Last week, at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), private capital investment advisors and policy advisors called for the establishment of a Just Transition Investment Fund to support countries and regions committed to phasing out fossil fuels and foster a regenerative future for all.
The call was coupled with the announcement that a working group comprising investment and policy advisors from the Global South, North America, the UK, and Australia has been formed to develop the fund.
Calls for a Just Transition Investment Fund were welcomed by the Government of Colombia hosting the CBD, alongside Small Island States, the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Organisation, and other leaders at COP16 across government, business, and civil society.
In September 2024, during New York Climate Week and the Summit for the Future, over 30 investors and advisors from family offices, impact investing networks, philanthropy, asset managers, and academia met at a private roundtable to discuss the formation of this fund, agreeing to work together and announce initial plans by COP29 in Baku, with a launch in 2025 at COP30.
“The proposed ‘Fund’ would provide catalytic investment to help create inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economies. By supporting the shift from a fossil-fuel-based economy to one founded on regenerative principles, nature-based solutions, and renewable energy, the Fund aims to foster the long-term macroeconomic stability needed to fulfill the Paris Agreement and advance our global plan for nature as we move beyond Net Zero to a truly regenerative economy,” said Professor Rajiv Joshi from Columbia University, who serves as Executive Director of Project Regeneration and Lead Author of the Decisive Decade Inquiry into the future of climate action, commissioned by Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Joshi, who was a co-founding board member of the We Mean Business Coalition, a founding member of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, and a founding member of The B Team, moderated the inaugural roundtable meeting with investors to support the Fund’s development. This effort builds on his work with Scotland’s Just Transition Commission alongside Professor Jim Skea, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in developing Scotland’s recent report on delivering a Just Transition.
Central to the Fund’s development strategy is the integration of diverse perspectives to address systemic barriers that limit private capital investment in the Global South. The Fund focuses on building bridges between communities and regions most impacted by fossil fuel extraction, those under-invested in for energy access, and global investment and policy advisors, ensuring that private capital and local communities are equal stakeholders.
Peter Hall, Managing Director of Resonance Climate Impact Advisory, expressed his support for the Fund, stating, “The private sector is uniquely positioned to unlock capital, create solutions, and catalyse action for projects urgently needed to protect the estimated 3.6 billion people in the Global South currently facing climate impacts. With global adaptation finance representing only 5% of total climate finance, the urgency for a fund like this could not be greater.
“The Just Transition Investment Fund provides a platform to access aligned private finance, fully leveraging scale, innovation, and local impact, and is strategically positioned with a risk-return profile that meets the requirements of a broad spectrum of investors while supporting vital projects across the Global South. I am excited to support this Fund and the impact it will create as we prepare for its launch at COP30, uniting climate funding, projects, and the community of practitioners dedicated to financing a regenerative future for all.”
Nigel Lake, co-founder and Executive Chair of Pottinger, echoed Peter’s sentiment: “This is a critically important initiative – not only for the nations involved but for everyone. Many of the investments needed to accelerate the energy transition and address ecological degradation and biodiversity collapse already make commercial sense on paper. However, financial barriers often undermine their viability and impede the flow of benefits to local communities. This new fund can serve as a powerful catalyst to overcome these challenges.”
The Fund aims to accelerate investment in renewable energy and regenerative, nature-positive solutions by increasing private capital participation and enabling co-investment on a project-by-project basis. Projects and technologies that demonstrate commercial viability in real-world operational environments, and deliver a fair sharing of benefits, will be prioritised.
By aligning stakeholder interests, coordinating commercial and technical support, and building capacity for projects to generate predictable cash flows, the Fund will help de-risk initiatives, supporting them through to financial close and beyond, and enabling more robust, scalable transitions to regenerative economies. This structure is designed to provide critical support not only to middle-income economies like Colombia but also to small island developing states.
“There is a growing recognition that direct investments in nature and climate hold substantial commercial potential. However, these investments often present an atypical risk profile. We need a blueprint for innovative financial instruments that can scale public and private investment in high-quality, nature-positive and climate solutions aimed at phasing out fossil fuels. The ambition to create an investment fund that pools private capital and fosters collective knowledge sharing to support these solutions will boost market confidence, and I am fully supportive of this endeavour,” said Hannah Cool, Chief Operating Officer at B4NZ (formally Bankers for Net Zero), who convened the UK chapter of the Net Zero Banking Alliance.
Jeroen Rijpkema, CEO at Triodos Bank, a B4NZ member and Treaty endorser, also showed support of the launch, stating, “The launch of the working group to develop the Just Transition Investment Fund marks an important milestone to advance the Treaty’s mission and realize its vision by creating a stable business environment with a long-term perspective to support countries and regions committed to phasing out fossil fuels.
