Last week, we addressed global energy access, looking at innovative solutions to solve energy poverty in emerging markets. However, the energy discussion cannot end there. Another major issue the world is facing is rapid climate change and the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to it. Neither energy poverty nor climate change can be addressed alone. The articles below highlight how the international community is coming to the realization that clean energy solutions have the potential to … read more
Climate change and agriculture
Climate change and agriculture are deeply intertwined. Agriculture is responsible for a significant portion of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, while climate change is changing farming by introducing new challenges. The best solutions to mitigating climate change lie in the dynamically changing agriculture sector, and the answer to improving agriculture and global food production lies in technology.
To Deal With Climate Change, We Need Agricultural Innovation — Now by Robert T. Fraley on The Huffington … read more
The Paradox Behind Nitrogen and How Ag Tech Can Help
Since 1960 we have increased global food production by 2.5X (FAO) and more than doubled our population. One of the biggest contributing factors to our increased crop production is Nitrogen and the Nitrogen-enriched fertilizer that is produced from it. Nitrogen is one of the basic building blocks of amino acids: a fundamental part of any organic organism and hugely beneficial to crop growth. However, it can have detrimental effects on the global ecosystem when used … read more
Technological Advancements in Agriculture
The food and agriculture industry, from big to small, from the US to Africa, will undergo a new wave of technology adoption in the next 5-10 years. The core theme driving this adoption is the need for food security and food safety.
“Agricultural Technologies Could Increase Global Crop Yields as Much as 67 Percent and Cut Food Prices Nearly in Half by 2050” by International Food Policy Research Institute
The world’s population is … read more
Clean Energy Advancements
This week we focused our reading on the benefits and use of clean energy. By 2030, the United Nations aims to double energy efficiency and renewable energy worldwide and declared this decade one of Sustainable Energy For All. Over 1.4 billion people lack access to basic electricity, 95% of which live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. We are always looking for innovative technologies that can resolve the energy access gap.
The IFF Applied to Carbon Credits
By now, many of our readers are familiar with the Impact Factoring Fund (IFF). When we first introduced it, we knew it would solve a common problem for many startups in emerging markets. Since then, we have discovered that there is a range of applications for the IFF across a variety of sectors, including tablet sales, pay-as-you-go energy sales, and even carbon credits. The common thread is the working capital constraint that businesses face when … read more