The Catalysts: Unlocking Markets for a Sustainable Economy

As the reckoning on a range of climate, nature and sustainable development goals fast approaches, the finance to deliver them remains out of reach. This report sheds light on a band of actors whose potential is largely untapped: foundations, philanthropies, family offices, impact investors and selected institutional investors. Together, this “catalyst community” possesses both the financial and non-financial resources to help unlock progress in times of volatility.

What sets these actors apart is their ability to deploy not just capital, but networks, influence, governance capacity and patience in ways that commercial investors find hard to match. The opportunity lies in mobilizing these capabilities more strategically, by expanding the definition of what intelligent capital deployment means. Doing so requires a paradigm shift, from transactional grant-making to active stewardship – co-creating the conditions for positive tipping points, when sustainable solutions no longer need subsidies because the market has restructured to reward them.

Through a series of 11 case studies across ocean, forest and energy systems, this report demonstrates how these actors can reimagine their roles, by leveraging their catalytic interventions to generate disproportionate and durable change. The report is published by GAEA, the World Economic Forum's Global Accelerator for Earth Action – an initiative committed to convening catalytic actors to accelerate systemic climate and nature solutions.