1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910293146703321

Autore

Köhn Doris

Titolo

Greening the Financial Sector [[electronic resource] ] : How to Mainstream Environmental Finance in Developing Countries / / edited by Doris Köhn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham, : Springer Nature, 2012

Berlin, Heidelberg : , : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2012

ISBN

3-642-05087-5

Edizione

[1st ed. 2012.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 250 pages) : illustrations; digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

332.1

Soggetti

Macroeconomics

Finance

Environmental economics

Macroeconomics/Monetary Economics//Financial Economics

Finance, general

Environmental Economics

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Mainstreaming Environmental Finance into Financial Markets - Relevance, Potential and Obstacles -- Mainstreaming Framework Conditions for Environmental Finance - The Role of the Public Sector -- Mainstreaming Environmental Finance Markets (I) - Small-Scale Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Finance -- The Roles of Wheather Insurance and the Carbon Market -- Mainstreaming Impact Over Time - Who Measures What for Whom? -- UNEP Perspectives -- Trading of Emission Certificates for Climate Protection: Using Markets and Private Capital for Development -- Microfinance and Climate Change: Threats and Opportunities -- Environmental Finance Through the Financial Sector - An Approach with Growing Potential - Experiences of KfW Entwicklungsbank.

Sommario/riassunto

Given the manifold challenges of financial sectors in developing and transition countries, one might be tempted to believe that embarking on “green” finance is not a priority for financial systems development.



However, there are a number of arguments against this view. Environmental finance, particularly energy efficiency and renewable energy (EERE) finance, can and should serve as an interface to other sub-sectors of financial sector promotion such as microfinance, housing finance or agricultural finance. For example, existing clients of financial institutions include small and medium-sized enterprises and households, and these are often suffering from high energy prices or have no access to sustainable energy supply. At the same time, these clients are vulnerable to extreme weather events, and often hit hardest by the impact of climate change. There are many other examples which show that the financial sector has an enormous potential to support “green” investments. In order to tap this potential on a sustainable basis, it is important to have a sound understanding which role financial institutions can and should play. Likewise, financial institutions need to understand the demand side of environmental finance markets and the framework conditions in order to be able to design adequate financial products. This book provides a blend of well-founded professional and scientific perspectives on the potential of Environmental finance in developing and transition countries.     All institutions and the clients they serve will be affected by the changing climate. In this new reality, green finance will not be a luxury, but a way of meeting clients' needs effectively and doing sound business. This book challenges, guides, inspires, and, at times, cautions us, in navigating this new normal. Alexia Latortue, CGAP Deputy CEO "The finance and investment community can play a leading role in determining a positive, inclusive future development path. They can achieve this by better understanding the ethical and ESG dimensions of the market while, importantly, appreciating the need to build the investment business case around the ideas, entrepreneurs, technologies and companies that will define the future.  What is changing rapidly amongst an influential group of the most senior banking executives, however, is the understanding that good ESG (environmental, social and governance) practice often helps deliver sustainable results for the institution."    Paul Clemens-Hunt, UNEP FI Paul Clemens-Hunt, UNEP FI.



2.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910557110403321

Autore

Logan Robert K

Titolo

AI AND THE SINGULARITY : A FALLACY OR A GREAT OPPORTUNITY?

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Basel, Switzerland, : MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2020

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (284 p.)

Soggetti

Information technology industries

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Sommario/riassunto

"AI and the Technological Singularity: A Fallacy or a Great Opportunity" is a collection of essays that addresses the question of whether the technological singularity-the notion that AI-based computers can program the next generation of AI-based computers until a singularity is achieved, where an AI-based computer can exceed human intelligence-is a fallacy or a great opportunity. The group of scholars that address this question have a variety of positions on the singularity, ranging from advocates to skeptics. No conclusion can be reached, as the development of artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, and there is much wishful thinking and imagination in this issue rather than trustworthy data. The reader will find a cogent summary of the issues faced by researchers who are working to develop the field of artificial intelligence and, in particular, artificial general intelligence. The only conclusion that can be reached is that there exists a variety of well-argued positions as to where AI research is headed.