A team from E Co’s Private sector practice, represented by Zsofia Kovacs and Sofia Bessadi, just wrapped up an informative few days at the Green Climate Fund’s Private Investment for Climate Conference (#GPIC2025) in Abu Dhabi. The event brought together financial institutions, impact investors, fund managers, climate professionals, and the GCF team. The theme of the event ‘Partnering for Impact – Scaling Capital’ was tangible in every session, with a real, collective drive to build the collaborations needed to unlock and scale global climate solutions.
Here are a few of E Co’s key takeaways from this year’s GPIC conference:
- Forging partnerships to scale capital: The central message was that partnerships are the engine for scaling capital. It’s clear the GCF’s role is evolving, building upon its crucial work in project funding to more actively catalyse private investment by de-risking opportunities and paving the way for new collaborations to form and channel capital where it is needed most.
- Unlocking partnerships through key enablers: Behind these collaborations lies a broad ecosystem of enablers driving climate capital deployment. Multilateral development banks, institutional investors, government agencies, NDAs, accredited entities, fund managers, and other intermediaries each play a vital role in bridging public and private finance. Many of these actors were present throughout the conference, sharing insightful experiences and discussions on how to strengthen collaboration with the GCF. Through blended finance, co-investment models, technical assistance, and risk-sharing tools, they are helping crowd in new layers of private sector participation and accelerate the flow of capital where it’s needed most.
- Impact as the return on scaled capital: A recurring theme was that impact and returns go hand-in-hand. Impact was consistently framed not just for any altruistic reason, but for its role in creating the best value for investors and people on the ground. When GCF partners with the private sector to scale capital effectively, the goal is to create this sustainable value, generating financial returns for investors while building resilience and opportunities for local systems and communities.
- Strategic planning to enable scale: Professor Jeffrey Sachs’ keynote was a powerful reminder that to scale capital, we first need a plan. Private investment requires comprehensive, transnational public planning to create the integrated systems that unlock large-scale impactful opportunities to manage the impacts of climate change. Global climate funds like the GCF have a crucial role to play in this.
- The path forward – partnerships: Kavita Sinha, Director of Private Sector Facility at the GCF, left us with a clear message. Reinforcing GCF’s ’50 by 30′ strategic vision, she stressed that the GCF aims to help unlock $50 billion in capital by 2030 can only be achieved through partnerships. This will require innovation in business models, increased flexibility from all parties, and a new push to engage with local capital pools within the regions that need it most.
Leaving Abu Dhabi, our team is energised to continue driving forward private sector capital mobilisation. The continuing challenges are immense, but the stamina and collective commitment to building partnerships that can scale capital faster and more effectively is even greater. We at E Co. are proud to support this mission and look forward to helping forge the collaborations that will drive meaningful climate action.
