East Africa is emerging as a vibrant hub for climate innovation, with a growing number of innovators and stakeholders developing solutions to address the region’s pressing climate challenges. The region's unique combination of urgent climate needs, a burgeoning tech ecosystem, and an increasing focus on sustainability has attracted significant attention from investors looking to support the advancement of climate action.

Within the East Africa climate ecosystem, stakeholder networks and relationships are crucial for ensuring the successful implementation of climate action policy and innovative solutions. Effective collaboration across the diverse stakeholders shaping the East Africa climate ecosystem, is key to fostering a more integrated and impactful approach for tackling climate challenges. Several factors influence how these stakeholders interact and collaborate within the climate ecosystem. These include the availability of funding, policy frameworks, technological infrastructure, and the strength of local entrepreneurial support systems.

This study examines the dynamics of climate innovation in East Africa, with a focus on the interactions, relationships and networks among key climate stakeholders. Qualitative and quantitative data collection was used to identify the enablers, barriers, and support needs critical to fostering a mature and integrated climate innovation ecosystem in the region. The insights provided in this report are aimed at informing stakeholders on the varying factors shaping interactions among key players in the ecosystem. Greater awareness of these dynamics can help reduce fragmentation in adaptation and mitigation efforts, while also enhancing the scalability of climate solutions to drive increased impact and inclusivity in East Africa’s climate ecosystem.

The paper offers guidance for those considering funding or designing interventions targeting women climate entrepreneurs and WSME-responsive climate initiatives by addressing the following questions: Why is it important to focus on women climate entrepreneurs? Where are areas of opportunity for women climate entrepreneurs and implementing partner support—including sectors that are emerging as critical to a low-carbon economy? What actions, initiatives, and efforts are happening now? Who are the key players? Where are the challenges? Ramping up an integrated focus on WSMEs and climate is critical, given that gender equality is considered a primary objective in less than 1 percent of climateoriented official development assistance (ODA) provided by governments for economic development in emerging markets and fragile economies.

First, the paper highlights the need for a gender-differentiated approach to climate action in general. It then discusses the importance of prioritizing the needs of women climate entrepreneurs, with insights on green and blue sectors. The next section details the state of play: organizations that are supporting gender-responsive climate action and those focused on the nexus of women’s entrepreneurship and climate along with a report on the status of financing for such initiatives. It concludes with recommended courses of action for development organizations, impact investors and other partners to take as they consider new projects and initiatives.

Kenya's waste management and circularity sector offers significant opportunities for investors, driven by economic growth, increasing waste generation, growing regulations and innovations. This introductory guide is the first in a series that also includes investment guides that deep dive into each of the highest opportunity sub-sectors in Kenya’s waste and circularity sector: plastic waste, wastewater, organic waste and integrated waste management. These guides provide further information on trends, opportunities, policies and challenges, as well as further details on the main identified business models and their financing needs and case studies of successful businesses.

This landscape guide is intended to outline India’s current context in recycling and circularity, with a focus on the investment potential, opportunities and business models in the ten most significant waste streams in India. It provides a framework for how investment potential in a waste stream can be determined, which covers five areas that define that potential: market size and growth; investable start-up pipeline; product readiness; policy support; financing needs and gaps. The guide also includes a historical outline of investments and funding in each waste stream and outlines the roles and participation of various types of equity funders, along with the potential and participation of non-dilutive funding options.

In Extrapolations, Mumbai in 2059 is depicted as a dystopian city where climate change forces all commerce to take place at night, with people relying on oxygen stations to survive the extreme heat. This grim vision highlights the severe consequences of unchecked climate change, underscoring the importance of climate adaptation. Effective adaptation should focus on maintaining quality of life, which requires urgent investment in adaptation strategies today. The report shifts focus towards adaptation finance, challenging the idea that it is solely a public good with little role for private sector investment. While continuing to emphasize climate mitigation, the report identifies areas where adaptation investments can yield both positive impacts and financial returns. It stresses that addressing climate change is not only crucial for the planet but also presents significant business opportunities. The choices made in the next decade will be critical, requiring unprecedented capital to scale effective solutions.

"The goal of this report is to inspire more philanthropists to act. The report provides tools, case studies, and encouragement to help existing and potential climate philanthropists overcome barriers to action."

"By applying the COMPASS methodology to explore both investee- and investment-level impact performance, these studies enable investors to understand the impact performance of their investments and compare progress relative to the change needed to tackle climate change and improve job quality. Specifically, these studies examine how investors can differentiate their investment results on the basis of impact. With a standard method, investors can compare performance with their peers in a reliable way, indeed even compete with peers, to strengthen performance. Using the same process, but considering results from another perspective, investors can also compare their performance to the change that is needed to tackle the global challenge they aim to address."

"Endeavor Insight partnered with HSBC to examine the challenges that climate tech founders face as they scale their companies, and the opportunities for investors and supporters to help them succeed. This study demonstrates how global connectivity can further drive innovation and highlights what decision makers can do to better support female-led and minority-led companies."

"This report emphasizes the urgency to transition from the "Age of Innovation" to the "Age of Adoption" in response to climate change impacts by 2030. It identifies the critical need for the widespread implementation and scaling of existing climate technologies, and problematizes the gap between the availability of viable climate solutions and the slow pace of their adoption. It explores what will it take to deploy innovations at scale, aiming to understand the barriers hindering the widespread implementation of climate innovations. It identifies the pivotal role of climate finance in facilitating large-scale adoption, and underscores the necessity for collaborative efforts among various financial stakeholders, such as venture capital, private equity, foundations, and corporates, to devise innovative financial mechanisms. The report showcases how these financial innovations combine grants, equity, and debt to address climate challenges effectively. Finally, it stresses the need for specialized climate finance to bring innovations to the market swiftly, and emphasizes collaborative efforts among diverse capital allocators to develop creative and collaborative climate finance strategies."

"An in-depth research report, issued by the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA), with support from the Lemelson Foundation, on the role investors and innovators can play in accelerating private sector investment for physical climate adaptation solutions in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda. The report outlines the barriers and opportunities for investment in climate adaptation technologies in East Africa, as well as pathways for impact investors to fund innovative adaptation technologies in the sectors most impacted by the climate crisis: agriculture, health, and infrastructure."