Impact Dispatch - June 2026

Which climate solutions are “good” enough to accelerate the transition to the low carbon economy we desperately need?  It's a challenging question to answer. Especially when climate solutions investing straddles across impact and mainstream investing, labeled and non-labeled products and asset classes.

At the GIIN’s London Climate Action Week panel, asset managers were candid about the tough conversations that this complexity demands, with investors, peers and data providers alike. To begin to answer the question, we must consider geography, the enabling economic ecosystem and the time horizon for when a solution actually starts reducing emissions. It also requires us to think outside of the box and look to sound climate solutions that may not fit traditional investment profiles, or at the "missing middle," which is often dismissed as too risky or not yet commercial but is frequently where exceptional potential for impact lives.

Some of that unknown is beginning to clear when we look at nature and energy investments. According to the Nature Conservancy’s report, ‘Gaining Gaining Ground: State of Private Investment in Nature, 2026,’ private investment in nature has grown fivefold over the past decade, reaching more than $14 billion in 2025. However, that capital still concentrates in familiar asset classes, established managers and a narrow set of geographies, not in Africa and Asia-Pacific where most of the world's avoided deforestation, restoration and coastal resilience potential is located.

Energy tells a more optimistic story. Wind, solar and battery costs have fallen 70-80% over the past decade. And while roughly two-thirds of primary energy is currently wasted, it presents a ripe opportunity. For the first time, renewables are starting to displace fossil fuels rather than just being added to the energy mix.

Over the past few weeks, I've been at convenings focused on Singapore, the UK and Japan, watching how three of the world's key financial markets are confronting the real, current and increasingly frequent impacts of climate change and how impact investing fits into the response. From Singapore's push to move from intention to action to resilience, to London's conviction around sustainable finance amid global political transitions and cuts in public spending, to Japan's effort to pursue decarbonization and industrial competitiveness simultaneously, each market is approaching the same crisis from a different perspective.

Across these conversations, this is what stood out to me the most (and was reaffirmed on the ground in London): we’re feeling the consequences of climate change now. The moment for meaningful action is now, and it’s urgent. Read my full recap for more insights on what each market revealed about global climate finance and where we go from here.

• The Danish government’s impact fund has closed its latest fund that uses a blended finance structure with significant contributions from five pension funds, per Impact Loop.

• To bridge the scale gap required by institutional capital, Calvert Impact CEO Jenn Pryce revealed the firm is in talks with large European asset managers to launch a diversified, multi-billion-dollar global evergreen impact platform, while simultaneously developing new preferred equity structures to strengthen grassroots community lenders.

• A global coalition of over 100 major companies representing $1.5 trillion in revenue have urged governments to make electrification central to economic strategy, citing a survey that found 79% see the shift as urgent to protect against volatile fossil fuel costs and enhance long-term competitiveness, according to Reuters.

• At the UN June Climate Meetings (SB64) in Bonn, the incoming Turkish COP31 President introduced an ambitious Action Agenda, which includes a goal to surge electricity's share of global final energy consumption from 20% to 35% by 2035 across the buildings, industry and transport sectors.

• Toronto-based Inspirit Foundation released a 10-year report revealing that its fully impact-aligned $33 million portfolio achieved an 80% emissions reduction and cumulatively outperformed traditional market benchmarks by 0.7% since 2016.

• Soros Economic Development Fund is urging major consumer brands to advance beyond basic grantmaking and actively co-invest in or buy from supply chain impact funds to drive commercial resilience and sustainable development, according to New Private Markets.

• Pensions Europe has urged the European Commission to streamline its regulatory framework by utilizing a single, consistent set of sustainability data points across different rules like the SFDR and CSRD, aiming to reduce the administrative burden and data-sharing complexities currently facing pension funds.

• An op-ed for Pioneers Post warns that while the global impact investing market has crossed $1.5 trillion, it is "shrinking in conviction" as large players increasingly retreat to safer investments, urging a return to an "impact-first" approach to support underserved entrepreneurs and communities facing the rollback of public funding.

• Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) commissioned a research report on impact investing concepts, market trends and global pension fund strategies, to inform GPIF’s approach to an impact investing strategy.

• In the latest episode of Impact Now with Amit Bouri, Marilia Bezerra of the IKEA Foundation explores why achieving systems-level change requires balancing immediate action with long-term transformation and measuring progress beyond short-term outcomes.

• Amit Bouri joined the panel ‘Bridging the divide — Investing for inclusive and sustainable growth’ at the FT Climate & Impact Summit to discuss the role of impact investors in leading a fair transition to a low carbon economy.

• Together with Nuveen, RMI, Third Derivative and The Nature Conservancy, the GIIN convened climate finance leaders during London Climate Action Week for a practical discussion on navigating trade-offs and evaluating investment opportunities across the energy and nature sectors. Thanks to our speakers and moderators: Jon Dawson, Holly Turner, Sarah Wilson, Amy O’Brien, Catherine Burns, Rushad Nanavatty, Nabil Bennouna and Campbell Moore.

• The Impact Principles convened Signatories and invited guests for the 7th Annual Meeting in London during London Climate Action Week, where participants discussed the role of the Impact Principles in strengthening impact credibility, mobilizing capital and advancing outcomes in a changing market.

• Tomorrow, July 1, join the GIIN’s energy systems webinar. It will explore the power system through a systems lens, examining how generation, transmission, distribution, storage and enabling infrastructure fit together to support economy-wide electrification.

• The GIIN has launched an Applied Impact Workshop Series, with in-person training in NYC. Sign up for the July 13 training focused on practical Theory of Change application.

• Registration is open for the GIIN Impact Forum in Amsterdam –– secure early bird pricing until September 11.