Climate + Community Development: Emerging Investment Frameworks Fuel Transformative Impact

by Anna Smukowski of Enterprise Community Partners and Laura Mixter of LISC 

Climate issues are community development issues and vice versa. Those in community development finance must address the impacts of climate change in order to meet impact goals for economic opportunity and growth. Likewise, those in climate finance need to adopt an equity lens to focus investments in areas grappling with significant pollution and heat challenges, making sure that low-income communities and communities of color are not left behind. What do investors need to replicate and expand innovative funds and strategies that account for climate and community? How should they evaluate their existing portfolios for risks, and what frameworks do they need to effectively deploy capital in the future?

The tools already exist. Tools include data and reporting frameworks that can help investors analyze projects and investments and standardize impact measurement and discussion. From that vantage point, we can see the challenges in aligning climate and community development work, better understand the missteps of the past, and develop strategies that can help us work more equitably and holistically going forward.

In order to equitably drive capital into communities and to support their climate resilience, it is imperative that community and climate investors coalesce around frameworks that send a clear market signal. Like green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds, these tools should be: Standardized – Accessible – Scalable .

Find out more about all of this and more in their full article here - https://greenmoney.com/climate-community-development-emerging-investment-frameworks-fuel-transformative-impact

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