Finance
Guest Article: Climate Finance Needs Rethinking to Reach Indigenous Peoples on the Ground | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD
By Jhony Zapata and Sophie Grouwels, Forestry Officers, Meals and Agriculture Group of the UN
As we speak marks the Worldwide Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the primary for the reason that historic second on the UN Local weather Change Convention (UNFCCC COP 26) final November, when Indigenous Peoples had been acknowledged because the guardians of the world’s forests, and a significant improve in financing was pledged to help them on this position.
Indigenous Peoples handle about 40 % of all terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact ecosystems worldwide, and are legally acknowledged as proudly owning at the least 12 % of the world’s forest space. But in lots of components of the world, Indigenous Peoples and native communities (IPLCs) don’t have tenure of the forest land they dwell on, even if once they do, they’re higher capable of preserve it. A current report discovered that forests owned by Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have decrease deforestation charges and decrease carbon emissions.
Indigenous Peoples are due to this fact very important to the achievement of most of the SDGs, together with Purpose 13 (local weather motion). But lower than 2 % of world local weather finance is reaching small farmers and Indigenous Peoples and native communities in growing international locations.
In one of many main breakthroughs of COP 26, the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US, together with 17 philanthropic foundations, pledged to spend USD 1.7 billion between 2021 and 2025 to guard the rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest communities to tenure of their ancestral land and help them as guardians of the world’s forests.
To understand this pledge within the spirit it was made, funds must be channeled on to Indigenous Peoples. This might permit Indigenous Peoples, who greatest perceive the scenario on the bottom, to determine how one can use the funds. Nevertheless, this requires a rethink of the best way local weather finance is delivered with a view to create a “pipeline” alongside which funds can stream on to Indigenous Peoples.
In lots of international locations, complicated necessities and legal guidelines prohibit authorities improvement help being launched on to Indigenous Peoples and native communities. On the different finish of the pipeline, many local people organizations don’t have authorized standing or the capability to obtain and handle giant sums. They’re usually in distant areas the place there are not any banks and the place no one retains receipts for transactions.
Indigenous Peoples want be really acknowledged and handled as equal companions within the international battle in opposition to local weather change. They usually want a real change of information and help to strengthen their organizations and develop the capability to obtain and handle local weather funds, ultimately eradicating middlemen.
The Forest and Farm Facility – a partnership between the Meals and Agriculture Group of the UN (FAO), the Worldwide Institute for the Surroundings and Improvement (IIED), the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and AgriCord – has been advocating these targets as a part of its work to help Indigenous Peoples and native communities.
Channeling funds on to Indigenous Peoples just isn’t unattainable. Mechanisms exist to make this work, and in some locations Indigenous Peoples and native communities have already completed the groundwork. For instance, the Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques, an affiliation of Indigenous Peoples and forest communities in Latin America, has established the Mesoamerican Territorial Fund, by which worldwide local weather funding is channeled to its members. Funds are deployed to communities who mix ancestral information and the most recent modern concepts to guard forests, enhance livelihoods, and foyer for recognition of their rights and experience. The affiliation is working to share its expertise with Indigenous Peoples and native communities in different areas.
Indigenous Peoples account for nearly 19 % of the intense poor. They’re additionally usually on the entrance line of conflicts over defending nature, typically even shedding their lives as they attempt to defend the forests from unlawful or harmful business exercise.
The COP 26 IPLC Forest Tenure Joint Donor Assertion has given Indigenous Peoples hope that the world has understood the worth of their very important work, that their rights might be acknowledged, and that they are going to obtain their fair proportion of local weather financing.
We can’t afford to not make this method change to the monetary structure for local weather finance. Because the COP 26 pledge acknowledged, with out bringing Indigenous Peoples to the desk as equal companions, we can’t save the planet.
David Kaimowitz, Chief Program Officer on the Worldwide Land & Forest Tenure Facility, contributed to this text.
Finance
Wall Street preps for shortened trading week, Honda & Nissan merger talks: Yahoo Finance
It is a short trading week for Wall Street. The equity markets will close early on Tuesday, December 24, and be closed all day on Wednesday, December 25, for the Christmas holiday. Two stocks in focus today are Honda (HMC) and Nissan (7201.T, NSANY), which officially announced they are in talks to merge. The companies expect the transaction to be completed in 2026. Other trending tickers on Yahoo Finance include Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Tilray Brands (TLRY), and Novo Nordisk (NVO).
Key guests include:
9:10 a.m. ET – Ben Emons, Fed Watch Advisors, Chief Investment Officer/Founder
10:25 a.m. ET – Eric Sheridan, Goldman Sachs Senior U.S. Internet Sector Equity Research Analyst
10:45 a.m. ET – Tony Bancroft, Gabelli Funds Portfolio Manager
11:20 a.m. ET – Steven Wieting, Citi Wealth Chief Investment Strategist and Chief Economist
11:30 a.m. ET – Michael Liersch, Wells Fargo Head of Advice and Planning
Finance
The Container Store files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Investors in The Container Store (TCSG) have been sent packing as the struggling home goods chain files for bankruptcy.
The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Sunday, Yahoo Finance learned exclusively. The company said in a press release it is doing this in order to refinance its debt to “bolster its financial position, fuel growth initiatives, and drive enhanced long-term profitability.”
For the quarter-ended Sept. 28, 2024, The Container Store listed total liabilities of $836.4 million against $969 million in total assets.
