Venture Climate Alliance

Scaling first-of-a-kind #climatetech is core to meeting global goals; and the perspective of innovators and the venture community must help to inform credible global transition pathways. The VCA is excited to join The Global Impact Investing Network in Amsterdam tomorrow to discuss #climatesolutionsinvesting alongside Elina Rolfe, Sarah Wilson at Nuveen, a TIAA company and Danielle Brassel at Zurich Insurance.

Last month, Patrick Elftmann and I had the honor of co-hosting Super Climate New York at McKinsey HQ. The event was filled with optimism, meaningful discussions, and innovative ideas to accelerate the energy transition ⚡. 📍 Our Key Highlights: 🌱 We engaged with renowned activists, thinkers, politicians, and business leaders to discuss how we can fast-track progress toward the UN SDGs. 🌍 Across numerous events in NYC, we felt the great momentum for change and took part in critical discussions on how to make a difference and save our planet. These events included: Climate Solutions & Net Zero Transition, co-hosted by HSBC & Venture Climate Alliance; The Sword of Damocles: US Presidential Politics & Climate Tech, hosted by Overture Climate VC and the Climate Capital Summit, hosted by Equal Ventures. 👉🏻This year's gathering was notable for its diverse representation across various sectors of the climate action landscape. While the event has traditionally attracted finance professionals due to its proximity to Wall Street, there was a marked increase in attendance from private equity, infrastructure, and banking sectors. This broader participation reflects the growing recognition of climate issues across multiple industries and investment categories. 🚀 This year’s Climate Week saw an unprecedented turnout, with over 100,000 participants and 900 events, covering everything from financial strategies and policy debates to environmental justice and technological innovation. The event showcased the integration of climate considerations into mainstream business and policy decisions, making Climate Week a key platform for dialogue and collaboration. We are looking forward to more exciting events ahead! #ClimateWeekNYC  #EnergyTransition #Sustainability

🌍 We’re excited to share that our Founding Managing Partner, Rogelio D., participated in the Hamburg Sustainability Conference to discuss a topic we’re deeply committed to: Financing Climate Innovations in Emerging Markets 🌱. Rogelio emphasized a key point: "It’s essential that we collaborate with the GCF and GIZ to build a financing continuum so that climate impact companies can generate and scale their impact globally." 💬 He was joined by an incredible group of leaders from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), European Investment Bank (EIB), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), and the Venture Climate Alliance to explore how we can drive impactful climate solutions 🌎. What’s next? We’re proud to support GIZ in hosting the Climate Tech Investment Forums in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil in the coming months. Together, we aim to foster innovation, drive investment, and accelerate climate solutions in emerging markets. 💡 It's inspiring to see how global collaboration is key to advancing sustainable innovation, and we’re thrilled to be part of this conversation. Together, we can make things happen! 👏 Kudos to the CATAL1.5°T Initiative team for organizing our panel! #Sustainability #ClimateInnovation #EmergingMarkets #ImpactInvesting #GreenFinance #HamburgSustainabilityConference

This week, I was invited by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to represent the Venture Climate Alliance at the first ever Hamburg Sustainability Conference. It's been fascinating to follow the EU's progress, particularly surrounding the advantages and drawbacks of clear and decisive multilateral investment strategies and regulatory frameworks for #climatesolutions. In the US, there's a growing dialogue across policymakers, financiers, and #FOAK technologists (mainly those working within energy and hard-to-decarbonize sectors) around how to deploy demonstration-stage climate solutions into #emergingmarkets and through that success, how the US can seize the opportunity to re-establish its role in global #supplychains as a leading exporter of climate technologies. There's so much to learn here from initiatives already in the market today. It was great to chat with the folks that are making it happen-- Mafalda Duarte at Green Climate Fund, Ambroise Fayolle at European Investment Bank (EIB), Rogelio De los Santos at Dalus Capital, and Bruna Zampollo at Climate Ventures-- about their progress. Thanks to Milena Stolz, Severin Peters, and Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven for convening such an excellent group.