“This initiative is a testament to our commitment to actionable progress, creating the stability needed to foster investments aimed at accelerating the energy transition. By engaging a broad spectrum of stakeholders – from family offices and asset managers to local communities and capacity-building resources – we’re building essential bridges to overcome barriers and mobilise capital.”
At an official side-event hosted by the Colombian Government at COP16 on “Phasing Out Fossil Fuels to Make Peace With Nature,” Dr. Kumi Naidoo, President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Organisation, welcomed the call for the Fund and the support it has quickly garnered:
He added: “One of the ways the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Organisation initiative is advancing efforts to make peace with nature is by welcoming calls from investors and private capital to establish a Just Transition Investment Fund that invests in energy diversity and economic diversification in jurisdictions committed to a fair fossil fuel phase out.
“The mobilisation of private capital must be matched by long-overdue commitments and obligations of public finance from Global North countries. We hope these private capital mobilisation efforts will add momentum toward a global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – a legal mechanism essential for all to genuinely protect life on Earth.”
Colombia is among more than a dozen countries, over a hundred municipalities and sub-national governments, 3,500 organisations, including private sector actors such as the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, and nearly a million individuals who have endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Organisation’s campaign for a global treaty. One objective of the Treaty is to establish financial mechanisms to support, encourage, and accelerate the just transition globally for participating countries.
The Fund’s working group has already begun conducting due diligence on a shortlist of Colombian projects, assessing them against initial investment criteria. The Ministry of Mines and Energy provided the following information on a project titled “Amazon Movement”. This initiative combines energy communities and e-mobility as sustainable and productive alternatives to the extraction of natural resources, supporting river mobility and fostering new local economies for Indigenous communities in the Amazon region.
Amazon Movement promotes renewable energy projects that contribute to the territorial development of the Amazon through electric river mobility and energy access in non-interconnected areas (ZNI), harnessing the region’s water potential (hydropower) with a socio-environmental approach. The project guarantees participation rights, a healthy environment, and the cultural integrity of Indigenous populations.
The Amazon Movement project transcends a purely technological scope, aiming to be a transformative solution for beneficiary communities. It addresses their needs and expectations, strengthens productive projects and local economies, and enables access to green mobility and sustainable transportation. Additionally, the project contributes to peacebuilding in territories most affected by internal armed conflict.
Additional projects, such as one titled Energy Stations – a new concept for charging infrastructure that includes not only energy for e-vehicles but also additional income models like “Energy as a Service” – and another titled E-Mobility for 2 and 3-Wheelers, which aims to implement a sustainable e-mobility program by replacing internal combustion engine bicycles, motorcycles, and 3-wheelers with electric vehicles, are also being evaluated.
“Now is the time to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to accelerate genuine climate action and regenerative solutions,” said Dylan Malloy, Managing Director of Bridging Ventures and Director of the working group to establish the Just Transition Investment Fund.
“We need to harness the wealth of information and resources available today, even though they may be fragmented across various stakeholders and organisations, to address barriers to transition finance. Our approach must prioritise effective communication among stakeholders to foster common ground. This requires a commitment to clarity and transparency, enabling us to align interests. Ultimately, this collaborative effort will yield a compelling business case for investors and mobilise the flow of capital to regenerative solutions in global communities,” added Malloy.
The call for the Just Transition Investment Fund came as governments and observers at COP16 reiterated the need for developed country governments to fulfill their commitments under both the biodiversity and climate conventions, to scale appropriate financing in line with their legal and historical responsibilities, and to support G20 research into the formation of Life Economies. It is also being issued prior to the US election, acknowledging the potential impact of American private capital on accelerating the transition.
The overall aim of the talks that concluded in Cali was to drive the development of a global plan to protect nature, focusing on targets to reduce extinction rates. However, with emissions still rising and a new UN report indicating that global temperatures are on track to increase by 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius by the century’s end, governments risk falling short of their commitments under both the biodiversity pact and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Cali has also set the stage for the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Baku (COP29), where leaders will discuss financing the transition away from fossil fuels before looking ahead to COP30 in Brazil next year. COP30 in Belém will serve as a critical accountability milestone, marking ten years since the Paris Climate Agreement and providing an opportunity to review progress on global climate commitments, while also underscoring the importance of complementary instruments such as a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and pools of patient capital to enable a fast and fair transition.
International calls to scale up private finance have been growing for some time. Initial momentum for these efforts began with the inclusion of a Just Transition Work Programme in the Paris rulebook at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and continued at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh.
Then, at the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend in Nairobi in 2023, leaders such as Mary Robinson, Graça Machel, and a coalition of intergenerational advocates prepared for the Africa Climate Action Summit later that year, which featured the launch of the Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development’s report on Africa’s Just Transition.
This groundwork laid the foundation for COP28 in Dubai, where countries agreed on language supporting a transition from fossil fuels, further bolstering momentum for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to guide nations in negotiating the terms of this transition.
