The World Economic Forum’s ambitious plan to inject $200 billion into climate investments

The World Economic Forum said this week its philanthropic and impact-oriented Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) initiative is on track to push $200 billion of aggregated capital into climate and nature solutions around the world.

Launched in January 2024, GAEA is working with 140 partners, including foundations, corporate philanthropies and ventures, endowments and other innovative financing vehicles, to help bridge the green finance gap. So far, the initiative has driven $5 billion of new climate and nature investments through its member’s commitments, which continue to increase annually, the group said on its website.

Philanthropic capital alone will not solve the world’s climate issues, the group acknowledges.

“While proving a powerful catalytic tool to help unlock critical investments, philanthropic capital is not a large asset class in and of itself. Only commercial capital and institutional investors can make sustainable markets a reality. GAEA’s 4P model — public, private and philanthropic partnerships — addresses market failures, which helps pave the way for institutional investors to achieve green markets at scale,” a post on the forum’s website says.

To shift systems in half the current projected timeframe, the world will need to orchestrate a level of collaboration never before seen in human history. No government, no company, no philanthropy can do this alone, the post says.

“Global challenges can only be effectively addressed through global collaboration integrating all stakeholders. GAEA is adding the missing piece to the public-private cooperation initiatives of the World Economic Forum: philanthropy,” said Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman, World Economic Forum.

Climate in focus at Davos

The World Economic Forum will hold its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 20-24. At the meeting, the inaugural GAEA Awards for Systems Change will recognize partnerships driving systems-level change across key sectors, spotlighting real-world implementation and fostering cross-sector collaboration that tackle the interconnected climate and nature challenges.

“The GAEA Awards will celebrate the pioneering collaborations that are leading the charge to heal and restore our planet,” said Michelle Yeoh, international actress, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and GAEA global co-chair.

“We must summon unprecedented courage and innovation to forge a new path forward – one rooted in unity and collective action. The urgency of this mission cannot be overstated: unless we accelerate the scale and pace of transformative change, we risk not only failing our planet, but also jeopardizing the future of generations to come,” she said.

Among the initiatives underway:

GAEA’s Big Bets Accelerator focuses on ocean restoration, energy transition, humanitarian action, sustainable industry practices and the future of finance. GAEA, OceanX and Friends of the Ocean are building a Blue Capital Collective led by GAEA’s Co-Chair and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, in collaboration with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.
In partnership with KPMG and the Growald Climate Fund, Eileen Rockefeller & Paul Growald’s philanthropic climate arm, GAEA is spearheading new financing vehicles to crowd private finance into the coal transition in emerging markets. The Coal-to-Clean Initiative already supports stakeholders in assessing the most beneficial strategies to repurpose coal-fired power plants while maintaining energy generation capacity.
Philanthropic venture Boundless Earth is working with GAEA and the First Movers Coalition to position Australia and APAC as a green iron leader, catalyzing steel decarbonization across the region with the country’s first green iron plant, which will reach financial close by 2027.
GAEA and the No.17 Foundation and Restore Nature Foundation of the Tsao Pao Chee Group are launching a strategic collaboration led by Fred Tsao to catalyze a movement of wealth stewards, philanthropists and families interested in pivoting into climate and nature. The collaboration will leverage their portfolios to unlock a new generation of investments at the intersection of the new wellbeing economy and planetary stewardship.
In her role as GAEA global co-chair, HRH Princess Beatrice will collaborate with the Forum’s AI Governance Alliance and pioneer a World AI x Climate Challenge to build a coalition of AI companies aiming to reshape the global impact investing ecosystem. By engaging family offices, philanthropies, governments and AI innovators, new avenues for capital to flow toward climate solutions and sustainable wealth management will be identified, scaled and implemented for transformative change.
Last year, 25 corporate philanthropies launched the GAEA Corporate Philanthropy Challenge, pledging $1 billion by 2030. Corporations are creating new entities to channel catalytic funds — grants, venture capital, employee contributions and pro bono tools — into climate and nature solutions. The challenge has already unlocked $1 billion, paving the way for more corporate players to fuel public and private green investments of transformative scale.