Five insights from London Climate Action Week.

This year, GIF launched our 2024 Impact Report to coincide with London Climate Action Week (LCAW), in a move that reflected our increased focus on innovating for climate resilience. 

By 2030, climate change could push up to 130 million people into extreme poverty worldwide, driven by rising disease, food insecurity, and more frequent droughts, floods and heatwaves. This is why, in 2024, GIF focused our investment strategy on innovations addressing these challenges.

LCAW provided the perfect platform for GIF to discuss these issues, highlight our approach and learn more about the work of others. Now in its seventh year, LCAW mobilises London’s unparalleled ecosystem of climate and non-climate organisations to accelerate global climate action and supports action in London to ensure it acts as a global climate leader. The festival attracts over 45,000 people annually, and provides a brand and platform under which hundreds of organisations, communities and individuals host their events, creating a large and vibrant programme of climate-focused activities.  

Five members of the GIF team attended key events during LCAW. This was what we discussed and learned:

Joseph Ssentongo, CEO

I attended a LCAW panel hosted by the Smith School at Oxford University, which explored how to finance climate action amid shrinking aid budgets. I highlighted the importance of building partnerships that engage the private sector to deliver scalable, sustainable climate solutions.

My key take-out from the session was a strong reinforcement of GIF’s approach. While public finance is essential, catalytic capital and blended finance models play a critical role in mobilising investment at the scale needed, particularly in the Global South.

The Thrive Fund, GIF’s new climate & health initiative with PATH, is designed to support these kinds of partnerships and help accelerate adaptation and resilience.

Ken Chomitz, Chief Economist

LCAW highlighted the growing attention to adaptation and resilience. There’s increasing recognition that effective adaptation and resilience are intertwined and do far more than just absorb shocks: they help people and communities thrive even when the shocks don’t hit. 

GIF is a member of the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP).  At their Resilience Hub, the GRP showcased their forthcoming “must-knows” on climate resilience, and I had the pleasure of meeting with our Climate Advisory Group members, Julia Martins and Shehnaaz Moosa. 

GIF also belongs to the Adaptation and Resilience Investors Collaborative (ARIC) The group met to hone their guidance for investors on how to identify adaptation investments and how to assess physical climate risk.

Finally, I enjoyed a session on soil carbon that highlighted both the behavioural hurdles to adoption and the long-term pay-offs of regenerative agriculture.

Francesco Valente, Investment Director

I had the opportunity to speak on a panel at the Concave Summit which took place on the sidelines of LCAW. We explored the role that GIF plays in investing across the capital spectrum, with a particular focus on climate adaptation. 

In my remarks, I emphasised the importance of designing investment structures that are right-sized and purpose-built to drive measurable climate impact. Achieving meaningful change requires not just capital, but also the right tools, partnerships, and flexibility to respond to complex and evolving climate challenges. 

A key take-away from the discussion was the growing recognition that public and private capital can work together to achieve shared goals. Encouragingly, there is a shift towards more intentional conversations around real impact, beyond financial returns. We’re seeing new players entering the space, increased collaboration, and promising solutions being tested that could pave the way for more inclusive and resilient climate finance.

Lily Steele, Investment Director

I was delighted to join a panel alongside Katherine Owens from Leapfrog Investments and Marcus Johannesson from The Adaptation Fund, organised by our friends and colleagues at GSMA. The Mobile for Development event was themed around tackling climate change challenges through digital technology.

I shared how GIF is leveraging innovative financing structures to scale solutions that address climate resilience and adaptation. I also took the opportunity to highlight the incredible work of our shared portfolio companies, like Komunidad, who are putting these ideas into action every day through providing early warning systems and aiding advanced preparedness for the government and municipalities in the Philippines.

The energy in the room was inspiring, with amazing moderation provided by Akanksha Sharma, who asked a great question: "What is our big bet?"

For GIF, the answer includes enhancing soil health by advancing the carbon markets to become a working financial instrument bridging the Global South as carbon suppliers to the carbon buyers in the Global North, through our investments and grants to organisations like Boomitra, Mafisa and Tiyeni. Of course, our latest biggest bet is the launch of the Thrive Fund, investing in private sector companies innovating at the intersection of climate and health, an underinvested and foundational sector for emerging markets.

Shailaja Annamraju, SMD, Impact

I attended the LCAW opening night held at the Wellcome Trust Collection room. The room was brimming with climate entrepreneurs, climate policy and climate practitioners and people there trying to mobilise more multiplier effect of climate action. 

The key themes were about bringing climate and adaptation to the forefront of the debate, showcasing local adaptation solutions and reminding everyone through speakers representing Brazil about the importance of bringing the Global South into the negotiations when it counts.

I took the opportunity to talk about our impact report which was launched the same week, highlighting how GIF’s portfolio of climate innovations has the potential for outsized social impact whether through new technologies, policies, business models, or behavioural insights. 

I described recent investments GIF has made, like Tiyeni and Mafisa, which are finding solutions to address local climate impacts and examples like Komunidad and Boomitra which are already driving solutions at scale.  It was a great opportunity to connect and hear about opportunities for country level and portfolio level action.