UK postgraduates to provide businesses with climate finance solutions

As we enter the new decade, it cannot be ignored that issues over climate change have increased in importance and urgency over the last few years.

Governments, activists, organisations and public figures have all done their part, whether in the form of direct action or in providing financing to reduce carbon emissions in various sectors. 

Of course, all these efforts don’t come for free. 

Climate finance refers to funding from public, private and alternative sources to support local, national or transnational mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change. 

These efforts include various small and large-scale projects that address various climate change issues such as pollution from fossil-fuel power generation, flooding, forest fires and so on. 

To further boost initiatives in climate finance, the Climate Investment Challenge has been launched at Imperial College Business School in collaboration with the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment.

The challenge calls upon UK postgraduate students to develop and describe creative and innovative business solutions for mitigating climate change. 

The aim of the challenge is for postgraduate students to use their academic expertise to develop new and inventive solutions for businesses to improve their financing activities in sustainable efforts to offset the effects of climate change. 

Submissions can involve ideas across all sectors, topics and regions and could include identifying untapped climate finance opportunities or developing innovative financial structures or instruments that improve the bankability of climate investments. 

The winning team and runner up teams will earn a cash prize worth £7,500 and £2,500 respectively.

The competition is open to all Masters and PhD students studying at a UK university from all academic backgrounds. 

“This competition is a unique opportunity for postgraduate students from all parts of Imperial and across the UK to play their part in coming up with innovative solutions to help businesses tackle the global climate crisis and realise the abundance of green investment opportunities available to them,”  said Centre for Climate Finance and Investment Director Dr Charles Donovan.  

“This exciting initiative reflects the important work we’re doing to help create the next generation of responsible business leaders through our teaching and research.”

In order to participate in the challenge, students need to form teams of two to five participants. Their submissions will be judged in terms of the degree of innovation, feasibility, scalability, and climate impact.  

The competition has been made possible thanks to the support of three private partners which have each played prominent roles in addressing sustainability and climate change. 

These partners are Candriam, an asset management company that specialises in sustainable investing, Standard Chartered an international bank with a commitment to addressing climate change, and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a specialist investment company that focusses exclusively on low-carbon and renewable energy infrastructure investment and asset management. 

Quinbrook is also the founding donor for the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment. The firm has recently renewed its sponsorship for a further three years to help the centre advance more investment activities in academia-industry collaborative opportunities related to renewable energy, clean technologies and climate-resilient infrastructure.

The deadline for competition submissions for the Climate Investment Challenge is 9 February 2020 and more details can be found on its website here.