The world is currently lagging well behind target on many of the Sustainable Development Goals - but the challenge is particularly acute in Africa and the Global South.  

In this week's 20/30 Visions, we're delighted to welcome Dolika Banda, who after a long career with the International Finance Corporation now sits on a number of boards (including British International Investment) and has recently launched a new initiative promoting good corporate governance. Dolika draws on her vast experience of the banking, development finance and impact worlds to tell us what needs to change if we are going to narrow the gap between investment rhetoric and reality. We discuss:

• The scale and shape of the challenge in Africa (and the Global South more broadly)
• Why this matters to the Global North like never before
• Shifting dollars away from climate mitigation to adaptation and resilience
• The problem of 'inexplicable inequalities'
• How we change investors' perception of risk in emerging markets
• The vast gap between commitments and disbursements (and how to resolve it)
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

It’s clear that we need more big investors to allocate more of their capital towards sustainability and impact. But what does this actually look like in practice? How do institutions get from broad ambitions or long-term commitments (achieving Net Zero, say) to specific portfolio construction decisions?

These are the some of the questions we address in 20/30 Visions this week with our guest Graham Cook, who leads on responsible investment at The Phoenix Group. Graham was previously CIO at the Environment Agency Pension Fund, where he put together an industry-leading sustainable investment programme. Now he’s applying some of the same principles at Phoenix, albeit on a substantially bigger scale. We discuss:

• The key steps in implementing a Net Zero commitment
• Setting the right benchmarks
• Working with pooling partners
• The importance of natural capital
• Why things could get worse before they get better
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

We are hugely reliant on nature; it is the bedrock of a healthy society and a healthy economy. Yet the human race continues to damage nature in profound ways. We urgently need to invest in restoring nature - but the current funding gap between existing commitments and the amount required is thought to be around $700bn a year globally.

For this episode of 20/30 Visions, we caught up with James Alexander, chair of Finance Earth, a social enterprise set up to try and channel more private and public capital to invest in nature, climate and communities. We discuss:

• The scale and urgency of the challenge we face when it comes to nature
• Why natural capital solutions may be the key to tackling climate change
• How the UK government is trying to kick-start the market
• Marrying his passion for sustainability with his interest in innovative finance
• The challenge of human nature
• Why it's time to mandate action - and punish laggards
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

Most people know Richard Curtis as the creator some of the most successful British films of all time. But he's also been an hugely important figure in the development world, dating all the way back to 1985 when he co-founded Comic Relief after witnessing the famine in Ethopia (Red Nose Day) has since raised over £2bn for charity). 

In the last decade he has been working with the United Nations to advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals - and his most recent venture is Make My Money Matter, a campaign to unlock some of the $50trn in our pension pots globally to invest for good.

For our latest 20/30 Visions interview, we caught up with Richard to discuss:

• How he thinks we're doing with the SDGs
• Why business has been an 'unexpected success'
• Why he got excited about pensions
• How the pension companies have responded to this challenge
• Why we need to talk about the banks
• Why investors are cooler than pop stars and movie-makers (kind of)
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

Buildings contribute up to 40% of global carbon emissions (even more in big cities) - and 80% of the buildings we see around us today will still be around in 2050. So if we are to have any hope of getting to Net Zero, we need to get much better at refurbishing and retrofitting our existing building stock to make it more sustainable.

Our guest this week is Emma Hoskyn, JLL's UK Head of Sustainability. We discuss:

• The scale of the challenge with our existing building stock
• How attitudes are changing among investors and asset owners
• The retrofit measures that really make a difference
• The value and rental premium for sustainable buildings
• The barriers preventing faster progress
• The need for a clearer policy framework (and the threat of IRA)
  
  
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

To build a more sustainable and inclusive economy, we need to scale the businesses that are helping to solve our biggest environmental and social challenges. But what's the best model for funding the growth of companies that are focused on these long-term goals?

Longer-term capital vehicles are increasingly emerging as a viable alternative to standard private equity and public markets. In theory, these models allow impact-driven business to remain focused on long-term value growth and impact, without the distraction of short-termist equity markets or regular changes of ownership. But can they be structured in a way that also works for investors?

Our guest is Diana Propper de Callejon, Managing Director of US-based Cranemere. Cranemere describes itself as "a long-term holding company for founders, management teams and family-owned companies in the U.S. and Europe"; to date it has raised $2.5bn from investors and backed seven operating companies. We discuss:

• The problem Cranemere was established to solve
• The benefits of long-term capital for impact-driven businesses
• Typical investor concerns - and how to resolve them
• Long-term capital vs PE/ public markets
• How we get more long-term vehicles
  and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

Web3 – the next generation of the internet – is set to transform our online lives over the next decade, with far-reaching implications for identity, privacy, finance, governance and more. So can we harness this new blockchain-enabled internet to drive better outcomes for people and the planet? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are notoriously energy-intensive; but in this formative stage of Web3's development, we still have a real opportunity to embed sustainability and inclusion at the heart of these new platforms.

To discuss this emerging (and incredibly exciting) space, we’re joined by Bettina Warburg, one of the world's leading investors in and educators on Web3 (her Ted talk on blockchain has had over 4 million views). She explains why she believes Web3 can help us super-power our efforts to solve some of the world's biggest challenges, including:

• Why Web3 is a 'paradigm shift' in the way we use the internet
• How the new platforms are integrating sustainability at a network level
• Why Web3's decentralised model will drive more creativity and innovation, particularly in terms of climate solutions
• The key factors in achieving broader adoption
• The intersection of Web3 and AI
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions

The world’s biggest asset managers control a significant portion of global AuM. If we want to supercharge the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive economy, we need them to direct more of this capital towards investing for impact.

In recent years, almost all of the big money managers have been expanding their impact strategies, in response to rising investor demand – hiring dedicated teams and raising dedicated funds. But how do we make sure that this is more than just a marketing exercise; that it’s done in a considered, authentic, additive way? And critically, how do we make sure that impact becomes central to all their investment strategies, and not just a niche pursuit?

To discuss this, we’re joined by Lisa Hall, a lynchpin of the impact investing movement who is now helping to steer Apollo Global Management’s first official foray into impact investment. She tells us:

• How (and why) Apollo designed its impact strategy
• The benefits of operating within a larger platform
• Why new entrants shouldn’t be ‘riding the rails for free’
• The dangers of proprietary approaches to impact
• What this means for Apollo’s other $500bn+ of assets
• and more...

Produced & presented by James Taylor
Editing by Jake Hatt @ Free Bird Film

Watch the videos at www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/2030visions