Globe Climate: Indigenous impact fund champions outcomes-based finance

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

We already know climate change affects our health, such as when our bodies experience extreme heat and poor air quality from wildfires that travel across the country. Rising temperatures also increases risks of microbial disease associated with food contamination and warm weather.

But as it gets warmer, bugs that carry illness also pose a risk. Exotic mosquito species that could carry illnesses such as dengue and yellow fever have become established in parts of Ontario, researchers say. Cases of Lyme disease have now increased more than 1,000 per cent in a decade, as the warming climate pushes the boundaries of a range of pathogens and risk factors northward.

Read more about all this today, plus it’s a chance to brush up on Lyme disease symptoms for the summer!

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Noise pollution: Critically endangered orcas in B.C. are struggling to navigate in a sea of shipping noise
2. Energy: Canada making progress in creating flourishing hydrogen sector, but some challenges remain
3. Pet project: How a pair of pugs led Open Farm’s founders to create a sustainable pet-food business
4. Obituary: Conservation biologist J. Bruce Falls studied the hidden rhythms of the natural world
5. Renewables: Japan’s Sumitomo teams up with Reconciliation Energy Transition for Alberta carbon project
6. Oil and gas: Tanker departs B.C. after becoming first to load oil from TMX pipeline system
7. On The Ground with The Narwhal: It’s not that animals are coming into the city. It’s that the city is coming to them

A deeper dive

A finance tool for environment solutions

Jeffrey Jones reports on ESG and Sustainable Finance. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about outcomes-based finance.

Canada’s First Nations could teach PhD courses on how lives can be upended by bureaucracy. Indigenous people across the country have long been under its tremendous weight, in dealing with the Indian Act that governed most aspects of their lives to struggling to access funding to improve conditions in their communities.

On the latter, an Indigenous-led financial firm is employing a new model that is already bearing fruit in the quest to shake the bureaucracy and bring new opportunities to First Nations. I reported on Raven Indigenous Outcomes Fund, which is gearing the concept of outcomes-based finance to Indigenous communities, so far in Manitoba.

Rather than going to straight to government for money, Raven uses its experience in venture capital to put together private, public and philanthropic funds and targets specific problems to solve. These include installing renewable energy systems to cut power costs and lower carbon emissions, and even reducing the incidence of medical conditions that disproportionately affect Indigenous populations, notably Type 2 diabetes.

Raven brings in experts and consults with the community leaders to set specific targets. When those are achieved, governments reimburse the investors along with a small return, say 5 to 7 per cent.

Last week, Raven’s Indigenous Impact Foundation, in conjunction with the University of Utah’s Sorenson Impact Institute, released a report on the potential of the funding model in Canada. It’s not a new concept. Outcomes-based financing has been in use for projects around the world for years. The report quotes statistics that show well-being is worsening around the world even as government spending on human services keeps increasing.

Hence the interest among First Nations, which constantly struggle with substandard living conditions, from housing to drinking water to unemployment.

Besides the funding, the programs have generated new job opportunities for residents as the need for installers and maintenance personnel has grown with the addition of geothermal heating units and solar panels.

- Jeff

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What else you missed

• Canada and U.S. suspend all fishing for Canadian-origin Yukon River Chinook salmon
• Waste from mill worsening mercury contamination in river near Grassy Narrows, study suggests
• Family says Alaska photographer killed in moose attack knew the risks, died doing what he loved
• Sweltering heat has Howler monkeys in Mexico dropping dead from trees
• Chile firefighter, forest official linked to wildfires that killed 130
• EU approves law to hit gas imports with methane emissions limit
• Climbing limits being set on Mount Fuji to fight crowds and littering
• Delegates at international energy conference call for universal access to clean cooking
• Push for increased public ownership of electrical utilities propels U.S. green energy transition

Opinion and analysis

Editorial board: The Liberals’ legal retreat on climate

Tony Keller: The carbon tax is dead man walking. Any last words?

Akshay Dubey: Canadian oil firms should put excess cash to use by investing in clean innovation

Madison Savilow: Yes, carbon capture is good – but what are we doing with that captured carbon?

Matt Bubbers: Is electric vehicle coverage fair? It’s complicated

Green Investing

Canada considers Chinese EV tariff following U.S. move but is not committing to it

Chinese brands are not a major player in Canada’s EV market at the moment but imports from China have exploded in the last year as Tesla switched from U.S. factories for its Canadian sales to it’s manufacturing plant in Shanghai. And the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association says Chinese EV makers have already made big inroads in Europe and are looking to North America next.

• Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to oppose Exxon director over shareholder lawsuit
• TotalEnergies investors back CEO at general meeting, but support weakens for climate strategy

Making waves

Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? Email us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.

Photo of the week

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Guides and Explainers

• Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
• We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP28 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
• We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.

Catch up on Globe Climate

• The one with great gardening advice
• Prevention and preparation as wildfire season beings
• Can floating nuclear power plants serve remote Northern communities?
• So Canada bought a pipeline. Now what?

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