What is preventing private capital from reaching local climate action?

Private sector investable assets totalling USD 35.3 trillion globally are currently bound by at least one environmental, social and governance (ESG) criterion, 1 and could be targeted to deliver responses to the environmental crisis and subsequent devastating impact on vulnerable communities. However private sector finance for climate resilience and nature recovery is reported to be either moving very slowly, or not at all. 2 So what is the hold up? The co-founders of Biodiversity Capital have a longstanding combined history of delivering projects in urban regeneration, as well as green 3 and blue 4 infrastructure, housing and culture across the private and public sector, where financing for projects follows a linear start to finish model with handover to the client on completion. Since the beginning of the 20th century, charities have received funding from either government or philanthropists to deliver programmes against an agreed set of quantifiable targets and outputs. The current crisis on our hands is not static, it is a mix of complex, intertwined social, economic and environmental factors, where long-term stewardship, ultimately unique and very local, is now deemed a fundamental part of the equation from the start. In the light of this, we argue that achieving climate justice will require private finance to embrace the distinctive nature of collaboration between governments and the non-profit sector.