This morning, the VCA was pleased to join a dialogue with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference to discuss climate solutions investing. #HSC2024

Capitalizing on the momentum of Climate Week NYC 2024, the Milken Institute hosted its third annual climate finance breakfast workshop and dialogue at the McKinsey Experience Studio to discuss strategies to recalibrate climate financing in the next decade of deployment from 2025-2035.    Victoria Salinas, Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Administrator for Resilience at FEMA participated in a fireside conversation moderated by Dan Carol, Senior Director for Financial Markets at the Milken Institute.   Featured presenters included Linda-Eling Lee, Founding Director and Head of MSCI Sustainability Institute and Jonah Goldman, Head of External Affairs and Impact at Generate Capital. Following presentations, participants broke out into a series of interactive roundtable discussions spanning topics from resilience and adaptation financing to food systems as an asset class to critical minerals.    Roundtable Discussion Leaders:  Daniel Stephens, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company. Kanika Singh, Director, MI Finance, Milken Institute  Harold Pettigrew, Jr., President and CEO, Opportunity Finance Network Daniel Firger, Lead Advisor, Venture Climate Alliance Sarah Chapman, PhD, Global Chief Sustainability Officer & Chief Marketing Officer, Manulife Investment Management Holly Freishtat, Senior Director, Feeding Change, Milken Institute  Emilie Mazzacurati, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Tailwind Climate Sean Kane, Partner, McKinsey & Company   This convening builds on the Milken Institute’s Climate Resilience portfolio, which focuses on partnering with stakeholders at the local, national, and global levels to craft innovative mechanisms that accelerate public, private, and philanthropic climate investment at scale. Find the Milken Institute’s Climate Resilience portfolio here: https://lnkd.in/gTmPQchP   #UNGA79 #milkeninstitute #climate #finance #climateweek

After undoubtedly the biggest and busiest #ClimateWeekNYC yet, here's a snapshot of some of HSBC's focus areas (I will post separately on take-aways which I am still digesting!):   CLIMATE TECH: One year since launching our $1bn venture debt capital allocation for climate tech start-ups in NYC, we are already over half way there, proving the demand and why we will accelerate our efforts further. Our NYC #climatetech activities:   - We supported the launch of the Venture Climate Alliance and are working closely this alliance of net-zero committed VC firms - Martin Richards and I caught up with Simon Jessop at Reuters on the state of the Climate Tech market: https://lnkd.in/eWD8QqwW si=voFrnhAU5UyJyUdw&t=1149 - we hosted founders, corporate and venture investors at Goals House for our flagship #climatech dinner this year co-hosted with Founders Factory; special thanks to our excellent speakers Melanie Nakagawa Shayle Kann and Liz Dennett, PhD - Fellow #CSO Kate Brandt and I hosted our always fun and always busy climate week Google X HSBC #climatetech nightcap at Goals House - HSBC Innovation Banking sponsored the Sightline Climate (CTVC) conference with a key focus on first-of-a-kind projects   SUPPLY CHAINS: As a leading trade bank, we want to help build the supply chains of the future and in NYC we launched new research with our partners:   - Apparel Impact Institute published their “Brand Playbook for Financing Decarbonisation” to support the development of strategies to decarbonise the apparel and footwear industry - https://lnkd.in/euANPkC8 - The “Strengthening the Chain” report published by the CDP sets out potential ways forward for organisations to build resilience and support commercial growth while reducing Scope 3 emissions https://lnkd.in/e_3S6vgW   NATURE  - I spoke at the excellent #NatureHub on HSBC's nature financing and investment activities, including the announcement that HSBC and Pollination’s co-founded Climate Asset Management has now raised and started to deploy $1bn in natural capital funds A brilliant week also for my We Mean Business Coalition friends and colleagues with the 10 year anniversary gala, and so wonderful to see the launch of - https://lnkd.in/eGMwP9zK - bringing together so many inspiring women climate leaders to collaborate and raise voices even more... What a week! A big shout out to all the teams that helped to make it happen!

That's a wrap! The VCA closed out another fantastic #ClimateWeekNYC joined by our members from around the world including investors based in New York, the Bay Area, Copenhagen, Yokohama, and Singapore. Thanks to our amazing co-hosts at Union Square Ventures, Prelude Ventures, Galvanize Climate Solutions, and Tiger Global Management.

This week, the Venture Climate Alliance kicked off our partnership with HSBC at an intimate event bringing together members, LPs, policymakers and key collaborators across the #netzero ecosystem to discuss the critical role of #climatesolutions in the net zero transition. Thanks to our fantastic co-hosts and partners at HSBC, to our speakers, to our advisors, and to our guests! Martin Richards Wyatt Crowell Kiran Sura Jenny McInnes Adam Wang-Levine Alexandra Harbour Vito G. Dellerba, CFA Ryan Miller Nicole Systrom Samson Mesele Daniel Firger

This past week, our Founder & Chair Alexandra Harbour sat down with Ingmar Rentzhog on #movethemoney to share more on the Venture Climate Alliance, our members, and venture's role in accelerating the net zero transition.