyed. Many people claim that these cannot be all accidental events.