A fragment of Amazon rainforest next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil. (Keystone/AP Photo/Leo Correa)

🌱💰 Greening the finance sector - with a little help from fintech. When it comes to greening Switzerland’s finance sector, tech start-ups have been rising to the challenge – but with little involvement so far from the country’s mainstream fintech sector. That’s according to new findings by think tank Foraus, which calls on more fintech companies to get involved.

🏦 Swiss private banks at odds with private clients over ESG. Private clients do not share the same enthusiasm for ESG strategies as institutional investors. That is the feedback Switzerland’s private bankers are getting from their clients, with many of the ultra wealthing remaining stubbornly sceptical about changing the world with their money.

💉 Vaccines a way to put WTO back on the map. A global spat over coronavirus vaccines is giving World Trade Organization director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a rare opportunity to give her badly wounded organization a road back to relevance, say Politico writers in this analysis piece.

(Credit: Max Roser/OurWorld in Data)

History of global poverty reduction has only just begun. What is economic growth and why is it so important? Max Roser, economist and founder of Our World In Data sets out to answer this question by exploring different measures of growth, what these tell us about global poverty, and how people’s material living conditions have changed. He concludes with the chart above, which shows that whilst global poverty has decreased over the last two centuries, 62 per cent of the world population still live on less than $10 per day. Further economic growth is needed to lift more people out of poverty, he says: "Those who don’t see the importance of growth are not aware of the extent of global poverty. The production of many crucial goods and services has to increase if we want to end it."

🎧 Financing pensions in a sustainable way: is it possible? The hosts of this radio show travel to Geneva to explore the different financial practices – from investments, local currencies to pensions and international finance – that could encourage the ecological transition over the coming years. Guests include Caroline Schum, Nest manager for French-speaking Switzerland and Virginie van Doorn, senior ESG analyst and project manager for the consultancy firm Conser.

📍 18 May | Covid-19: should vaccine patents be liberalised? Didier Chambovey, Switzerland’s permanent representative to the World Trade Organization and Thomas Cueni, director of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, are among the speakers taking part in this lunchtime debate.

📍 19 May | Global drivers and enablers of illicit economies. The event will take a closer look at a new report by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and expose the criminal underworld that has impacted the upper worlds of business and politics.