Finance
Addressing Climate Challenges: The Role of Research in Climate Finance
Threatening ecosystems, public health, and economic stability, climate change remains one of the biggest worldwide issues of the twenty-first century. Among the major hazards the United States faces are changing sea levels, more violent storms, and disturbances in food output. Managing these risks and enabling the shift to a low-carbon economy depend on targeted investments in mitigating, adapting, and resilient building—that is, climate finance. The economic effects of climate change on the United States are discussed in this paper together with a discussion of significant policy proposals and an emphasis on ongoing research and innovation in climate finance.
The Economic Consequences of Climate Change in the U.S.
Extreme weather events now occur far more frequently and with far higher intensity, resulting in significant financial losses. Rising sea surface temperatures helped Hurricane Harvey cause before unheard-of flooding in Houston in 2017. One of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history, the damages topped $125 billion (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.). Likewise, California’s ongoing droughts brought on by rising temperatures and less precipitation have stoked terrible wildfires that have destroyed infrastructure and displaced whole populations.
Without major adaptation strategies, yearly damages from hurricanes and coastal floods might reach $500 billion by 2025, according to a 2023 analysis in Nature Climate Change. This emphasizes how urgently studies on financial instruments meant to help reduce economic losses—such as insurance products and climate bonds—should be conducted.
Especially in places like California and the Midwest, climate change has upset established farming cycles. Extended droughts and severe storms have lowered crop harvests and raised manufacturing prices. For instance, the strong windstorm known as the 2020 Midwest derecho damaged about $11 billion worth of crops, including corn and soybeans (U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA). Food security and affordability will remain at risk without focused investments in climate-resilient agriculture including enhanced irrigation infrastructure and drought-resistant crops.
Rising temperatures both directly and indirectly endanger health. Particularly among susceptible groups like the elderly and those from low-income areas, heat waves raise the frequency of heat-related diseases. Furthermore, moving to new areas as warming increases the habitat of disease-carrying insects are vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus. A report from The Lancet Planetary Health claims that tackling these increasing health hazards calls for coordinated plans combining public health preparedness and investments in green infrastructure meant to lower urban heat island effects.
Policy and Financial Mechanisms in Climate Action
To lower greenhouse gas emissions and advance climate resilience, the United States has instituted many historic laws. Allocating $369 billion to renewable energy and environmental projects, the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) marks the highest federal investment in climate change. Important clauses cover tax incentives for electric cars (EVs), renewable energy generation, and energy-efficient building improvements (Congressional Research Service, CRS). The Act seeks to hasten the acceptance of sustainable technologies by providing private sector innovation financial incentives.
The Biden government also rejoined the Paris Agreement, pledging a 50–52% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. Investments in climate adaptation, clean energy infrastructure, and carbon sequestration technologies have top priority among federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE).
Advancement of climate action has been much aided by state and municipal governments. To cut carbon emissions and set a target of 100% renewable energy by 2045, California has instituted a cap-and-trade program aiming at growing the infrastructure supporting renewable energy, New York has started bold clean energy initiatives. Urban cooling techniques and flood fortifications have been used in cities including Boston and Seattle to shield citizens from climatic effects. These municipal initiatives show how important multilevel government is for tackling environmental problems.
With wind and solar power making up a rising portion of electricity generation, the United States has achieved notable advancement in the acceptance of renewable energy. Texas leads the country in wind energy; California stays at the top in solar power. Particularly in Massachusetts and New Jersey, offshore wind projects spread throughout the East Coast are expected to greatly increase the nation’s renewable energy capacity.
The energy transformation revolves mostly around technological innovation. While carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are being developed to lower emissions from industrial activity, advances in battery storage systems are improving grid dependability. Achieving net-zero emissions worldwide would depend on increasing CCS and hydrogen fuel technologies, per a 2023 International Energy Agency (IEA) assessment.
Opportunities and Challenges in the Green Economy
The shift to a green economy presents significant employment generation possibilities. Two of the fastest-growing jobs in the United States according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are solar panel installers and wind turbine service technicians. A McKinsey analysis projects that investments in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and energy-efficient infrastructure could provide nearly 9 million additional employments by 2030.
