Climate Finance Summit: Closing the Missing Middle
From San Francisco to Brazil
The Climate Finance Summit spans from SF Climate Week to COP 30, bringing together an invitation-only working group that convenes three times a year to develop innovative financial models, policy recommendations, and collaborative solutions for scaling climate innovation. The series culminates at COP 30, where we will present our findings, investment frameworks, and actionable strategies to the COP 30 delegation, driving real commitments to bridge the missing middle in climate finance.
The Challenge: A Missing Middle in Climate Finance
While early-stage climate tech attracts venture capital and large-scale infrastructure secures institutional funding, there’s a critical financing gap in the middle. Promising climate solutions in deployment and scale-up stages often struggle to access the capital they need.
To achieve net zero and drive a just energy transition, we must come together—investors, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and financiers—to learn from each other, leverage lessons from solar & wind, and build scalable financial solutions for the next generation of climate technologies.
“The greatest barrier to a sustainable future isn’t technology—it’s finance. The capital exists; the challenge is redirecting it to where it matters most.”
— Jason Jay, MIT Sustainability Initiative
Thought Leaders
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Nathaniel Ezolino
MIT
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Lara Pierpoint
MIT
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Andrew Lo
MIT
Lessons from Wind & Solar: How They Solved the Financing Gap
The wind and solar industries faced the same financing barriers that many climate tech sectors—like green hydrogen, battery storage, carbon removal, and industrial decarbonization—face today. How did they break through?
De-Risking Through Policy & Incentives
Long-Term Contracts (PPAs & Feed-in Tariffs) – Governments introduced Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)and Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) that guaranteed revenue for renewable energy projects. This lowered risk and attracted institutional capital.
Production & Investment Tax Credits – Policies like the U.S. Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC) made solar and wind more competitive with fossil fuels by reducing upfront costs.
How This Applies Today:
New climate solutions need similar market mechanisms—contracts for difference (CFDs), offtake agreements, carbon credits, and blended finance structures to create bankable revenue streams for scaling.
Scaling with Blended Finance & Risk Reduction
Public-Private Partnerships – Early wind & solar projects benefited from government-backed loans, guarantees, and concessional capital that de-risked private investment.
First-Loss Capital & Credit Enhancements – Development finance institutions (DFIs) and green banks stepped in to absorb early-stage risk, making projects more attractive to institutional investors.
How This Applies Today:
Emerging climate solutions need blended finance models, where philanthropy, government grants, and concessional capital take first-loss positions to unlock private capital at scale.
Standardization & Financial Innovation
Project Finance & Securitization – As wind and solar matured, investors bundled projects into asset-backed securities, reducing perceived risk and unlocking larger pools of capital.
Yieldcos & Green Bonds – Special financial vehicles like Yieldcos and Green Bonds gave institutional investors long-term, stable returns, making renewables an attractive asset class.
How This Applies Today:
New sectors need standardized contracts, financing structures, and aggregation models to attract pension funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds.
Driving Down Costs Through Scale & Market Confidence
Manufacturing Scale & Learning Curves – Massive investment in R&D, supply chains, and deployment drove down the cost of wind and solar by 90%+ over two decades.
Market Certainty Encouraged Investment – As policies stabilized and early projects proved profitability, institutional investors poured capital into the sector, further accelerating scale.
How This Applies Today:
Climate solutions need sustained early investment, even at higher costs, to reach cost parity with legacy industries. Patient capital, concessional finance, and industrial policy support can help drive this transition.
Program Structure
Climate Finance Working Group Meetup #1 – Identifying the Gaps & Solutions
SF Climate Week, 2025 | San Francisco, CA
In San Francisco, we begin the conversation by asking a simple yet fundamental question: Why does so much climate capital sit on the sidelines, while high-potential companies struggle to access funding?
We’ve seen this before. The solar and wind industries faced similar financing barriers in their early days. Banks viewed them as too risky, while venture capitalists saw them as too capital-intensive. That changed when financial innovation stepped in—with PPAs, feed-in tariffs, green bonds, and yieldcos unlocking institutional capital at scale.
At this first Climate Finance Working Group Meetup, we will:
Map the Missing Middle – Where are the most significant financing gaps, and why does private capital hesitate to step in?
Look Back to Look Forward – What did solar, wind, and EVs get right in their financing models, and how do we replicate that for new sectors?
Identify the Role of Different Capital Players – VCs, private equity, infrastructure funds, DFIs, and corporatesall have a role to play—how do we align their interests?
This session will produce a roadmap of the key capital gaps and financing innovations we’ll take into the next conversation in New York.
Climate Finance Working Group Meetup #2 – Structuring Investment Models That Work
NYC Climate Week, 2025 | New York, NY
By the time we meet in New York, it’s time to go deeper—from identifying the challenges to designing actual financial models that unlock investment in climate deployment.
This is where we get tactical. What types of risk-sharing mechanisms and structured finance tools could make climate investments more attractive? How do we de-risk investments for institutional players, just as we did with wind and solar?
We’ll explore strategies like:
Blended Finance – How first-loss capital, DFIs, and catalytic philanthropy can make climate projects bankable
Policy as a Lever – How tax credits, carbon pricing, and market incentives can create investable assets
Securitization & Project Aggregation – Can we bundle smaller-scale projects into fundable, de-risked investment vehicles?
This isn’t theoretical—we’ll have real case studies of successful financing structures, including:
How project finance models from wind and solar could apply to industrial decarbonization, hydrogen, and carbon removal
By the end of this session, we will have working financial models to present at COP 30, with clear recommendations for both investors and policymakers.
Climate Finance Summit – Closing the Missing Middle
COP 30, 2025 | Belém, Brazil
By COP 30, it’s time for real commitments. Investors, financial institutions, and policymakers must move beyond discussion and into action.
At this high-level climate finance summit, we’ll bring together:
Leading institutional investors & banks ready to deploy capital
Policymakers & regulators focused on shaping financial markets for climate investment
Corporate leaders & startups with scalable, investable climate solutions
This will be a solutions-driven event, focused on delivering:
Institutional Capital Commitments – Major financial players pledging real capital for climate deployment
Policy & Regulatory Commitments – Governments creating new incentives & risk-sharing structures to unlock investment
Scalable Investment Vehicles – Launching blended finance models, securitization approaches, and project aggregation tools
We’ve seen this work before. At previous COPs, new investment models emerged that transformed entire industries.This time, we are focused on:
Scaling investment in emerging climate tech beyond Series B
Unlocking capital for infrastructure-scale deployment
Ensuring equitable finance access for the Global South
By the end of COP 30, we will have actual financial solutions in place—not just concepts, but deals ready to scale climate innovation globally.
Join the Climate Finance Working Group
We are seeking investors and fund managers committed to scaling climate solutions, alongside banks and institutional capital looking for de-risked investment opportunities in the climate sector. We welcome policymakers and regulators who are shaping climate finance mechanisms and market incentives to accelerate funding flows.
Together, we are building a collaborative ecosystem to drive sustainable investment and innovation.