Four For Friday | Mar 1, 2024
Four For Friday | Mar 1, 2024
LF112 | Investing in nature, the new longevity society, Japan's climate transition bonds, and enzymes that turn sugar to fibre.
Welcome to Looking Forward’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week. Enjoy!
Investing in nature
An inspiring and depressing story about a bold idea to harness private capital to protect natural assets and an extreme fringe of American politics that sees any attempt to protect nature as unacceptable socialist interference. Head spinning…
Welcome to the new longevity society
A future-looking piece in Esquire that looks at the shape of society in the near future, suggesting that the weight of unstoppable economics will drive away outdated ageist tropes and open up society to be genuinely multigenerational.
Economic and power shifts will be significant. Federal taxes from those over 50 are set to quadruple between 2018 and 2050, and $60-$70tn in intergenerational wealth transfer is expected in the next 20 years. Both these could create new opportunities to address the broken long-term care system (long term care insurance for all…?).
Japan sells the world’s first sovereign climate transition bonds
Japan is a tale of two parts currently - real income have been stagnant for decades and the economy has just slipped into recession, allowing Germany to overtake it as the world’s third largest economy.
On the other hand, its keeping up with its global rivals as a bold innovator in climate change, announcing a ¥150tn ($1tn) 10 year climate transition plan. One of the components is ¥20tn ($133 bn) in ‘transition bonds’ to help adapt its carbon-intensive industries, and the first tranche was announced last week. While Europe is leading in mitigation, Japan and APAC seem to be leading in the investment intensive job of adaptation.
Turning sugar into fibre
A fabulous idea about a new UK startup - created and led by an Oxford University boffin scientist - that falls into the ‘could this really be true' category. The company, Zya, creates an enzyme that helps sugar get turned into fibre in the gut. There are other companies that are pursuing a similar path of ‘sugar elimination’ - this is a fast evolving space and will be watched with interest, especially by diabetics.
That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.
- Stephen