A Green Future for All: How Financial Services Can Build More Inclusive Carbon Markets
Webinar
As carbon markets become a vital tool for funding the global transition to a sustainable economy, it is essential that they also serve to create a more equitable and just transition for all. This can only be realized if carbon markets meaningfully include and benefit underserved communities especially women, in emerging and developing countries by eliminating barriers to participation and making them more inclusive and impactful.
Inclusive financial services can support efforts to build more inclusive carbon markets and enhance development impact. Emerging evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa to South Asia and beyond, indicates that carbon projects are increasingly leveraging credit, savings, and payment products to reach excluded communities and deliver concrete improvements to the lives and livelihoods of the people most vulnerable. This emerging role of financial services presents an opportunity for financial service providers (FSPs) to deepen their engagement in the climate space, and for carbon project developers and other climate stakeholders to leverage the power of inclusive financial services to advance climate resilience, adaptation, and a just transition.
Join us for a discussion on the important role financial services can play in building more inclusive carbon markets. CGAP experts will present emerging evidence on how financial services are enabling carbon project developers to enhance their development impact, providing real-world examples and high-potential use cases. The webinar will also explore opportunities for the financial sector to play a greater role in carbon project development, and for carbon project developers and other stakeholders to leverage the power of inclusive financial services to advance climate resilience, adaptation, and a just transition. Finally, the webinar will outline opportunities for funders to support innovative approaches to financial services-enabled carbon projects.
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Speakers
For over a decade, Max Mattern has sought to improve the lives of the economically and socially excluded through inclusive finance. Max currently leads CGAP’s Financial Services for Inclusive Carbon Markets Project, which explores how financial services can support climate mitigation, adaptation and a just transition by enabling low-income households and communities to participate in and benefit from voluntary carbon markets. Over the years, Max has also led and contributed to CGAP’s efforts to design better digital financial services for smallholder farmers, support innovation in inclusive asset finance, address social norms preventing rural women’s access to financial services, build more inclusive digital public infrastructure, and expand access to essential services such as energy.
Before joining CGAP, Max worked at the World Bank. In addition to his experience in financial inclusion, his previous roles include consulting and research in rural and agricultural development, nutrition, and food security. His work has spanned countries and continents, with regional concentrations in the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Max holds an M.A. in Development Economics and International Business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Arizona. He is fluent in French.
Elizabeth Kiamba is a Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP, where she leads initiatives that integrate financial services into carbon markets, ensuring that low-income communities and women benefit from climate finance. She has also worked on advancing impact measurement and management (IMM) frameworks for inclusive finance investors, developing innovative financial models for micro and small enterprises, gig workers, and women, and promoting gender lens investing to enhance women’s financial inclusion.
Before joining CGAP, Elizabeth was the Manager of Inclusive Finance Programs at FSD Africa, where she oversaw a portfolio of financial inclusion projects across sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on credit markets, digital finance, remittances, and informal finance. She also served as the organization’s gender focal person, ensuring gender considerations were embedded in financial sector development programs. Previously, Elizabeth worked at PwC Kenya, where she provided advisory services to public sector entities, NGOs, and major international donors and multilateral organizations across sub–Saharan Africa.
Elizabeth holds a Master of Arts degree in Development Management from the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE) at Ruhr University in Germany, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management (Finance and Banking) from Moi University in Kenya. She is a Certified Expert in ESG and Impact Investing, Project Manager (PRINCE2 Practitioner) and Accountant (CPA).
Bennett is part of the inclusive carbon markets team with CGAP, advising on technology, operations, finance, and climate.
Prior to CGAP, Bennett served as CFO of Kopo Kopo, where he helped pioneer the first merchant-cash-advance product in the mobile money industry and managed finance operations. His extensive experience includes consulting roles with MasterCard, where he developed payment solutions for smallholder farmers, the UN's Better Than Cash Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others on financial inclusion and digital strategies. Additionally, he works with the World Bank on large-scale electrification projects, in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and other countries around the world.
Bennett holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University.