By Carlos Casallas, Leader of the Impact Missions Investment Fund (FIMI) at Fondo Acción.
Fondo Acción believes that COP30 should focus on three main axes: bridging the gap between climate finance and nature, mobilizing resources toward integrated solutions that recognize their interdependence; strengthen local and community capacities to effectively implement such solutions, recognizing the fundamental role of territories in climate action; and promote innovative and collaborative mechanisms to facilitate access to financing, especially for local actors, impact enterprises, and civil society organizations working on sustainable and scalable solutions.
This vision is embodied in key topics such as the sustainable use of biodiversity to generate productive alternatives based on bioeconomy, with emphasis on their articulation with markets, especially from community models. Also, the need to scaling up mechanisms for direct access to climate finance, with priority for local and territorial actors. This includes promoting innovative instruments such as climate insurance, monetization of environmental assets and the active participation of the private sector (asset managers, institutional and corporate investors).
Climate action must be framed within a social justice perspective that guarantees a real and structural participation of vulnerable communities, with emphasis on children, youth, women and ethnic peoples, in decision-making and the implementation of solutions. In addition, it is essential to address adaptation to climate change and response to loss and damage, under an approach of intergenerational justice and gender equity. In parallel, the following should be promoted technological innovation, promoting the development and adoption of emerging technologies that enhance climate action in the territories, as well as to promote climate education and awarenessThe company's environmental awareness is strengthened from childhood and at all levels of society through public policies and programs that strengthen environmental awareness from childhood.
This perspective reaffirms our commitment to integrated, inclusive solutions grounded in knowledge and action from the territories.
In this context, the impact investment ecosystem must engage with COP30 through a strategic and proactive lens, aligning its capabilities with the territories' climate and social priorities. Our experience in mobilizing resources for adaptation, conservation, and sustainable development initiatives allows us to identify three key areas for this engagement:
- Collective advocacy and technical positioning: It is essential that the impact investment ecosystem is articulated as an actor with concrete proposals, showing how purpose-driven investment is generating environmental and social results in the territory. COP30 represents an opportunity to make these cases visible and propose regulatory and financial frameworks that enhance them.
- Integration with climate finance flows: Fondo Acción has proven that impact investment can complement traditional cooperation and climate finance instruments, providing innovation, efficiency and sustainability in implementation. It is crucial that the ecosystem links with the mechanisms of the Convention and promotes public-private co-financing models.
- Promotion of multi-stakeholder alliances: COP30 should be consolidated as a space to generate partnerships between impact investors, governments, civil society, public banks and multilateral institutions. These partnerships can be translated into financial vehicles and joint programs that scale up solutions based on nature, climate resilience and inclusive development.
Now is the time for impact investment to actively contribute to closing climate action gaps and establish itself as a pillar of sustainable transformation in Latin America.
Our region—particularly Colombia—represents a strategic territory within global climate and biodiversity agendas, not only due to the magnitude of the impacts it faces but also because of its ability to develop and implement innovative, inclusive, and scalable solutions. These solutions foster local action with an eco-systemic and community-based approach, significantly contributing to global commitments from the ground up.
Among our initiatives that support this vision are:
- Promotion of Green Investment and Bioeconomy to combat deforestation, which seeks to strengthen the institutional framework and create financial mechanisms to promote the sustainable management of biodiversity and forests. Among its results are the following: a guide to financing bioeconomy projects for the financial sectorThe project also includes the acceleration of and investment in 18 initiatives in areas of high deforestation -mainly led by local organizations- and the development of a guarantee instrument for science and technology-based companies.
- The Climate Action Fund for Children and Women (FACNNM), a pioneering model worldwide, with more than 27 ongoing projects that strengthen territorial resilience from a rights, gender and children's perspective.
- Platforms for youth and intergenerational participation, which have facilitated NDC update consultations with young people, while Fondo Acción has led climate education processes and generated evidence of the impact of climate change on children.
- Climate insurance for ecosystems, through the design and implementation of parametric insurance for the protection of coral reefs in the Colombian Caribbean. This initiative has generated key lessons learned in terms of governance, with the active participation of local communities, as well as in the activation and mobilization of resources from the private sector, especially the tourism sector. This is evidence of the sector's interest in protecting natural capital while promoting sustainable livelihoods for the populations that inhabit these territories.
- Solnatura, an initiative that seeks to finance projects in the territory with a focus on nature-based solutions. These projects must contribute to the climate agenda, promote biodiversity gain or reduce biodiversity loss, and generate sustainable livelihoods and productive opportunities for local communities.
Learn more about Fondo Acción at: https://fondoaccion.org/
