Virtus: Adaptation Isn’t Optional – It’s Underfunded
Welcome to the April Virtus newsletter!
As spring brings a sense of renewal, April reminded us that progress in climate finance is anything but seasonal – it’s a constant push, full of complexity, innovation, and contradictions.
In Our Take, we unpack the urgent need for climate adaptation finance in developing nations and explores how international institutions can help close a widening equity gap.
On the podcast Untangling Climate Finance, Kelly Cain of the National Indian Carbon Coalition shares how tribes are leading in land stewardship, carbon markets, and climate finance to build sustainable, community-driven solutions.
In What We’re Absorbing, we’re digging into global carbon market shakeups, from a major European green bond to Bolivia’s billion-dollar forest deal. Each example challenges how we define credibility, scale, and justice in climate finance.
Finally, we round up April’s most interesting Climate Finance Deals – from sovereign-backed carbon innovations to major Multilateral Development Bank commitments across Central Asia.
Spring is a time for planting bold ideas. Let’s keep tending them.
All the best,
Gordian Knot Strategies
We are Igniting Climate Solutions: Mobilizing $1 Billion Per Year in Impact Investment by 2030!
By: Jay Tipton
Last week, while on a train from Madrid to Guadalajara for a quick day trip, I tuned into one of my favorite climate podcasts – Zero: The Climate Race, produced by Bloomberg. The episode, titled These ‘Beautiful’ Banks are Expected to Save Climate Finance, featured a compelling conversation between host Akshat Rathi and Avinash Persaud, the special advisor on climate risks to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank.
They discussed the staggering financial requirements that developing countries face. These are not just for the transition to clean energy, but also to build the climate-resilient infrastructure needed to withstand the impacts of a warming world. We’re talking trillions of dollars annually.
This naturally led to the question – where will that money come from?
Persaud argued for channeling more funding through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), which are institutions that already deliver hundreds of billions of dollars each year to the world’s poorest countries, with much of it earmarked for climate-related projects. But his call comes at a challenging time. The United States is scaling back its international climate finance commitments, and many European countries are diverting aid budgets toward defense in response to geopolitical tensions.
That conversation stuck with me as I strolled the lovely streets and parks of Guadalajara, and it sparked this month’s white paper.
As climate disasters grow more frequent and severe, adaptation has become not just a climate strategy but a development imperative. And yet, the countries most in need of support receive only a fraction of global climate finance. Currently, just 10–20% of total climate finance goes toward adaptation in developing nations, a figure far below the level required to build meaningful resilience.
This gap in funding is not simply a matter of insufficient resources. It reflects deeper systemic barriers such as complex funding mechanisms, data challenges, risk-averse markets, and governance issues that disproportionately disadvantage developing nations. If global leaders are serious about equitable climate action, then adaptation finance must be redesigned from the ground up, with a focus on accessibility, transparency, and long-term resilience.
This paper explores those barriers, the role of international financial institutions, and the emerging tools and policies that can help us close the gap between intention and impact.
To read the rest of this paper, click here.
Client Served in the United States:
Last year we were engaged for our Climate Solutions Strategy & Advisory Services to develop a comprehensive strategic implementation plan to advance natural climate solutions (NCS) for a leading foundation in the U.S. This involved conducting a landscape assessment on the state of play for NCS, developing a strategy map followed by a comprehensive strategic implementation plan to advance the three pillars of focus we landed on in collaboration with the client. The plan equipped the client to marshal resources, partnerships, and networks to advance its impactful work to support NCS in the U.S.
“Gordian Knot Strategies listens well. They know the carbon and impact investment space and brought much added expertise for us. They challenge us to think outside the box and use a well thought out process to tackle ideas. They are very well networked and those connections help to see spaces that we had not even considered.”
Alicia Cramer – Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities
🎙️ In this episode, Kelly Cain of the National Indian Carbon Coalition explores how tribes are leading in carbon markets and climate finance. He discusses the development of the Tribal Carbon and Co-Benefit Tool, Indigenous land stewardship, and how carbon projects are helping Native communities reclaim land and drive sustainable, community-led solutions.
Click any of the links below to listen!
Below is a curated selection of standout opportunities brought to you by GKS’s valued clients.
ReSeed: Agriculture Carbon Credits
ReSeed partners with smallholder farmers globally, helping to improve livelihoods, protect vital lands, and ensure ecosystem services are properly recognized and rewarded. Through these efforts, ReSeed generates agricultural carbon credits that drive sustainability. Click here to explore their projects.
