Climate investment plans have become a central tool for mobilising climate finance. But after years of plans, strategies and investment frameworks, one question remains: do they actually get finance flowing and action happening? Rabia’s video series examines how climate investment plans have evolved, whether they have succeeded in mobilising finance, and what lessons can shape the future of climate action, through candid conversations with practitioners and policymakers in the space. Led by Dr Chantal Naidoo and Patrick Lehmann, the series examines what has worked, what has not, and what lessons can shape the future of climate finance.
Episode 1: Penny Herbst — Do climate investment plans actually mobilise finance?
Climate investment plans are often treated as the key to unlocking finance. But do plans alone actually mobilise investment?
In this first episode, Penny Winton draws on decades of experience in climate and development finance to unpack why increasingly complex transition plans do not automatically translate into implementation, resource mobilisation or meaningful developmental outcomes. The conversation explores why plans do not necessarily lead to finance flows, how externally driven planning processes can weaken country ownership, and why revenue models and socio-economic priorities remain critical missing pieces.
At the heart of the conversation is a fundamental question: “Does climate investment planning lead to resource mobilisation? Not always.”
Episode 2: Prof. Runa Sarkar — What if national transition plans aren’t really national?
Runa Sarkar explores how global supply chains, international finance and economic dependencies shape national climate transitions. The conversation looks at the challenges of implementation, the importance of local voices, the limits of blended finance and carbon markets, and why public finance remains central to climate action.
The key takeaway: Climate transition is not just a national challenge, it’s a global coordination problem.
Episode 3: Eduardo Freitas — Why do climate investment plans often struggle to translate ambition into actual finance?
Part 1
Part 2
Eduardo Freitas draws on more than two decades of experience in climate finance, including nearly ten years at the Green Climate Fund, to examine the gap between planning, implementation and finance at scale.
The conversation explores the importance of bankable pipelines, institutional capacity, country platforms and meaningful risk mitigation to unlock private finance.
The key takeaway: Climate investment plans are necessary but insufficient on their own.
Episode 4: Maria Netto — What does it take to turn climate plans into investment?
Maria Netto draws on her experience across multilateral development banks and climate institutions to explore why climate investment plans do not always translate into investment at scale.
The conversation looks at why climate finance must be connected to broader development planning, why reallocating existing capital matters, and what is needed to create bankable projects and attract private investment.
The key takeaway: Plans alone are not enough. Implementation requires the right institutions, policies, incentives and financial ecosystem.
Episode 5: Dr Olumide Abimbola — Can climate investment planning drive African industrialisation?
Olumide Abimbola explores why climate investment plans need to be embedded within broader industrialisation and economic transformation strategies.
The conversation examines the role of domestic priorities, institutional capacity, fiscal space, markets and geopolitics in shaping investment decisions and challenges the idea that plans should primarily be designed to attract external finance.
The key takeaway: Climate planning must be part of a broader strategy for structural transformation and African industrialisation.
Episode 6: Dr Chantal Naidoo — What’s missing between climate plans and finance?
Part 1
Part 2
Dr Chantal Naidoo explores why the challenge is not a lack of ambition, but a lack of alignment. Climate, development, finance and implementation often remain disconnected, while financial systems continue to favour individual, bankable projects over the interconnected investments needed for systemic transition.
The conversation also introduces the “dignity of finance”, examining deeper questions around power, ownership and how finance is structured and delivered.
The key takeaway: “Does climate investment planning lead to resource mobilisation? Not always.”
Episode 7: Prof. Fadhel Kaboub — Can Africa industrialise without Pan-African cooperation?
In the final episode, Prof Fadhel Kaboub examines the structural challenges facing African economies in mobilising climate finance and implementing transition plans.
He argues that Pan-African cooperation and coordinated industrial policies are essential for industrialisation at scale and for unlocking Africa’s economic potential.
The key takeaway: National transition plans alone cannot unlock Africa’s full potential. Industrialisation at scale requires coordinated Pan-African economic transformation.