COP29 Statement
At COP29 in Baku, the CREO Family Office Syndicate (CREO) and the Investor Leadership Network (ILN) jointly representing their members including family offices, family foundations, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds, announce today that they will join forces to develop a shared vision and action plan to accelerate private market investments into climate and sustainability solutions. Efforts will primarily focus on the global energy transition, including in emerging markets, where investment, opportunity, and positive climate impact intersect. By leveraging best practices and shared expertise within their respective networks and developing solutions to address key friction points, CREO, ILN and future asset owner partners and enablers will aim to scale climate finance and enhance the resilience of global investment portfolios. This initiative reflects a collective belief that integrating sustainable investment practices across all asset classes will reduce climate-related risks, increase value and help preserve our planet for today’s and future generations.
The Opportunity
As discussed in the Climate Finance Relay Race published by S2G Ventures earlier this year, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, and insurance companies have well over $100 trillion in assets under management (AuM), making them a significant stakeholder group in the investment landscape with the capacity to materially contribute to climate private capital finance gap.
Family offices are often well placed given their greater agility, lower liquidity requirements, and less regulatory barriers when compared to other institutional asset owners. For their part, sovereign wealth funds have demonstrated their elasticity in investing in energy and decarbonization transition in emerging markets. Pension funds, as long term investors, are developing strategies to implement their sustainability targets and seeking to build value through expanding capital deployment into climate solutions and the decarbonization of the real economy. Together, leading asset owners can take greater agency to scale mainstream climate infrastructure and build solutions to enhance bankability and scalability of new solutions and climate-positive projects across asset classes, sectors and geographies.
Building on the agency and innovation led by leading asset owners, together, CREO and ILN seek to enable greater engagement across its networks asset owners to accelerate private capital deployment. Specifically, CREO and ILN, with the support of enabling partner Milken Institute, will explore solutions to address key friction points in support of materially accelerating the deployment of private capital in the following three areas: 1) developing climate related private market investment data to inform decisions and measure/manage climate positive outcomes and value creation; 2) sharing best practices and building models to support climate focused whole portfolio approaches; and 3) developing solutions to derisk and increase private capital deployment into energy transition and sustainability in emerging markets.
Milestones
On November 14 at the COP29 Business Investment and Philanthropy Climate Platform CREO and ILN alongside leading asset owners Builders Vision and CDPQ will discuss successes and challenges and potential pathways to accelerate capital deployment.
CREO and ILN will hold a series of regular dialogues over the course of 2025, including working sessions and panel discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, the World Bank Meetings in Washington DC in April, and the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles in May.
CREO and ILN in partnership with the Milken Institute will co-host an asset owner summit at the COP30 in Brazil, at which they will share progress on the development and implementation of solutions and report on new capital deployed into climate solutions, including in emerging markets.
Call to Action
The COP29 UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, as a key partner of this effort, joins CREO and ILN in calling on other asset owner associations and individual family offices, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and insurance companies to join this important strategic initiative.
CREO Family Office Syndicate (CREO) is a nonprofit organization that leads research, knowledge-building, investment opportunity sourcing, strategic initiatives in partnership with a global community of over 200 family offices and family foundations in support of its mission, to catalyze private capital into climate and sustainability solutions and the decarbonization transition. Forty-five percent of CREO members have invested a total of ~$60B into the climate and sustainability private market. With a combined portfolio encompassing over 1,700 climate and sustainability-focused companies and investments in more than 400 climate-oriented funds across the community, CREO champions innovation in finance by bridging capital gaps in growth-stage investments and whole portfolio strategies. CREO members’ agility allows them to address emerging opportunities and drive impactful investments that help derisk climate finance and attract broader institutional capital. Most recently, CREO launched working groups to accelerate capital deployment into regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions, first-of-a-kind project financing, decarbonizing shipping and emerging markets.
Investor Leadership Network (ILN) is a CEO-led group composed of 14 global institutional investors with over US$10 trillion in assets under management, launched as part of Canada’s 2018 G7 Presidency. Formed to be an open and collaborative platform among members to tackle key opportunities and challenges in sustainable investing, the ILN has been at the forefront of mobilizing private capital toward climate and development solutions, in both industrialized and emerging economies. The ILN serves as a convening partner for its membership with key public and philanthropic institutions, operating under the belief that building trust between actors across the global economy is critical for private capital to be mobilized at speed and scale. Additionally, the ILN and its members regularly publish agenda-setting thought leadership on these issues and is a sought-after partner globally.
Builders Vision, founded by Lukas Walton, is an impact platform and single-family office dedicated to supporting the people and organizations building a more humane and healthier planet. Through a blend of philanthropy, investment, and advocacy, Builders Vision tackles urgent climate challenges in three interconnected sectors: oceans, food & agriculture, and energy. Lukas launched Builders Vision with a strong belief that family offices have the power and responsibility to break down the silos between the nonprofit, public, and private sectors, shifting markets toward solutions that not only protect the environment but also strengthen the global economy. Builders Vision’s leadership is reflected in initiatives such as anchoring the $300 million Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA) announced at COP28 and transitioning 90% of its $1.7 billion endowment (through the Builders Initiative Foundation) to mission-aligned investments in 2022.
CDPQ invests constructively to generate sustainable returns over the long term. As a global investment group managing funds for public retirement and insurance plans, CDPQ works alongside its partners to build enterprises that drive performance and progress. CDPQ is active in the major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. As of June 30, 2024, CDPQ’s net assets totaled 452 billion Canadian dollars. Since the implementation of its first climate strategy in 2017, CDPQ has taken decisive action, investing in sustainable solutions to encourage all players in the economy to reduce GHG emissions. A growing number of its portfolio companies are actively engaged in the transition and in 2023 CDPQ held 135 billion Canadian dollars in assets aligned with the Paris Agreement and 5 billion Canadian dollars in transition assets. CDPQ is committed to pursue its ambitious efforts to extend its decarbonization and sustainable investments in order to encourage systemic change.
Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life. With a focus on financial, physical, mental, and environmental health, the Institute brings together the best ideas and resourcing to develop blueprints for tackling some of our most critical global issues. The Institute’s programmatic pillars – Finance, Health, Philanthropy and International – are committed to confronting climate change from all angles.