Susan McGeachie

In this new year it’s hard to ignore the weight the world carries. In the global landscape, environmental crises that exacerbate ongoing economic challenges and geopolitical tensions feel overwhelming. These realities didn’t pause for fireworks or countdowns. They reminded us of the work ahead.

On a deeply personal level, our loss of a young life that was so full of promise and potential casts a shadow over the hope a new year is meant to inspire. On November 1^st, Isobel Fanaki, my late, beloved cousin’s daughter who I had the privilege of calling my goddaughter, died suddenly while teaching abroad in Japan. Only twenty-five, Isobel’s death is a sharp reminder of dreams and opportunities that can go unfulfilled. 

The glorious flower arrangements at Isobel’s funeral reflected her strength and beauty, but it was one in particular that really caught our attention. By far the most unassuming, it was a symbol for Isobel’s undergraduate thesis, crafted by her former colleagues at the High Park Nature Centre. 

Isobel was a Renaissance thinker like her grandfather, an atmospheric physicist who loved to paint and play his many different musical instruments, including piano and guitar. His PhD thesis, The Study of Heat Flow in The Lower Troposphere by Laboratory Simulation, led him into the early days of climate change research with the Canadian federal government. 

Isobel was also an accomplished artist in addition to her focus on environmental science and ecology. For her biology thesis, she studied the link between the unusual population spike in uncommon mason bees and the abundance of non-native snail shells in Hamilton and parts of Niagara. She and her research colleagues discovered that the shells provide optimal nurseries for the bees’ offspring, allowing them to thrive as the broader population of wild native bees, including the honeybee, remains under threat. The success of these very effective pollinators supports the overall pollination needs of our food system by increasing the quality and quantity of the harvest.

Amid the enthusiastic rush into revitalized biodiversity markets, Isobel’s unassuming discovery is a quiet reminder that substantive outcomes require effort. Appropriately valuing and commercializing nature-based economic enablers demands the steady work and rapid adoption of under-funded yet urgently needed research and observation. 

In her book Medicine Wheel for the Planet, Dr. Jennifer Grenz shares the moment in her ecological restoration career that made her realize she couldn’t keep working solely with a Western science worldview of seeing the world in one way instead of in relation with everything else. Canada’s recent integration of Indigenous knowledge and experiential, land-based learning enabled ecologists to recognize that the invasive European grove snails were benign, eating only dead plants, and therefore should be left alone. Because they were left alone, Isobel and her colleagues were able to further study them and thus identify their usefulness to the Canadian ecosystem.

Isobel’s careful research must be balanced with urgent action. While acting without robust data risks perpetuating inefficiencies and inequities, delaying efforts to refine valuation models risks irreparable damage to critical ecosystems. Proposed solutions include taking immediate steps to protect and restore ecosystems based on current knowledge while investing in research to refine future valuations. Creating the innovative market systems that will help achieve Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy and biodiversity net gain goals will require a more rapid alignment of science, policy, and finance.

The regret for this lost life is immense, as is the determination to honour Isobel’s memory. 2025 is a year to remember the promise of those we’ve lost – in addition to Isobel there was the sad passing of the catalytic Niilo Edwards in December – by carrying their light forward. It will be a year of uncertainty, but it also offers the hope of progress.  Whether it’s through collective action, innovation, or simply showing up for one another, this is the year to lean into our challenges with courage and optimism – for those we’ve lost, for us, and for the world we strive to build.

Isobel’s mother Janet Fanaki and brother Sam Fanaki have created a memorial fund, which is being used to support the causes Isobel cared about most: Nature conservancy, education, and addressing food insecurity. Donations can be made here. 

Isobel Fanaki studied biology at McMaster University, where she became a Teaching Assistant and was honoured with publishing her final year thesis on the ‘Nesting of local mason bees in empty exotic snail shells’. In addition to lifeguard and swim instructor, Isobel held roles as an Educator at Ripley’s Aquarium and a Teacher with the High Park Nature Centre before moving to Hiroshima, Japan to become an Assistant Language Teacher.

The Global Climate Finance Accelerator’s recent research through Rotman’ School of Management’sAccelerating Climate Finance experiential learning program set out to identify market and policy barriers to advancing climate solutions. We found that policy and market solutions exist. It is an enabling culture that moves them forward. Designed well, bottom-up initiatives in cities and regions can be engines of innovation, driving our much-needed economy-wide sectoral transformations and economic growth.

For example: Since joining the  Western Climate Initiative with California in 2014, Quebec has cultivated a culture of energy transition and innovation with substantial investments in the battery value chain, incentives for electric vehicle adoption, and a plan to install new clean electricity capacity and recruit qualified workers.  

Most notable in New York last week was the result of Quebec’s efforts over nearly a decade to attract global investment in support of its goals. In a historic investment from the U.S. government, the province has successfully secured capital for its critical minerals sector and the development of a tech corridor between Quebec and the state of new York.