Moreover, green infrastructure projects—such as public transit networks and energy-efficient building retrofits—have the potential to boost local economies while lowering emissions. Through reduced energy expenditures and higher productivity, the U.S. Green Building Council projects that every dollar spent in energy efficiency results in up to four dollars in economic benefits.
Notwithstanding great progress, considerable obstacles still exist. While technological issues including the scalability of CCS and the intermittency of renewable energy sources must be resolved, political polarization has hampered the passage of comprehensive climate legislation. Another important problem is making sure workers in sectors dependent on fossil fuels have a fair changeover. To reduce social disturbances during the energy change, policymakers have to give labor retraining and social support programs top priority.
Regarding its approach to climate change, the United States finds itself at a turning point. Although obstacles still exist, the nation’s governmental systems, technological capacity, and economic resources set it in a position to spearhead worldwide climate action. The U.S. can not only lessen the effects of climate change but also build a more sustainable and fair future by encouraging research and invention in climate finance.
The expenses of inaction much exceed the expenditures required to reduce climate effects as extreme weather events and environmental hazards keep becoming more frequent. Now is the moment for audacious, well-coordinated action including civil society, the business sector, and all tiers of government. The United States can provide a strong model for the world in tackling the existential problem of climate change with the correct mix of ambition, creativity, and cooperation.
Victoria, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – March 26, 2025) – ALUULA Composites .Inc. (TSXV: AUUA) (“ALUULA” or the “Company“) today reported its financial results for the three-month period ended January 31, 2025 (“Q1 2025“). All currency amounts noted are in Canadian dollars.
Building on momentum gained in fiscal 2024, the Company announces progression against strategic initiatives in Q1 2025. These initiatives include: closing an oversubscribed rights offering for gross proceeds of $2,506,156, realizing continued customer diversification, reporting gross margins at the top end of expectation, progressing against the expansion of manufacturing capabilities at a wider width and continuing to professionalize and strengthen the team.
The first quarter of 2025 saw a decrease in sales for ALUULA driven by the challenges that remain for the windsport market, which the Company believes can be attributed to post-pandemic inventory overstocking. While the windsport vertical market, as the first market entered, has underpinned the Company’s historical growth, and remains an important area for ALUULA, the Company believes that future growth opportunities will be driven by markets that have both higher growth rates and larger total addressable markets.
“Our Q1 2025 results underpinned the necessity of commercial diversification for ALUULA. The Company has been focused on bringing our unique composite textiles into new markets and essential to this is that we have the team required to execute our go to market strategies. This requires both driving revenue and ensuring we can deliver the quality products to support that revenue,” said Sage Berryman, President & CEO.
Berryman added, “With this, we are pleased to announce that Sven Sandahl is joining ALUULA as Chief Commercial Officer to help drive commercial and brand value. We are also pleased to welcome Peter Reid who is joining as Director of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering to help the continual improvement in our manufacturing process and quality of products. 2025 is a key year for ALUULA as we move from our internally focused execution to being more active in driving the growth of the business.”
As a seasoned entrepreneur and executive passionate about sustainability, Sven Sandahl has held many leadership roles in performance outdoor companies focused on circularity. Recently Sven helped launch ReJu, an international textile recycling company, as well as Cake, Karun World and Houdini Sportswear amongst others. He also has deep experience in building brand value and driving growth for ingredient brands including Cohesive, MIPS AB in their essential pre-IPO growth phase (where he advanced the uptake and understanding of this important helmet safety technology) and RECCO Systems Inc. Sven and his team will be responsible for leading the evolution of ALUULA’s brand and partner relations, helping to drive the growth for the business.
