Draft:World Climate Foundation

The World Climate Foundation (WCF) is an international not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 2010 by Danish entrepreneur, Jens Nielsen.

The WCF works with governments, businesses and financial institutions to "address climate, biodiversity, and resilience challenges by fostering public-private partnerships in climate, biodiversity and health, aligned with the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals".

Its stated mission is to "catalyse the economic transition to a sustainable future by promoting cross-sector collaboration, innovative partnerships and investments in climate and nature-based solutions."

The Foundation receives most of its funding from annual partnerships with businesses and the financial sector, with the remainder coming from a portfolio of assignment and project work funded by governments and philanthropic partners. It is governed by the Danish Foundation Act.

WCF is a member of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action and an NGO observer to the UNFCCC, UNCBD, and IRENA.

History
The WCF was founded in 2010 by Jens Nielsen, in response to the failure of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit. The summit included the 15th session of the Conference of the parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The resulting Copenhagen Accord did not contain any legally binding commitments for reducing CO2 emissions.

Nielsen was frustrated that business and finance were not sufficiently represented in COP discussions at the time, with only governments and NGOs granted a seat at the table. He argued that progress in climate change mitigation would be driven by market competition.

The WCF held its first World Climate Summit as a side event to COP16 in Cancun, Mexico in 2010. The inaugural summit convened leaders across the public and private sectors.

World Climate Summit became an annual event alongside COP, and the WCF now holds multiple summits throughout the year focused on climate, climate finance and biodiversity.

Notable achievements
Outside of its annual series of summits, the WCF creates networks and coalitions aimed at funding the transition to a green economy.

The Climate Investment Coalition (CIC) comprises Nordic and UK pension funds that pledged at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland to commit $130 billion in clean energy and climate investments by 2030. This commitment is an ongoing project, with the pension funds reporting their progress and best practices annually.

The WCF is also the Secretariat of the Investment Mobilisation Collaboration Arrangement (IMCA), as part of a partnership with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IMCA is a blended finance collaboration to mobilise billions of dollars in developing countries and emerging markets, launched in 2023 by Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and the United States.