Climate change is not just bad for the planet, it is bad for the global economy too.
With this in mind, Innovate UK has opened a £5 million Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition to demonstrate and deploy innovative solutions that integrate climate and environmental factors into financial services.
The climate and environmental risk analytics for resilient finance (CERAF) builds on an existing programme run with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
Investors need to be aware of the chief risks of climate change-caused environmental degradation. This competition will fund projects that bring climate and environmental risk analytics into the everyday practices of financial services.
These risks include:
- physical risks to supply chains and property as posed by increasingly common natural disasters
- litigation risk where businesses are liable for their contribution to damages to nature
- transition risk whereby socioeconomic or political shifts toward net zero undermine non-aligned investments.
The competition will fund companies to develop cutting-edge solutions for greening finance and to trial these solutions with partners in the finance industry.
Further information
The NERC-led CERAF funding created the Oxford University-led Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI), which will allow leading global experts to advise commercial innovators in climate finance.
Under an SBRI competition, successful organisations win a contract for developing their innovation. In contrast to other Innovate UK grants, this requires no match funding. It is a two-round competition: awards of up to:
- £50,000 in the first to define a minimum viable product
- £1 million in the second to refine and deploy a solution with a formal industry partner.
Top image: Credit: Galeanu Mihai, Getty Images