Solid Revenue Growth Coupled with High Gross Profit Margin (73%) and Non-IFRS Profit (RMB 376 Million)
BEIJING, March 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Bairong Inc. (the “Company”, “we” , “us” or “our” ; HKEX: 6608), a leading cloud-based AI turnkey service provider, today announced the consolidated results of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Mr. Zhang Shaofeng, our founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the Board, commented:
“As a leading cloud-based AI turnkey service provider, Bairong achieved revenue growth and sustained profitability in 2024 when the industry as a whole was weak. We also generated an operating cash flow of RMB 303 million in 2024, which fully demonstrates the resilience of our business. In terms of technology and products, our VoiceGPT continues to iterate rapidly, and at the same time, new products such as the digital human All – in – One Machine AvatarGPT and Cybotstar Agent Platform have been further implemented. In 2025, we will increase our investment in new businesses and new scenarios, especially in the two fields of Pan-financial AI and Pan-industry AI, so as to achieve a vertical and horizontal business layout supported by AGI.”
Financial Summary
|
Year ended December 31, |
|||
|
2024 |
2023 |
Change |
|
|
(RMB in thousands, except percentages) |
|||
|
Revenue |
2,929,267 |
2,680,915 |
9 % |
|
Model as a service (“MaaS“) |
932,473 |
891,248 |
5 % |
|
Business as a service (“BaaS“) |
1,996,794 |
1,789,667 |
12 % |
|
BaaS – Financial Scenario |
1,410,695 |
1,184,728 |
19 % |
|
BaaS – Insurance Scenario |
586,099 |
604,939 |
(3 %) |
|
Gross profit |
2,141,712 |
1,954,532 |
10 % |
|
Operating profit |
285,234 |
346,886 |
(18 %) |
|
Profit for the period |
266,029 |
335,259 |
(21 %) |
|
Non-IFRS measures |
|||
|
Non-IFRS profit for the period |
376,051 |
375,064 |
— |
|
Non-IFRS EBITDA |
486,176 |
463,782 |
5 % |
Revenue
Our total revenue increased by 9% from RMB2,680.92 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 to RMB2,929.27 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, primarily attributable to our enhanced capabilities of providing products and services despite a challenging macroeconomic and consumption environment.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, our MaaS business reported revenue of RMB932.47 million, representing an increase of 5% year-over-year. During the Reporting Period, the number of Key Clients reached 211, while average revenue per Key Client was RMB3.37 million. Our Key Client retention rate was 97%.
Key metrics of MaaS
|
Year ended December 31, |
|||
|
2024 |
2023 |
Change (%) |
|
|
(unaudited) |
(unaudited) |
||
|
(RMB in thousands, except percentages) |
|||
|
Revenue from MaaS |
932,473 |
891,248 |
5 |
|
Revenue from Key Clients(Note) |
711,328 |
744,489 |
(4) |
|
Number of Key Clients |
211 |
213 |
(1) |
|
Average revenue per Key Client |
3,371 |
3,495 |
(4) |
|
Retention rate of Key Clients |
97 % |
99 % |
(2) pct |
|
Note:“Key Clients” are defined as paying clients that each contributes more than RMB300,000 total |
|||
In 2024, our BaaS – Financial Scenario business reported revenue of RMB1,410.70 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 19% from RMB1,184.73 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. During the Reporting Period, we maintained growth against the industry’s downturn, with our brand gaining increasing recognition from more and more partners. A significant number of institutions prioritize choosing us as their partner of choice, indicating that the brand effect has been established.
MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A former finance director for the City of Semmes has been arrested and charged with theft by deception and credit card fraud, according to jail records.
According to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, 48-year-old Heather Davis is accused of embezzling between $3,000 to $6,000 from her current employer, McDonald’s.
According to a post on the City of Semmes Facebook page from March 4, 2023, Davis began working for the city in February in 2023 as the finance director.
However, Semmes Mayor Brandon Van Hook told FOX10 News Davis has not worked for the city in over a year.
The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office said these charges do not stem from her position with the City of Semmes.
Davis was also a former city clerk for the City of Satsuma.
Davis turned herself in today after a warrant for her arrest was issued, according to investigators.
Jail records show Davis has since been released on a $10,000 bond.
This is a developing story
Copyright 2025 WALA. All rights reserved.
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