Friday!!

At 3 pm it really felt like 5 pm, but it doesn't feel like a week before Thanksgiving. 

I got to attend a class this week on working with other parts of government. Today we had our capstone problem to solve and I got to work with people who know much more than I do about a lot of government things but I was in the wonderful position of knowing and understanding things they didn't. Huzzah! Who would like to hear about local content optimization? 

Oh wait, I was going to say something about climate finance. First, let me apologize. If I miss several of your postings in a row, if I fail to respond after you write something to me, I'm sorry. It means I've fallen asleep on the couch repeatedly. 

Climate finance is finance that somehow involves climate. The end. 

Ok, it is. But the idea is that it pays for something that can either help to prevent (mitigation) the worsening of climate change or help us deal with (adaptation) climate change. Financing renewable energy or energy efficiency or different approaches to agriculture that result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions all count as mitigation. 

It comes from multilateral development banks, development organizations, regular banks, private investors, and private investors looking to do good in addition to making money. It can be grants or loans or loans for a lower interest rate. It is all just like regular finance, the only difference is it has a climate goal.

The only thing I can think of that is obviously different is giving people money in exchange for projects that reduce greenhouse gases. People can plant a forest, have an organization come and certify that it is a forest, that it is a new forest, and that it is sequestering x tons of carbon. Then they can sell the "credit" for that carbon to a company that is either legally required to offset emissions it releases, or wants to do for good publicity. 

It is much easier to finance mitigation measures because it is easier to come up with ways to make money off the idea. It is harder to finance adaptation measures because it is usually harder to figure out how to make a profit. An adaptation measure might be something that reduces the chances of flooding the town or investing more in roads and electric lines so they can withstand weather extremes. Another measure is insurance that pays farmers in the event of flooding or crop failures. One approach to reduce the burden of collecting insurance is to just pay it in the event of a drought - if climate reports show that, rather than make poor farmers connect to the internet, download and fill out forms, and wait for a claims adjuster to come out in a few months and visit and question them, and force them to prove that they suffered financially, just decide that if there was a drought of a certain percentage below what is normal, pay. It reduces the costs of managing claims and lets farmers get the money immediately, before they suffer irreparable harm. This is one of the many ways that bank accounts through cell phone accounts are a marvelous thing - money can be delivered immediately. No one has to sell off all their assets or pull their children out of school.

I'm particularly touched by Ukraine having the "I want to live" program so Russians can surrender. There have supposedly been thousands of requests and their Telegram group is followed by nearly 40,000 people. Some call from the front line. Some are still in Russia and have just been mobilized. Some are calling for their grandsons. The program also has testimonies of Russians who surrendered and find life much better than it was on the front. It shows the "Freedom of Russia" legion which is a unit of Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine. 

At COP Ukraine has made the link between climate change, fossil fuel, and Russia's invasion. 

When Zelensky visited Kherson he joked that he came because he wanted a watermelon. Kherson is a great place to grow watermelons. They were introduced centuries ago. There used to be a televised annual tradition marking the start of harvest season with a watermelon barge on the River Dnipro. It has an unofficial parody Twitter account. The image of the watermelon as a mascot for the city grew during the occupation so watermelon memes exploded once Ukraine retook Kherson. For example, the Dynamo Kyiv football team reworked their logo to include the watermelon. 

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution saying that Russia should pay reparations. 

Ukraine's largest telecom company has resumed coverage in Kherson. To compensate for Russian destruction of their equipment they are installing mobile sites with diesel generators, battery backup and Starlink connections. 

Kazakhstan has pushed back against Russia's claiming part of Ukraine. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President, at a forum in St. Petersburg in June, sharing the stage with Putin!!!, said his government does not recognize Russian-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine. Pro-war commentators threatened him. Last month he held a summit of Central Asian presidents and had face-to-face meetings with other leaders but not with Putin.