ESG Currents

Plastic waste is a mounting challenge around the globe, but nuance required to understand and manage plastic is often ignored. On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Svanika Balasubramanian, founder and chief circularity officer of rePurpose Global, joins BI senior integration analyst Gail Glazerman to discuss the scale of the problem, potential key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess plastic exposure and strategies to make solutions profitable enough to attract an estimated $5 trillion in capital required by 2040. This conversation was recorded Feb. 18.
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Insurance is essential for the carbon-credit market to unlock capital, manage risk and build trust. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Natalia Dorfman, CEO and co-founder of Kita, joins Eric Kane, director of ESG research at Bloomberg Intelligence, to discuss how her company provides insurance products that aim to unlock institutional investment for high-integrity carbon removal and natural-capital projects. They discuss some of Kita’s key offerings and dive into how they account for the nuances and challenges of these projects, including duration, value and monitoring. They also explore policy developments in the EU, the ramp-up of Article 6 projects and why Dorfman thinks 2026 is the year insurance will come in to handle the complex challenge of carbon-credit permanence.
This episode was recorded on Feb. 9.
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Mangroves are one of the most powerful natural tools for climate adaptation and resilience, protecting coastlines, stabilizing economies and strengthening ecosystems. On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Ignace Beguin Billecocq, executive director of the Mangrove Breakthrough, joins BI senior ESG credit analyst Chris Ratti. The Mangrove Breakthrough is a global initiative aiming to secure the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves by 2030 through a $4 billion investment to foster resilience, biodiversity and coastal protection. They discuss the materiality of mangroves and the importance of funding for expansion across a coalition of beneficiaries including governments, multilateral development banks, insurance companies and climate investors.
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Can cutting methane leaks help fuel the rising energy demand from AI data centers? On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Carl Pope, former Sierra Club executive director, and Last Mile Production CEO Zach Wagner join BI climate analyst Andrew Stevenson to discuss how leaking and vented methane has the potential to help meet Texas’ surging power demand. Methane leaks are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and capturing that lost gas could help ease rising US natural gas costs.
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Blended finance uses catalytic capital from public or philanthropic sources to mobilize private investment toward sustainable development — but how are these vehicles structured, and what enables them to scale? On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Timothee Jaulin, head of responsible investment development & advocacy at Amundi, joins Shaheen Contractor, senior ESG analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, to unpack how blended finance works in practice. The discussion breaks down how blended finance vehicles are structured — from the roles of DFIs and asset managers to tranche design, capital layering and the realities of deployment timelines. They also explore how risk is allocated and mitigated via credit enhancements, guarantees and political risk insurance — and who is driving demand today, from multilateral developmental banks to family offices, as Asia emerges as a key growth market.
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