Investing and beyond: How Heading for Change is advancing the climate and gender finance field
by Sana Kapadia, Chief Catalyst at Heading for Change
Around the world, women and grassroots communities are already leading the climate transition - in fields, factories, businesses and fund management offices. The capital just hasn't caught up.That gap is playing out against a much bigger one. To meet international net zero goals, climate investment must increase fivefold to USD 7.4 trillion annually through 2030. Not at some distant point in the future, but right now. And we are falling short not only in quantum, but in quality: in terms of the depth, coverage and reach of climate finance.Applying a gender lens to climate investment isn't about inventing a new asset class, or adding a pink label to an existing product.
Bringing gender analysis into investment decisions helps identify risks, uncover opportunities, strengthen portfolios, and drive more resilient solutions. This isn't theoretical: globally, investors are applying gender-smart strategies that are improving climate outcomes, unlocking new markets, and enhancing long-term value creation. The opportunity is real, immediate and already being realised. Suzanne Biegel created Heading for Change to demonstrate that gender is not just relevant to climate investing, but a catalyst for new solutions, opportunities, and transformative impact. We invest in private market climate funds that see gender as a value driver.
“As Suzanne once said, “The world only has a few years left to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and trillions of dollars in capital to deploy in order to get there. The capital needs to be moved fast, and be moved intelligently – to the places where it will have the greatest impact.””
As she once said, “The world only has a few years left to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and trillions of dollars in capital to deploy in order to get there. The capital needs to be moved fast, and be moved intelligently – to the places where it will have the greatest impact.”
Gender as a catalyst for new solutions, opportunities and transformative impact
We operate in a backdrop where integrated climate and gender finance approaches are nascent, with most investors treating climate and gender in silos. As more investors adopt systemic approaches that reflect how climate change is not just an emissions problem, but also an economic and social problem, more integrated strategies will follow. Climate and gender investing is an emerging, dynamic and evolving field that is essential to meeting global climate and sustainability objectives.
The two interrelated challenges that Heading for Change addresses are the vast funding gap in climate and gender investing, and the need to build the field and underpinning evidence base of what good looks like - demonstrating viable investment opportunities at this nexus, and elevating the tools and practices that let more capital flow. Over the past two and a half years, we have deployed $2MM in investment capital to build a global demonstration portfolio, which manages a collective $2.8BN: a signal to the market of the significant opportunity that exists at this intersection. Combined with catalytic grants, field-building work, and ecosystem-level activities, our work is illustrating where opportunities lie, how value is emerging, and creating a lighthouse effect for others to act.
Our strategy and investment thesis centers women and other under-represented leaders as key drivers and creators of equitable climate solutions. This lens of women as change agents and drivers of climate-smart solutions exist across the entire value chain: from fund managers deciding where, when, how and in whom capital is invested, to the woman entrepreneur who uses sustainable land management practices on her farm, to the woman innovator who designs a new bag for fertiliser so it is easier to carry over long distances, and to the philanthropists financing catalytic projects and de-risking solutions.
As I discuss in a recent Business Green piece, "Gender-smart climate finance isn’t just an idea whose time has come - it’s a strategic imperative. It aligns with emerging regulations, creates pathways for innovation, and ensures that climate solutions are as inclusive as they are effective.”
We believe a gender lens is most powerful when it is embedded throughout a fund’s financial thesis and climate strategy, not layered on afterward as a social or equity add-on. And there is no one-size-fits all approach, such that fund managers can build strategies responsive to their own contexts, which matters even more today, given the political backlash against climate and gender issues in some markets.
Investment capital alone won’t be enough to move the field forward
Being an early mover in this space taught us early on that investment capital alone wouldn't be enough to build the field we need. That's why we earmarked up to 10% of our deployable capital towards a set of catalytic, field-level grants, alongside our core investment strategy. Our grant-making supports ecosystem-level initiatives and emerging innovations that align with our dual mission. Artha Networks is one example of this in practice. We provided support and catalytic funding to help establish the Invest Climate Gender digital platform for pipeline and investment in climate and gender funds, and co-hosted learning sessions with the broader field that attracted over 400 participants globally - amplifying the tools, concepts, and approaches the field needs to move faster. The platform now hosts more than 70 active funds, and is growing, with more than USD 300 million in raises currently underway.
Three pillars for gender-smart climate investing
So what does this actually look like in practice? Our investment strategy draws on frameworks across climate, gender, and social justice investing, anchored in three pillars. We invest in climate, nature, and biodiversity-first funds that direct the majority of their capital towards opportunities critical to a just and green transition. Our global investment portfolio of 18 private market climate and gender funds spans geographies, climate sectors, and investment stages, and is rooted in the belief that gender equity and climate resilience go hand in hand. Here are examples from our global portfolio, reflecting a broader opportunity: women are not only participants in the climate transition, but critical drivers of it.
As Heading for Change’s Advisory Council member and Sagana’s Founding Director Raya Papp shares, “Women are inventing climate solutions, leading climate businesses and adopting pro-climate products and practices. If left out, investors, and the planet, are missing a key accelerator of both profits and climate transition.”Putting capital to work and catalysing other allocators
Alongside our investments and catalytic grants, field building is core to our DNA. From the beginning, our goal has been not only to put capital to work, but to catalyse other allocators - surfacing emerging opportunities, identifying gaps, and sharing what we're learning.
That's the thinking behind our open-source Investment Toolkit & Guide, and behind our ongoing field-building work, which includes roundtables, convenings, and a growing set of resources and tools designed to strengthen the field's evidence base and advance best practices.
The Investment Toolkit brings together learnings from across our work and translates them into practical resources that investors, enterprises, fund managers and other ecosystem stakeholders can adapt. Covering the full investment journey, it includes guidance on strategy design, deal sourcing, diligence, and portfolio construction. It features portfolio examples, a detailed diligence case study, and practical steps to support investment decision-making.
The field is gaining momentum. The evidence is building, the tools are maturing, and more allocators are recognising that treating gender as a value driver, not a side project, can lead to stronger climate outcomes and stronger portfolios.
To explore these ideas further, I discuss the opportunities and challenges of investing at the intersection of climate and gender in a recent conversation on the Women Changing Finance podcast.
