Global Innovation Lab Unveils 2025 Climate Finance Cohort

The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab) has unveiled its 2025 cohort, which includes nine new financial instruments aimed at leveraging private investment in developing markets towards sustainable development. Chosen based on their potential to drive decarbonization, climate resilience, and economic growth, these instruments will be thoroughly evaluated and provided with expert input for seven months. The most promising ideas will be eligible for up to $250,000 in grants to help get them off the ground.

Since its launch, the Lab has been instrumental in unlocking new sources of climate finance. With its proven track record of success, its solutions have mobilized $4.2 billion in public and private investments. As the initiative moves into its second decade, it is continuing to increase its portfolio of climate-related financial products, affirming the role that the private sector must play in tackling climate change.

Barbara Buchner, Climate Policy Initiative's (CPI) Global Managing Director, highlighted the role of private capital in promoting scalable climate solutions. "Private capital is critical to mobilize scalable solutions that have the potential to address the increasingly severe effects of climate change, especially in the world's most affected communities that are suffering the most from catastrophic wildfires, storms, floods, and droughts," she said. While disasters driven by climate become more intensifying and occurring, there exists an imperative necessity to step up investment in green financial models which will fuel lasting transformation.

Financial solutions in the 2025 group are widely diverse and vary in their role to finance environmentally friendly projects that can be supported across different segments. The group of solutions chosen depends on catalyzing renewable energy, climate-related technologies, and local initiatives that focus on sustainability. An example of such an initiative is Carbon Neobank, created by Melanin Kapital, that offers low-cost financing to African small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) via carbon credits. Using carbon markets, the platform helps companies make their operations more sustainable while earning them extra streams of revenue.

Another prominent example is Meliquina Partners' Community Equity Opportunity Fund, designed to increase rural Latin American renewable energy projects. The fund's purpose is to increase economic dividends for indigenous populations by ensuring their equity positions in renewable energy development. By merging financial incentives and social outcomes, the program achieves inclusive growth coupled with the use of clean energy.

Green Artha-managed Green Economy Fund is another prominent member of the 2025 cohort. The fund invests equity in leading climate technologies, supporting businesses involved in innovative demonstration projects. Through early-stage capital provision to innovative solutions, the fund facilitates the growth and scaling of technologies critical to a low-carbon future.

Ben Broché, Director of CPI’s Innovative Finance workstream, highlighted the importance of expanding climate investment models in the current global landscape. “We are excited to see our portfolio of climate investment models grow in a year that is particularly crucial for showcasing the opportunity of investing in sustainable development,” he said. With the world confronting rising climate pressures, the demand for financial tools that will attract private capital while providing environmental and social value has never been more urgent.

The Lab's activities highlight increasing acknowledgment that innovation in finance can be used to fill the gap in climate finance. Conventional funding tools typically cannot penetrate frontier markets and unserved populations and hence leave extensive opportunities unrealized. Through constructing and piloting innovative financial tools, the Lab facilitates investors in allocating capital in a more optimal way while keeping at bay associated risks with investments focused on the climate.

Since its inception, the Lab has launched 78 climate finance models, most of which have scaled up successfully. The models have proven to attract investment, de-risk projects, and catalyze sustainable economic growth. By continuing to promote cutting-edge financial instruments, the Lab is building the climate finance ecosystem and facilitating a shift toward a lower-carbon and more resilient economy.

As the 2025 cohort advances, the chosen projects will be given customized assistance to streamline their financial models, become more scalable, and gear up for real-world deployment. By way of subject matter expertise mentoring, stress testing, and exposure to grant funding, these solutions will be in a position to deliver meaningful impacts in their targeted markets.

The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance continues to be dedicated to climate finance innovation and the unlocking of new investment opportunities. Through mobilizing private capital and enabling entrepreneurs, the Lab continues to be a key driver of sustainable development and the global climate crisis.