Living Health Systems

What if every financial decision made the world a healthier place?

  • Can Insurance be Green?

    Insurance is often called protection because it claims to protect you from financial loss in adverse future circumstances. It’s an unfortunate term for anyone coming from global health because protection is associated with pregnancy avoidance and has a sense of preventing an unwanted condition. However, insurance doesn’t prevent a disaster taking place, it’s more like…

  • What do Carbon Credits Work At?

    An obvious question for carbon credits is whether they work. Do they reduce carbon emissions, resulting in lower carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and therefore, contribute to cooling of the planet rather than runaway heating? Carbon credits and associated carbon markets were valued at US$104 billion in 2024 [1]. That means there is a huge…

  • How do Carbon Credits Work?

    New Forests is selling them, World Bank just had a big conference about them [1]; and they’re involved in scandals aplenty. Carbon credits have been around since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol but are still controversial. Some argue that carbon credits are a “valuable opportunity” for companies to reduce their carbon pollution [2]. And certainly carbon…

  • Is New Forests Greenwashing In Laos?

    In May 2025, Impact Investor magazine ran a story about a forest purchase by an Australian investment company in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR or Laos). New Forests had bought a majority share in Burapha Agro-Forestry, a timber plantation forestry company in Laos. Burapha Agro-Forestry own 6,000 hectares of plantation forest, “conservation areas”,…

  • Are Global Financial Networks Reforming?

    There have been numerous calls to reform global financial networks. Global financial networks are “deeply” implicated in the production and financing of climate heating, biodiversity loss, and poverty [1]. Debt is a critical part – money that could be used for mitigation and adaption is being diverted into interest and repayments [2]. And global shocks…

  • What is the International Financial Architecture?

    This post was revised and edited on 1st July 2025. Recently, I’ve been paying more attention to this phrase: ‘International Financial Architecture’. For instance, it turned up in here: “… reform of the international financial architecture…(to) make financial flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development (…)’ (Article 2.1c, Paris…