This strategic imperative links New York City and Montreal as cross-border collaborators in fostering an employment growth-oriented cleantech ecosystem. Neither city fell upon these opportunities by accident. Their success demonstrates the importance of vision and persistence.

New York City launched its plan to strengthen the economy, combat climate change, and enhance quality of life in 2007. Ignoring the threat, and eventual realization of federal administration changes, the Plan was updated in 2015 with a continued focus on sustainability, equity, resilience, and growth. Recognizing that divisiveness and negativity accompanying the pandemic were putting targeted transformation outcomes at risk, a consortium of corporate, investment and entrepreneurial firms launched the Partnership for New York City in 2023 to collaboratively build a narrative for every citizen – students, trades, professionals – to unlock the full economic potential of New York.

By harnessing culture’s potential to unify, inspire, narrate, and sustain, New York and Quebec illustrate how a deliberate, long-term strategy can create a more cohesive and proactive community, ready to face future challenges together.

For the rest of Canada, we must first reverse a culture in peril, exacerbated by today’s pernicious information sharing platforms with newsfeeds designed to continually reinforce specific, existing worldviews and rampant “burnout fuelled by increased work stress (in conjunction with) a perpetual feed of negative information…that can inflame the polarization of political discourse.”

Much of the news today is negative, with a seeming inability to agree on a national course of action, from fiscal policy to productivity to the looming imperative of a low carbon transition.

But there’s hope. Canadian cities have long attracted diverse talents and minds. There is no shortage of U.S. cities with which to create cross-border partnerships. Community-led efforts like the University of Toronto’sClimate Positive Energy and other regional initiatives create learning labs that can – and do – transcend borders to build networks in which people can explore, test, debate, and collaborate. Funding vehicles such as the Canada Growth Fund can co-invest with US funding partners to accelerate the deployment of identified technologies. Canada’s new Indigenous loan guarantee program can attract new investment for projects in Indigenous Nations and communities.

Regional and federal governments can amplify the effects of these and other initiatives by crafting and reinforcing a national vision underpinned by coordinated policy and action. A compelling, positive vision enables citizens to see beyond the intricate web of interdependent policy actions and understand how coordinated, on the ground efforts support broader environmental, societal, and economic goals. Garnering broad-based support will facilitate transformative change.

A key success factor in Canada is fostering collaboration between provinces and territories. The ability to do so hinges on maintaining a long-term commitment from societal actors beyond political cycles in the difficult negotiations and compromises to come.

In the words of New York’s Partnership CEO: “We have to fight for the things we love.”

​We love Canada.

Susan McGeachie is co-founder and managing partner at Global Climate Finance Accelerator, which convenes partnerships across business, finance, government, and academia on strategies, policies, procedures, and tools to finance climate solutions.

Today wraps up a busy week for me of learning and collaboration to advance economic, social, and environmental outcomes. It kicked off with PDAC 2024 in Toronto followed by two days of discussions on the Future of Sustainable Development and Impact Investing at the Canadian Alternatives in Pensions (CAiP) conference in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake.

One notable prevailing theme at both conferences was the role of public pension funds in promoting sustainable and inclusive growth in the countries they serve. My original intention was to use this blog to unpack that topic further but, as today is International Women’s Day, I am instead going to focus on a more subtle theme beneath the surface of many of the week’s discussions.

According to today’s CEO Magazine, we are not on track to achieve gender parity goals on our current trajectory – neither in government nor corporate leadership, or within society at large, anywhere in the world. There are, however, exciting innovations that could change the course of this trajectory.

At PDAC, panelists from banking noted the inclusion of many young women in their area of finance, where once it had all been men. This relatively recent shift widens the pool of available (young) women to move through the narrowing pipeline for promotion. The challenge is keeping them, and understanding why this continues to be so.

While the popular view is that women simply become disinterested in the lifestyle as they mature and so seek positions outside the well-paid mainstream for a better work-life balance, some senior female panelists suggested otherwise. Women can become ignored over time in traditionally male dominated fields. They face a gradual growth in gender bias, where their comments and gestures become increasingly dismissed, criticized, or even ridiculed by both male and female colleagues of all ages, and they eventually lose access to high profile projects, network membership, and sponsorship opportunities.

Author Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic argues that “the main reason for the unbalanced gender ratio in management is our inability to discern between confidence and competence, (which fools us) into believing that men are better leaders than women.” He suggests that “Most of the character traits that are truly advantageous for effective leadership are predominantly found in those who fail to impress others with their talent for management.” While this is true for both men and women, Chamorro-Premuzic notes that it is “especially true for women.” While some women can push through and thrive, many more leave for better leadership opportunities in smaller, less well-paid organizations and fields where they can build their executive capabilities.

