Building Bridges 2026 makes implementation the priority for sustainable finance

illuminem, as a leading platform for sustainability information & data, is proud to bring you exclusive coverage from key industry events. We are glad to partner with Building Bridges, the world’s premier forum for sustainable finance.

Building Bridges 2026 brought three days of dialogue, collaboration and deal-making to Geneva from 6 to 8 October, convening leaders from finance, business, government, international organisations, philanthropy and civil society around the theme “Investable Solutions to Global Challenges”.

Now in its seventh edition, the forum’s focus on the merits of sustainable finance has receded, and attention has turned to the harder question of how to deploy capital at the speed and scale required.

Thinking in decades

This year’s edition gave particular weight to the perspective of asset owners, alongside growing attention to leadership from Asia and investment opportunities across Africa.

Patrick Odier, Chairman of Building Bridges and the Lombard Odier Group, set out the case for collective action:

“Building Bridges was founded on the belief that no single institution can deliver the transition alone. This year’s discussions demonstrated growing convergence around the outcomes we seek, as well as a shared recognition that implementation is now the priority. The task ahead is to translate ambition into investment, policy and action.”

John Kerry, 68th US Secretary of State, used the closing High-Level Plenary to sound a note of urgency:

“We are not doing what we need to do to protect ourselves and next generations.”

He added that the goals under discussion remain within reach if leaders make wise decisions, and in some cases if they simply make decisions.

Other leading voices focused on turning that urgency into capital flows, among them Emmanuel Faber, Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board. Alongside him, Ma Jun of the Hong Kong Green Finance Association urged the community to concentrate on a defined set of financeable, scalable interventions in place of long lists of possible solutions. Hubert Danso, CEO of Africa investor (Ai), called for moving beyond individual transactions towards building integrated investment markets able to attract capital at scale. Francesco Starace, Partner at EQT and chair of the Science Based Targets initiative, encouraged participants to read the technological and economic trends driving the transition, so that capital can flow towards the infrastructure tomorrow’s economies will need.

Key announcements and launches

Across two BB Launchpad sessions, moderated by Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker of Responsible Investor, 13 new initiatives were unveiled:

• Adaptation Exchange unveiled a Climate Adaptation Tool Box combining a resilience assessment, a business case calculator and a catalogue of adaptation solutions.
• Allianz Global Investors shared progress on the Allianz Credit Emerging Markets Fund, a blended finance vehicle supporting the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.
• DPAM extended its Paris Performance Ranking to emerging market debt, assessing countries on mitigation, adaptation and climate finance.
• Earth Action, a.s.r. Asset Management and CDP launched a free methodology for measuring financed plastic pollution, applying the principles of financed emissions accounting to plastic-related risk.
• NatureAlpha launched AlphaX, a platform combining geospatial intelligence with nature, climate, geopolitical and operational risk analysis at the level of individual assets.
• Nature Bonds Initiative presented a new effort to mobilise capital for nature through scalable investment products.
• Oikocredit launched an agriculture module of its Client Self-Perception Survey, bringing smallholder farmers’ voices directly into impact measurement.
• Sustainable Finance Geneva introduced the Peace Finance Explorer, an AI-enabled platform helping investors integrate conflict sensitivity into their processes.
• The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance opened its 2027 Call for Ideas. Since 2015, Lab-supported initiatives have mobilised more than USD 5 billion.
• The Green Accelerator was introduced to prepare scalable, bankable green projects in developing countries, tackling the shortage of investable projects.
• The Swiss National Emergency Briefing was introduced to bring climate-risk awareness to Swiss decision-makers, with a film due in 2027 and Nest Sammelstiftung as its first supporter.
• The World Economic Forum presented Catalytic Blue Finance: Building the Financial Architecture for Scaling Ocean Investment.
• A sustainability-focused edition of the television interview series Rencontrons-nous was launched to bring sustainability stories to a wider audience.

Resilience and the next generation

Capital allocation dominated many conversations, but the forum also widened its lens to the systems that underpin economic stability. The High-Level Plenary “Insuring Critical Systems Under Stress: Keeping Food Flowing in an Ever Riskier Era” examined how proven solutions can be scaled through financing mechanisms, partnerships and risk-sharing tools.

Henry Dimbleby, author of England’s National Food Strategy, argued that food security, adaptation and resilience have become investment challenges in their own right. In his view, they require private capital alongside public and catalytic finance able to unlock projects that markets alone cannot fund in their early stages.

The forum also looked to the leaders of tomorrow. Through its Future Leaders Programme, Building Bridges brought 11 early-career professionals into a three-day track of mentoring, peer learning and cross-sector dialogue. They came from institutions including Lombard Odier, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UN Development Programme, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and WWF Switzerland.

The bridge ahead

As the forum closed, one message stood out: the debate over whether sustainability matters has given way to a debate over how quickly it can be delivered. Asset owners, policymakers and development actors are increasingly aligned on the outcomes they seek. The challenge now lies in translating that ambition into investment, policy and action at scale.

The world needs sustainability knowledge. At illuminem, no interest group or shareholder can influence our work. Thank you for supporting our mission to make high-quality and independent sustainability information free for all. Every contribution helps. Thank you for donating today.