Catalytic Climate Capital

Moving from proven climate technologies to first-of-a-kind physical projects remains one of the hardest challenges in scaling climate solutions. Too often, projects stall in the Scale Gap—where technical readiness outpaces the availability of specialized knowledge and risk-tolerant capital needed for deployment.

To better understand how this gap can be bridged, we’re partnering with Elemental Impact for a Deep Dive Series on Catalytic Climate Capital.

In this series, we explore how philanthropy has an opportunity to leverage its patient capital to shape markets, which is exactly what’s required to accelerate climate innovation and near-term emissions reductions. We examine the mechanics of blended finance, where strategic philanthropic capital does the heavy lifting of underwriting and de-risking so that institutional investors and banks can confidently step in. By highlighting the shift toward recyclable capital and community-centered deployment, this series explores how coordinated funding across the capital stack can move innovation toward global infrastructure scale.

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About Elemental Impact

Elemental Impact is a nonprofit investor with 15 years of experience advancing innovative technologies with deep environmental and local impact. Elemental is supported by 40 government and philanthropic funders and its portfolio includes 160+ companies that have catalyzed $11.5B in additional funding and created 17,200 jobs. Elemental works to address market failures for first-of-a-kind and early commercial projects by providing catalytic capital and specialized expertise—from policy engagement to workforce development and capital coaching.