Savory Foundation: Carbon Removal Credits – Uruguay Grasslands Regeneration Project
The Savory Foundation along with the Savory Institute, Pampa Oriental, and Cultivo are now offering nature-based carbon removal credits from their Uruguay Grasslands Regeneration Project. This groundbreaking project spans 140,000 hectares across 166 privately held properties, employing Savory’s Holistic Management framework to restore grasslands while supporting local communities and ecosystems.
The project, under Verra’s VM0032 Methodology for Sustainable Grasslands, anticipates an annual issuance of around 152,000 credits, beginning in 2026, and addresses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, 13: Climate Action, 15: Life of Land, and 17: Partnership for the Goals.
To learn more about this project and its impact, click here.
If you want to connect about the project, email us here.
This month, we’re absorbing sharp insights on climate overshoot, rethinking global finance, and making sense of carbon markets—fresh perspectives on the systems shaping climate action.
✍️ In – Overshoot: A Conceptual Review of Exceeding and Returning to Global Warming of 1.5°C – Reisinger et al. examine the increasingly likely scenario that global temperatures will temporarily surpass the 1.5°C threshold. The review explores the origins and implications of “overshoot” in climate science and policy, assesses the evolving risks of exceeding this target, and evaluates the feasibility of returning below it based on IPCC criteria. A sharp, systems-level look at one of the most urgent challenges in climate governance.
🎙️ We’ve been listening to the brand-new podcast from our colleagues in the climate finance space – Co₂ming Clean – hosted by Anna Lerner Nesbit (CEO, Climate Collective) and Adrian Wons (Founder & CEO, Senken). It’s a smart and approachable dive into carbon markets, climate transparency, and corporate action – perfect for both newcomers and veterans in sustainability.
🎙️We’re also tuning into a sharp episode of Zero: The Climate Race – These ‘Beautiful’ Banks are Expected to Save Climate Finance. Avinash Persaud, advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank, makes a compelling case for scaling up funding to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to help developing nations tackle the climate crisis. With global aid budgets under pressure, this conversation dives into the tough realities – and urgent potential – of climate finance.
Big money keeps moving in climate finance — but is it moving in the right direction? Below are some of the most compelling deals from April that are shaping the future of climate action and raising important questions along the way. Click the titles for the full story.
European Investment Bank Sets Example with €3 Billion EU Green Bond issuance
The EIB has issued the largest green bond to date under the new European Green Bond Standard, reinforcing its leadership in shaping sustainable finance. This €3 billion issuance signals a push for transparency, taxonomy alignment, and credibility in the evolving green bond market. As public and private issuers weigh compliance costs, the EIB’s move sets a strong precedent for mobilizing climate capital at scale – critical in a time when trust, clarity, and ambition in climate finance have never been more essential.
EU-Central Asia Summit: EIB Global Expands Strategic Investments in Sustainable Projects
At the EU-Central Asia Summit, EIB Global signed four new deals with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, unlocking up to €1 billion for sustainable transport, water systems, and climate resilience. These agreements, aligned with the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, deepen the region’s access to climate finance and mark a major step in expanding the EU’s green development footprint, especially through the EIB’s new regional presence and future engagement with Turkmenistan. A strategic blend of climate, infrastructure, and diplomacy.
JPMorgan AM Raises $1.5 Billion for Forest & Climate Solutions Fund
J.P. Morgan Asset Management, via its timberland arm Campbell Global, has closed $1.5 billion for its Forest & Climate Solutions Fund II. This exceed its $1B target and bringing total capital raised for the strategy to $2.3B. Blending timber production with carbon sequestration, the fund backs nature-based solutions while generating returns. But the move also highlights a tension: JPMorgan remains one of the world’s largest financiers of oil and gas, complicating its position in the climate finance space.
Is Bolivia’s $1.2 Billion Deal to Protect Its Forests a Climate Boon—or a False Solution?
Bolivia plans to sell $1.2 billion in “sovereign carbon securities” backed by forest preservation. This could potentially be the largest carbon credit sale ever under Paris Agreement rules. Structured like financial assets, the credits promise to fund emissions cuts and climate resilience, but critics warn of weak oversight, unverifiable benefits, and a risk of enabling greenwashing on a global scale. The deal reflects both the promise and peril of shifting climate finance power to governments, and raises urgent questions about accountability in emerging carbon markets.
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