BBVA Compass volunteers fanned out in 27 cities over 24 hours this summer to spread their expertise and a message of financial empowerment.

Renewable energies are not only an investment opportunity, a response to the planet's urgent need for sustainability and a change that will improve our lives –they can also rescue remote populations from their isolation and help ease their problems. Microgrids are making giant strides in every corner of the world, combining goals and mobilizing interests.

Access to financial services is a key element for rising out of poverty, and technology is heralding a range of new models that provide a variety of services and products that can be adapted to the needs of each population sector.

The need, scope and nature of renewable energies are universal, but their development across different regions is uneven, and business opportunities in the sector are a battlefield where the interests of investors, engineers, ecologists, politicians and economists clash. Nobody seems to care what consumers – as both clients and citizens -  have to say, allowed only to witness the debate as confused and voiceless spectators.

Our planet’s health depends on the awareness and collaboration from every single person in it. It depends on the adoption of clean and renewable energies that replace finite and polluting sources. Political and climatological factors also have an impact, but technological development and the laws that support and drive their adoption are indispensable.

The planet’s survival is an issue over which, by definition, all interests converge. Finally, after wasting precious decades and, with some exceptions, renewable energies seem to be managing to get politicians, businesses and citizens to unite and fight for a common cause.

The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) has taken part in the United Nations’ High-Level Panel on the economic empowerment of women in Latin America. This event served as an important first step on the road for working together to create a planet without discrimination.

You may think you can’t afford to travel because of your limited budget.

But you may not be familiar with all the options that apps and the Internet offer, ranging from cost sharing to house swaps.

Wind has garnered a reputation for being not only an environmentally-friendly, but also a wallet-friendly alternative to produce electricity at a utility-scale level. This is in sharp contrast to the U.S. debut of large wind farms in 1980, which were primarily in response to environmental concerns and emissions reductions standards. Moreover, estimates on the cost of producing electricity with wind energy have been trending downward, making wind energy competitive with conventional energy sources, even after taking into account both government incentives and the historically low prices of natural gas and  coal.