From London's Lessons to New York's Gaps: the Conversation on Climate
A blog by Lil Patuck and Nathan Kably at the Frontier Tech Hub
Made using AI
Ensuring Climate Innovation Reaches Those Who Need It Most
"Concessional capital is scarce, and we must be strategic about how we use it."
This stark reality, shared by DESNZ's Director of International Climate Change at London Climate Action Week, captures a fundamental tension in climate finance.
But as we prepare for New York Climate Week, an equally pressing question emerges: whose voices shape how that scarce capital gets deployed?
London Climate Action Week doubled in size this year, signalling an upward turn in global engagement with climate solutions. But as the climate conversation heads to New York, where decisions affecting billions worldwide will be made, some of the voices that matter most may be notably absent.
Three insights from London
In June 2025, members of the Hub attended London Climate Action Week with curiosity about how innovation translates into action. The insights which follow should inform every conversation happening in New York next month.
The missing middle or the missing pipeline?
London's climate investing discussions revealed a persistent challenge: promising climate innovations often fall into a funding gap too advanced for grants, yet too early-stage for commercial investment.
The real challenge lies in building pipelines of high-quality, investment-ready projects and ensuring they're equipped for long-term success. This gap is particularly acute for innovations emerging from climate-vulnerable regions, where local context is critical but often undervalued by distant investors.
Solutions are often highly context-specific—what works in one district or country may not be easily applied elsewhere, even within the same region, due to differences in terrain, climate, and local needs. But scalability depends on the ability to translate a solution across multiple contexts. Without that, it’s difficult to replicate or expand, limiting the potential for financial returns. Since investors typically look for scalable models to achieve meaningful profits, they’re likely to direct their capital elsewhere if adaptation solutions can’t demonstrate this potential for scalability and investability.
Data (intelligence) as the great enabler
“The innovation frontier of weather prediction models is to focus on what the weather will do, like increasing risks of floods or lower crop yields, rather than just be: ‘it’ll rain a lot, it’ll be dry and sunny’.”
This shift from information to impact is needed at both ends of the scale.
At the top, investors lack access to critical climate intelligence to confidently back early-stage climate solutions, especially in emerging economies. Private actors struggle to access and make sense of the robust data needed to assess where investment is most needed and which adaptation projects will have the greatest impact. These critical knowledge gaps limit incentives to invest in adaptation.
At the other end of the scale, multiple stakeholders need this intelligence too. Leveraging advanced technologies can provide real-time, actionable insights - bridging the gap between climate risks and response. Just 24 hours’ advance notice, thanks to Early Warning Systems, can reduce disaster losses by up to 30%. The Early Fire Warning System in Pakistan accomplishes this by employing AI and live camera feeds to identify wildfire risks and onset early, enabling proactive measures and earlier fire response.
Climate intelligence is an asset that can power new industries, reduce financial losses, and drive economic growth across emerging markets.
Muhammad Waseem (Senior Manager, WWF-Pakistan) helping Dr. Murtaza Taj
From Science to Action
Perhaps most importantly, London reinforced that we don't necessarily need more climate information - but more intelligence. This is the moment to better operationalise what we already know.
Our Nepal climate scenarios pilot exemplifies this approach, combining detailed climate models with geospatial data to help local governments make informed decisions about protecting their communities from floods, landslides, and other climate impacts.
The project addresses a critical knowledge gap: while climate models predict rising frequency and magnitude of extreme events, there's often a disconnect between scientific predictions and community-level adaptation planning. By translating complex climate science into actionable insights for local decision-makers, we're seeing how technology can bridge this gap.
Climate Data Murals are used to make data more accessible to local communities.
The Representation Challenge Ahead
As conversations move from London to New York, we face an uncomfortable reality. Current U.S. travel restrictions affect nationals from 19 countries, with potentially 36 more under consideration. Many of these are in sub-Saharan Africa and climate-vulnerable regions. This means that some of those closest to the problems faced may be physically absent from discussions about global climate action. This representation gap matters enormously.
Climate innovations that work in constrained environments (where infrastructure is limited, costs must be minimal, and local manufacturing is essential) offer crucial lessons for scaling solutions globally. When innovators from these contexts are excluded from global climate conversations, we risk designing solutions that appear impressive in presentations but fail in practice. Consider how pay-as-you-go solar systems designed for East African contexts are now scaling globally, while traditional grid extension and expensive upfront solar installations have failed. Locally-designed payment models, built around mobile money systems and local income patterns, were key to success.
This reveals why the "missing middle" funding gap is about more than capital—it's about whose expertise shapes climate innovation. The entrepreneurs developing solutions in climate-vulnerable regions aren't just seeking investment; they're testing what actually works when infrastructure is unreliable, costs must stay minimal, and maintenance happens locally. When these innovators are excluded from global climate discussions, we lose their insight into the constraints that determine whether solutions succeed or fail.
Questions for New York
As the climate community gathers in New York, London's lessons suggest some critical questions:
How can we accelerate investment to climate ventures in the places that need them most? The missing middle funding gap is particularly acute for climate-vulnerable regions—yet these contexts often produce the most resilient solutions.
How can we build investable pipelines that turn funding into real-world impact? Beyond securing capital, innovations need the validation and support systems that help them scale sustainably.
How can cross-sector collaboration turn climate science into action at scale? Moving from prediction to impact requires including voices from the communities that will ultimately implement solutions.
Who gets to shape the conversation about climate innovation? When travel restrictions limit participation from climate-frontline countries, how do we ensure their insights inform global climate strategies?
Credit: Marc A. Hermann / MTA
The promise of climate innovation is real, but unlocking it requires more than securing capital. It demands ensuring that the communities and innovators most affected by climate change have agency in designing solutions and the resources to grow them.
This means:
Investing in local validation before assuming solutions will work in new contexts
Building pipelines that connect innovations with appropriate funding and support, creating pathways for locally-led innovations to access local and global investors, networks and resources
Centering community voices in conversations about technology for climate action
Working collaboratively in the system (scientists, governments, companies) to turn science into action.
We know that true, sustainable innovation happens when we design with communities, not for them. The question for New York Climate Week is whether global climate conversations can embody this same principle.
The climate crisis demands unprecedented collaboration, but collaboration requires representation. As the world's climate leaders gather in New York, the innovations and insights emerging from climate-vulnerable regions must be heard, whether their creators can physically attend or not.
If you’d like to dig in further…
📚 Download our report: Frontier Tech for the Voluntary Carbon Market
🎬 Watch a short film about the Nepal Climate Scenarios pilot
👋 Email nathan@hellobrink.co to speak further