A positive outcome of this exodus, though, is its tremendous value to society. 

At CAiP, where I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion on new and innovative financing strategies, I once again witnessed the socio-economic potential of people leveraging financial products and services in new ways to create positive change. 

After more than a decade on the buy side at major banks and funds, Olivia Hornby is leveraging her expertise as Managing Partner at Spring Impact Capital to unlock the potential for the deep technologies required to achieve a socially inclusive, low carbon transition. Pranay Samson took learnings from his early years in banking to build a career in investing in and working with companies that create economic and social outcomes for women around the world, most recently with Plan International Canada, in partnership with the government of Canada and global institutional investors. And Ana Gonzalez Guerrero, co-founder of Youth Climate Lab, is building on her experience with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to develop and roll out an innovative financing strategy for a retrofit platform at MaRS that aggregates buildings in multiple cities for institutional investors.

It was exciting to round out the week with a discussion this evening at Rotman’s Net Impact conference, organized by MBA candidate Ruchi Hirawat and her colleagues, on the emerging field of ESG in trade finance with Heather Lang and the rapid evolution of sustainable finance in Canada’s banking sector with Melissa Menzies. Among many of their insights, Melissa and Heather told a packed room of students of the men that had mentored and supported them throughout their career, reminding us that both men and women are part of this journey.

Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing women and men accelerating progress!

Susan McGeachie is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Global Climate Finance Accelerator, which convenes partnerships across business, finance, and government on strategies, policies, procedures, and tools to finance climate solutions.

In my part of the world, my long-awaited Christmas snowfall happened this past weekend, before we return to work in earnest, leaving a glittering powder of white over the twinkling lights of my neighbourhood. That first morning walk in the snow’s quiet stillness leaves me cleansed and energized for the year ahead. As long as it arrives some time over what is for me a two-week Christmas and New Year holiday, I head back into the working world filled with optimism and hope. 

We’ll need them both. The 2024 working world will be a tough one. Deloitte’s economic outlook report paints a gloomy picture for Canada. While the firm was more optimistic about the US economy, it did note that climate change continues to pose a long term challenge due to increased costs and an as yet unrealized need to invest in solutions.

It’s these very types of economic environments, however, that create exciting potential for change. Necessity as the mother of invention has been demonstrated time and again through innovations born in periods of recession. Low demand for products, services, and employees, combined with high levels of available talent collaborating on new ways to apply their skills breed creative disruption. Today, as Plato tells us in the Republic, “our need will be the real creator”.

The first economic depression, triggered by the “Panic of 1873” brought us both the light bulb and telephone. The electric guitar, FM Radio, and the photocopier were created during the 1930s. The less glamorous but game-changing barcode, which enables us to track inventory and therefore reduce costs, was launched in 1974, a year after the start of the 1970s recession. The ongoing development of personal computers also took place during this decade of soft economic conditions following the launch of the first of its kind in 1971. And the Great Recession, resulting from the financial crisis of 2008, preceded the launch in 2009 and 2010 of economic disruptors Airbnb and Uber along with social networking and communications platforms WhatsApp, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Coalescing thought leadership indicates that the much-needed disrupters coming out of this next recession will be to the political and economic systems themselves. The energy transition will be the most radical economic transformation since the industrial revolution. It will take more than technological innovation to get there as evidenced by the plight of mature technologies struggling to survive in the face of increasing interest rates, razor thin margins, and  “warring regulators” that “have shaken investors’ faith in Canada, sent one company into bankruptcy and imperilled the massive green-power potential….” Today’s global legislative frameworks and financing architecture are not yet conducive to accelerating capital flows into climate solutions. 

Over the past four months, the Accelerating Climate Finance inaugural cohort of graduate students from business, finance, environment, policy, and engineering at the University of Toronto has evaluated and proposed solutions in five broad categories to address weak points in the capital investment system. The results of this work, to be released in early 2024, focus on five priority areas.

1.     Legislative barriers that stall climate-aligned projects including renewable energy generation in Ontario and transmission in California.

2.     Delayed reallocation of revenues through functional carbon markets or, where these fail, more direct mechanisms to support mature climate-aligned technologies still struggling with razor-thin margins and dwindling access to capital.

3.     Uncoordinated, complex, and delayed access to concessional capital and risk-sharing structures.

4.     Technically feasible but economically unviable industrial decarbonization solutions.

5.     Non-income generating climate risk reduction through investment in adaptation.

​As our traditional economy sputters and stalls, we face a unique opportunity to create a new one, the one we’ve been envisioning in every global Conference of the Parties session since Paris. Successfully redirecting the flow of capital to the low carbon economy will create a softer landing in these challenging economic times for us all.

Susan McGeachie is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Global Climate Finance Accelerator, which convenes partnerships across business, finance, and government on strategies, policies, procedures, and tools to finance climate solutions.