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Unpacking the intersection of gender and climate solutions

Release Date: 02/28/2025

How tech solutions, AI can drive the business case for sustainability

All Things Sustainable

Welcome to the latest episode in the Terra Carta Series of the All Things Sustainable podcast, a collaboration with the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI). Throughout 2025, we’ll be interviewing SMI member CEOs across industries and around the world about how they’re approaching sustainability challenges and opportunities. In today’s episode, we speak to Caspar Herzberg, CEO of AVEVA, a UK-based software company and SMI member. “It’s not the time to retreat on climate,” Caspar says. “The solutions exist today that can keep us on the path to net-zero, and now we need to...

Connecting the dots between climate science and financial decisions

All Things Sustainable

A question we’ve been hearing a lot at the All Things Sustainable podcast is: How do businesses sync their climate strategies with their financial decisions? In this episode, we bring you highlights from an event that dove into this question in detail: The inaugural S&P Global Sustainable1 Climate Summit hosted by the S&P Global Climate Center of Excellence. The center is home to world-class scientists dedicated to addressing the frontiers of long-term climate, environmental and nature research and methodology development. The June 5 Climate Summit in...

Why insurance is becoming central to climate risk conversations

All Things Sustainable

In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we’re examining the role insurance plays in helping stakeholders understand and adapt to the physical risks of climate change. We speak to Rowan Douglas, CEO of Climate Risk & Resilience at global insurance group Howden. He explains how the insurance industry’s approach to climate change has evolved over decades to better understand future risks. He says the insurance sector is front and center in conversations about climate impacts because insurance gives financial institutions and investors an economic guide for...

Exploring private equity's role in stopping methane leaks

All Things Sustainable

In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we continue our deep dive into methane emissions. Today we’re exploring the role that private equity can play in eliminating methane emissions, including at abandoned oil and gas wells. Methane is the second largest contributor to global warming behind carbon dioxide. And the fossil fuel sector is responsible for nearly one-third of methane emissions from human activity today. Record production of oil, gas and coal, combined with limited mitigation efforts, has kept emissions above 120 million metric tons annually,...

How cutting methane emissions became energy sector's big climate opportunity

All Things Sustainable

In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we take a deep dive into methane. After carbon dioxide, methane is the greenhouse gas that contributes most to global warming. It is also far more potent than carbon dioxide. The fossil fuel sector is responsible for nearly one-third of global methane emissions from human activity, according to the . In the episode, we explore how recent advancements in monitoring and measuring have unlocked energy companies' ability to understand and address methane emissions. We look at why these emissions matter, and how curbing methane...

How climate tech company Patch works to build integrity of carbon markets

All Things Sustainable

Welcome to the latest episode in the Terra Carta Series of the All Things Sustainable podcast, a collaboration with the Sustainable Markets Initiative. Throughout 2025, we’ll be interviewing SMI member CEOs across industries and around the world about how they’re approaching sustainability challenges and opportunities. In this episode, we’re talking with Brennan Spellacy, founder and CEO of Patch, a climate technology company that helps companies manage, sell and buy carbon credits. Brennan says interest in carbon markets is growing as a tool for companies to achieve their...

Why businesses are going ‘back to basics’ in sustainability strategies

All Things Sustainable

In the current landscape of geopolitical volatility and policy uncertainty, we’re hearing stakeholders use the term “back to basics” to describe their approach to sustainability. In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we bring you interviews with three speakers from the annual S&P Global Sustainable1 Summit who describe how businesses are navigating this environment. We sit down with Jessica Fries, executive chair of accounting for Sustainability (A4S), a not-for-profit that works with finance leaders to drive resilient business models and...

How HSBC is financing infrastructure for a low-carbon economy

All Things Sustainable

The transition to a low-carbon economy will require significant investment in energy infrastructure — for everything from building wind, solar and nuclear facilities to electricity grids to charging stations for electric vehicles. In this week’s episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we talk to the Chief Executive of HSBC’s Infrastructure Finance and Sustainability unit, Sir Danny Alexander. Danny was the keynote speaker at the annual summit that S&P Global Sustainable1 hosted in London April 30. We sit down on the sidelines of the event to hear how HSBC, one of...

How chemical giant Dow is tackling sustainability, climate change and circularity

All Things Sustainable

In recent episodes of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we've heard how some of the biggest companies across sectors are navigating the changing sustainability landscape. In today’s episode, we sit down with one of the world’s largest chemical and plastic production companies, Dow. “Sustainability used to be something nice to have, but now it’s a key part of the business strategy,” Han Zhang, Ph.D., Dow’s Global Sustainability Director, Packaging and Specialty Plastics, tells us during S&P Global's CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. This is due to regulations,...

How mining giant balances energy transition, nature and sustainability priorities

All Things Sustainable

Building out the infrastructure needed for the low-carbon energy transition will require a substantial increase in the production of critical minerals and metals such as copper, nickel, zinc and lithium. These minerals are needed for many different technologies including electric vehicles and battery storage, clean hydrogen, geothermal, wind, solar and electricity networks. In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we'll hear how one of the biggest producers of critical minerals, Vale Base Metals, is approaching this increased demand. And we'll explore how the company...

More Episodes

This week, the All Things Sustainable podcast delves into the intersection of climate change and gender equality with Rachel Vestergaard, Founder and CEO of Empower Co.

Empower Co. is a brokerage firm that is building a global voluntary market for women’s empowerment as measured by the W+ Standard, which is hosted by the S&P Global Commodity Insights Environmental Registry.

Studies have showed that the climate crisis is not gender neutral, with women and girls experiencing the greatest impacts of climate change. As we approach International Women's Day on March 8, Rachel discusses how her company is creating a global voluntary market for women's empowerment using the W+ Standard, which measures six domains critical for women’s empowerment: Time Savings, Income & Assets, Health, Leadership, Education & Knowledge, and Food Security.

Rachel emphasizes that women are also crucial to finding solutions. “Without that, we are completely fighting this climate crisis issue with one hand behind our back,” she says.

This episode highlights the importance of integrating gender equity into climate solutions and the role businesses can play in supporting this mission, especially as we look ahead to the UN’s COP30 climate change conference in Brazil this November.

Listen to a previous episode that explores the topic of climate change and gender here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/podcasts/intersection-of-gender-and-climate-in-focus-ahead-of-cop28

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1, a part of S&P Global.

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