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Leonardo Studies Finance That Is Good for the Climate

, by Fabio Todesco
An EMIT graduate with a major in Green Management and Sustainability, Boni is a climate finance analyst at a company founded thanks to contributions by George Soros

Of the words often paired with the word "climate," the noun "finance" can increasingly be found. The transition from hydrocarbons to renewable resources is not without immediate economic costs, but it does have measurable returns. In 2013, according to data collected by the Climate Policy Initiative in Global Landscape of Climate Finance, $331bln were invested in the sector, equally divided between developed and developing countries.

The Climate Policy Initiative is a non-profit analysis and consulting company focused on climate finance and climate policy, where Leonardo Boni works. He graduated from the Master of Science in Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology (EMIT) in April 2014, with a major in Green Management and Sustainability. The organization was founded in 2009 by Thomas Heller, a Stanford Professor, and has been funded by George Soros. Its headquarters are located in San Francisco and it has branches all over the world with European offices in Venice.

"As a climate finance analyst, I study investment trends, do research on innovative financial tools (including Energy Savings Insurance within Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance) and write case studies, such as a case study on the Olkaria III geothermal plant in Kenya," says Leonardo. "Investment tracking – analyzing trends – is important because dissemination is incentivized by demonstrating their economic benefit."

Leonardo retraced the steps that led him to Venice, connecting them to the faces of several professors. After a Bachelor in Business Administration and Management with a clear focus on finance, "I realized how this could be more widely used, connecting it to social innovation, thanks to Laura Bottazzi's course. I learned more about green issues and sustainability with the course taught by Francesco Perrini, who also encouraged me to do an internship at Dynamo Camp. And I found out about Climate Policy Initiative thanks to an in-class presentation organized by Stefano Pogutz."

"The most motivating aspect of my job," concludes Leonardo, "is the concrete feedback: our analyses are used by governments in climate negotiations as well as by financiers for assessing investments. We can feel like we're contributing to the development of sustainability."

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