Belém, Brazil, November 14, 2025 — Today on Finance Day at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), with support from Allied Climate Partners and Three Cairns Group, and analytical support from Wood Mackenzie, released a new report, The Clean Energy Equity Investment Gap: Mobilizing private finance in emerging markets, revealing a growing shortfall in projected equity investment relative to the levels needed for EMDEs, excluding China (“EMDEs”) to align with global clean energy transition goals.
The report finds that EMDEs will need approximately USD 1.3 trillion in annual clean energy investment by 2035, including USD 375 billion in equity. In 2024, equity accounted for USD 100 billion of the USD 330 billion invested in EMDEs. Closing the USD 215 billion “Equity Gap” will require scaling equity roughly fourfold by 2035. A well-targeted USD 12–25 billion per year in catalytic equity would meaningfully reduce the gap by absorbing risk and improving returns for other public and private investors.
“A clear understanding of capital requirements – by industry, sector, risk, and financing structure – reveals where the real bottlenecks in EMDE finance lie,” said Mark Gallogly, Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Three Cairns Group and Chairman of Allied Climate Partners. “With that clarity, catalytic equity can be deployed precisely where it attracts private and public investors, creating the greatest possible multiplier for every scarce dollar deployed.”
The research provides the first granular assessment of equity flows across EMDEs’ clean energy infrastructure and identifies where shortfalls could grow to be most acute. Of the 90 sectors and regions modeled, the top ten comprise nearly half the gap in 2035, pointing investors to high-growth, high-volume opportunities.
“The data is clear: closing the equity gap is essential to meeting global energy transition goals,” said Barbara Buchner, Global Managing Director of Climate Policy Initiative. “This analysis provides the most detailed look yet at where capital is—and isn’t—flowing, offering a roadmap for investors and policymakers to seize these opportunities with urgency.”
These findings underscore the urgent need to scale the use of catalytic equity due to its powerful demonstrated mobilization potential. In recent deals, one dollar of catalytic equity has mobilized more than 30 dollars of external investment into clean energy infrastructure projects.
“Catalytic equity is a force multiplier for the mobilization of additional capital. By bearing initial risks and proving new business models, catalytic equity can help ensure that capital flows to where it is most needed in order to accelerate the energy transition and other goals,” said Ahmed Saeed, CEO of Allied Climate Partners.
“Our work on emerging market capital mobilization underscores how catalytic capital, including equity, is an essential but underused tool for unlocking private investment in the transition,” said Mary Schapiro, Vice Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. “This new GFANZ research, developed with partners and building off The World Bank’s Private Sector Investment Lab, demonstrates how relatively small amounts of catalytic equity from development finance institutions, philanthropies, and others can unlock significantly greater flows of private finance to build the clean energy infrastructure emerging markets urgently need.”
The report outlines actionable pathways to close the gap, including:
- Deploying catalytic equity to crowd in institutional investors and development finance institutions (DFIs)
- Building regional investment platforms that can aggregate and deploy blended finance efficiently
- Expanding early-stage project preparation facilities to ensure a steady pipeline of bankable projects
- Strengthening policy and regulatory frameworks to lower barriers to private participation
About Climate Policy Initiative (CPI)
Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) works to improve the most important energy and land use policies around the world, with a focus on finance. CPI supports governments, investors, and development institutions in driving low-carbon growth.
About the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ)
The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) is an independent, private-sector-led initiative focused on mobilizing capital and removing barriers to investment in the global transition.
GFANZ brings together financial sector firms that recognize the opportunity created by the transition – including banks, insurers, asset owners, asset managers, and service providers. It helps drive transition finance and unlock private capital at scale through support for capacity building and the development of innovative financing opportunities and solutions.
A Principals Group composed of executives from major firms approves the strategic direction of GFANZ, which is globally active through its Regional Networks in Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America & Caribbean, as well as Chapters in Brazil, the Caribbean, Japan, and Hong Kong.
About Allied Climate Partners
Allied Climate Partners (ACP) is a philanthropic investment organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of businesses that deliver clean energy and climate solutions in emerging economies. ACP provides catalytic capital to strategically chosen climate investment funds, helping them attract larger amounts of commercial investment. ACP’s investments advance decarbonization while promoting economic development and climate resilience.
About Three Cairns Group
Three Cairns Group is an investment and philanthropic firm primarily focused on the climate crisis, founded by Mark Gallogly and Lise Strickler. The firm develops, incubates, and scales initiatives to accelerate the clean energy transition and drive transformative, equitable progress and job creation through three strategies: launching pioneering enterprises, investing in innovative climate solutions, and philanthropically supporting policy, talent, and communications.
About Wood Mackenzie
Wood Mackenzie is a leading global provider of data and analytics solutions for the renewables, energy and natural resources sectors. Wood Mackenzie’s services include data, analytics, insight, events and consultancy. A trusted partner for over 50 years, Wood Mackenzie’s team has over 2,300 experts across more than 30 global locations who cover the entire supply chain.
Media contact:
Jana Stupperich
Senior Communications Associate, Climate Policy Initiative
jana.stupperich@cpiglobal.org