CEO Satish Malhotra — a former Sephora executive who took over atop The Container Store in 2021 — is confident the maneuver will allow the 46-year old company to stick around.
“The Container Store is here to stay,” Malhotra said in a statement, adding that it is taking these necessary steps in order to advance the business, strengthen customer relationships, expand its reach and bolster its capabilities.
It plans to lean into custom space offerings, “which continue to demonstrate strength,” he said.
The bankruptcy process is expected to last several weeks with the reorganization anticipated to happen within 35 days. The bankruptcy does not include the company’s Elfa home goods business in Sweden.
The business will operate as usual across all stores, online and in-home services. The company operates 102 stores across 34 states.
The company says all customer deposits are safe and protected, and vendors will get paid in full. There are no planned layoffs.
There are also no planned store closures, but that may be a possibility in the future as the company goes through the reorganization process.
Chapter 11 allows companies to “renegotiate the terms of their leases to align their store footprint with market realities and business needs,” sources told Yahoo Finance, adding “if they do not achieve meaningful rent reductions, they may be forced to close a select few locations.”
The filing has been expected by industry experts.
Read more: Why Walmart won the 2024 Yahoo Finance Company of the Year award
The Container Store — a chain founded in 1978 that rose to fame for its nifty home organizational goods in the 1990s — was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 9 after it fell below the exchange’s standard to maintain a market cap of $15 million over 30 consecutive trading days.
The company has seen its profits plunge post the home remodeling frenzy fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic and competition picked up from Walmart (WMT), Amazon (AMZN) and Target (TGT). It has been unprofitable for the past two fiscal years, with losses tallying about $10 million for the fiscal year-ended Sept. 28, 2024.
Finance
Personal finance lessons from Warren Buffett’s latest letter
Last Nov. 25, Warren Buffett announced that he would donate a substantial portion of the shares he owned in Berkshire Hathaway to his four family foundations.
In his announcement, he included a letter which contained some important personal finance lessons that we can apply to our own situation.
One of my favorites is his comment that hugely wealthy parents should only leave their children enough so they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing.
Despite being one of the richest men in the world, Buffett shared that his children only received $10 million each when his wife died. Although $10 million is a lot of money, it’s less than 1% of his wife’s estate.
I am not hugely wealthy, nor do I have $10 million. However, Buffett’s comment about just giving our children enough made me reflect on the importance of also making our children resilient.
Many of us want to make sure that our children will be financially secure by the time we pass away. While there is nothing wrong with this, sometimes we go overboard in making sure that this goal is met.
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For example, sometimes my husband and I are guilty of overindulging our children.
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Warren Buffett’s comment reminded me that we should also allow our children to go through difficulties so that they will become resilient and learn how to survive comfortably with less. Aside from letting them know that they shouldn’t expect much in terms of inheritance, this could mean limiting their allowance, allowing them to commute to school when there is no car available, and saying “no” to their request to buy nice and expensive things like the latest top of the line gadgets.
Another thing that we are guilty of (especially if you are Filipino Chinese like me) is thinking that we need to build a successful business so that our children will eventually have a steady source of income and the bragging rights of being their own boss.
Although there is nothing wrong with building a successful business, passing it on to our children should not be a priority. This is because there’s no guarantee that our children will want to run our business. In fact, they might not be equipped to run the business properly. If that is the case, they may end up running our business to the ground. This would put them in a worse position, especially if they were raised to think that they do not have to worry about money because they have a business that will take care of them.
Another personal finance lesson Warren Buffett shared is the importance of being grateful and learning to give back.
In his comments, Warren Buffett acknowledged the role of luck in making him wealthy—being born in the US as a white male in 1930 and living long enough to enjoy the power compounding.
However, he recognized that not everyone is as lucky as he is. Because of this, Buffett and his family are focused on giving back so that others who were given a very short straw at birth would have a better chance at gaining wealth.
Learning how to be grateful is very important. We cannot be truly happy unless we are grateful for what we have. In fact, many people who are rich are unhappy because they constantly compare themselves to others who have something that they don’t.
Meanwhile, giving back is a natural outcome of being grateful. It is also very fulfilling. For example, in my company COL Financial, we believe that everyone deserves to be rich. This is why we actively educate Filipinos on personal finance and the stock market.
Helping Filipinos better manage their hard-earned money is one of the greatest fulfillments of my career as an analyst. In fact, this is one of the reasons why I have stayed as an analyst despite the availability of other higher paying jobs.
Finally, Warren Buffett shared the importance of learning how to say no.
People who are wealthy will always be approached by friends, family and others seeking help. Although giving back is important, there is a limit as to how much we can give. Because of that, we need to learn how to say no, even if it is difficult or unpleasant.
To make it easier for his children to say no, Buffett’s foundations have a “unanimous decision” provision which states that unless all his three children agree, the foundations cannot distribute funds to grant seekers.
Although most of us are not as rich as Buffett, we can also benefit from having an accountability partner to help us say no to requests for help. That person can be our spouse, our sibling, or someone who shares our values and understands that while we want to be generous, our resources are limited. Our accountability partner can also help us decide who we should or should not help which is also a difficult task.
Warren Buffett ended his letter by saying that his children spend more time directly helping others than he has and are financially comfortable but not preoccupied with wealth. Because of that, his late wife would be proud of them and so is he.
As a parent, I’d be happier to have children who grow up to become productive citizens with good values rather than to have children who become very rich but are dishonest and greedy. INQ
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