Climate change

Climate change is among the biggest threats to the wellbeing of communities around the world, with impacts affecting health, food supplies, livelihoods, peace and conflict and more. Already people across the globe are grappling with rising temperatures and sea levels, more intense forest fires, prolonged droughts, worsening storms, flooding and disease, and climate-related displacement. This threatens development progress and magnifies global inequalities, with poor and vulnerable communities bearing the biggest burden.

From Latin America to Africa to Asia, Pact is responding to climate change, working to mitigate its impacts, support communities as they adapt and reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.

Climate mitigation

Unsustainable agriculture and land use is a leading cause of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nature-based solutions, however, hold a lot of promise in mitigating GHG emissions around the world. Pact works together with businesses in these sectors to improve their sustainability commodity production and better manage their environmental risks. This involves providing support around environment and social risk assessment, due diligence, certification and carbon assessments. Pact facilitates reforestation efforts led by government and community groups alike and supports the development of other nature-based solutions such as sustainable vanilla cultivation, beekeeping and ecotourism. We have engaged in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) activities, particularly focusing on community engagement aspects.

Climate finance

There has been a historic shortfall of financing to support local communities to adapt to, and be more resilient in the face of, climate impacts. On the mitigation side, there are also significant large-scale investment needs to reduce GHG emissions. Pact facilitates the mobilization of private sector financing for environmentally sustainable companies. We provide financial advisory services; carry out technical, commercial and financial feasibility studies; and prepare companies for investment to ultimately build a high-quality pipeline of climate-smart businesses.

Climate adaptation

Climate change is impacting weather patterns globally and in turn has wrought significant impacts worldwide. Communities and local governance bodies need support to develop their adaptive capacity and thereby minimize loss of life and livelihoods. Pact’s integrated approach to development leads to better state and local government planning for adaptation, for example, through early warning systems, while developing communities’ capacity for improved autonomous adaptation such as climate resilient livelihood development. Pact blends community and ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to reinforce and promote climate resilient change. We work on the energy-food-water nexus to improve water data sharing among riparian countries and facilitate the development of early warning tools to mitigate the impacts of droughts, floods and storms on local communities.