Catalytic Capital Symposium: A Deeper Dive into Financing a Just Transition .
Event | November 1, 2023
Chemonics UK and the Impact Investing Institute hosted a hybrid event on 1 November 2023 at Chemonics UK’s offices in London and online via Teams Live Events.
Achieving a global transition to net zero, and doing so in a way that is fair and inclusive, requires a re-thinking of the global financial structure. Among the needed changes, highlighted most recently at COP27 and the Africa Climate Summit, is an increase in the availability of high-quality and innovative blended finance mechanisms enabling more private capital to support fair and inclusive decarbonisation pathways in emerging markets and developing economies.
Despite the increase in blended finance deals over the last decades, achieving this goal requires breaking down the silos between catalytic funders – such as development finance institutions and foundations and institutional investors. Catalytic funders seeking to mobilise private capital may not have the full picture of the legal and operational requirements of institutional investors, while institutional investors may have key transactional limitations that donors are not equipped to forecast and design for.
This hybrid event, hosted by Chemonics UK and the Impact Investing Institute, sought to bridge gaps by sharing live examples and fostering dialogue and exchange. The event aimed to support more institutional investors to understand and access catalytic funding opportunities, and help catalytic funders better understand the barriers faced by institutional investors, and how their contributions may thus be designed for higher capital mobilisation. It also marked the launch of a new report by the Impact Investing Institute, supported by grant funding from the Catalytic Capital Consortium (comprising the MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Omidyar Networks).
The event focused on blended finance for a just transition, however the lessons from the transactions will also provide insights into the challenges and potential solutions within blended finance more broadly. What is more, since just transition finance considers a triple bottom line, in which social and environmental targets are distinct drivers, the lessons from these considerations stand to benefit a broader range of investors considering impact investments.
Agenda
Hybrid – in-person and online
16:00-16:05 – Welcome: Louise Quy, Managing Director, Chemonics UK
16:05-16:45 – Panel discussion and audience Q&A
In-person only
16:45-17:25 – Deep-dive breakout groups
Group 1: Catalytic instruments for a just transition
Group 2: Climate Finance for Development Accelerator
Group 3: Opportunities for partnerships with local investors
17:25-17:30 – Concluding thoughts: Kieron Boyle, CEO, Impact Investing Institute; Louise Quy, Managing Director, Chemonics UK
17:30-19:00 – Networking drinks reception
Chair
Louise Quy, Managing Director, Chemonics UK
Louise brings a wealth of expertise to her role as a passionate and strategic leader, with more than 20 years of progressive commercial and international development experience, working in international trade and development, banking, and professional services. As managing director, Louise provides strategic vision, leadership, commercial acumen, and management to Chemonics’ UK headquarters and its portfolio of international programmes.
Passionate about combating climate change and violence against women, Louise currently serves as a trustee of WeForest and chair of Luminary Bakery. Prior to joining Chemonics Louise worked at Crown Agents, firstly as part of a turnaround team and latterly as chief commercial officer and supply chain lead. In this role, Louise led Crown’s response on both their COVID-19 supply chain offer and their Ukraine response.
Moderator
Kieron Boyle, CEO, Impact Investing Institute
Kieron Boyle is the Chief Executive of the Impact Investing Institute, the UK’s national body for impact investing. Its mission is to make capital markets fairer for people and for the planet.
From 2016 to 2023, Kieron was the Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation, one of the world’s oldest health foundations. Through this period, the foundation transformed its £1 billion investment arm into one of Europe’s leading responsible investors. Kieron was formerly the UK government’s chief advisor on impact investment. He started his career at the Boston Consulting Group. Kieron is a Governor of the Southbank Centre, a Trustee of the Design Council, and the Chair of the Long-term Investors in People’s Health programme, a $7 trillion global alliance of institutional investors.
Panellists
Tara Sabre Collier, Senior Advisor, Investor Relations, Climate Finance for Development Accelerator; Director of Impacting Investing and Sustainable Finance, Chemonics UK
Tara Sabre Collier is Director of Impacting Investing and Sustainable Finance at Chemonics UK. A sustainable finance advisor to governments and development finance institutions, Tara leads the Chemonics-led MOBILIST policy platform.
Tara has more than 15 years of experience in impact investing, international development, and corporate strategy. In addition to advising other impact investors and funds, Tara is a visiting fellow at Said Business School, Oxford University. Most recently, she was the gender lead at Shell Foundation. Before that, Tara worked for and with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the United Nations, Ernst & Young, and GroFin Capital.
Sophia Omar, Programme Manager, Impact Investing Institute
Sophia is a Programme Manager at the Impact Investing Institute where she leads the Institute’s investor-specific work streams with a focus on enabling pension schemes and charitable endowments to become impact investors. She also leads work on the effective deployment of catalytic capital for a global just transition to net-zero.
Sophia previously worked across business development and product delivery in the digital education space. She also spent time working in international development in Pakistan and raising funds for girls’ education across Asia.
Amar Inamdar PhD, Managing Director, KawiSafi Ventures
Amar is an investor, scientist and entrepreneur from East Africa. He brings over 25 years private sector experience of building markets and businesses in emerging economies. He is the Managing Director of KawiSafi Ventures – a private investment fund that is focused on energy access in Africa. He is an active Board representative on a diverse portfolio of technology-driven companies.
Prior to leading KawiSafi, he managed a global investment portfolio of high-risk, high-impact projects for 10 years at the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank before joining the new business team at Royal Dutch Shell to drive growth in domestic African energy markets. He graduated from the University of Oxford and has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. A TED speaker with over 1.6M views, his work on sustainable investing has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, and Fast Company.