Accelerating Natural Climate Solutions: The Role of Accelerators in Building a Pipeline of Investment-ready NCS Projects

This panel brings together leading voices from incubators and accelerators that specialize in designing, launching and scaling market-based natural climate solution (NCS) projects. With a focus on unlocking early-stage innovation and investment, the session will explore how these platforms help de-risk and operationalize projects that deliver climate, biodiversity, and community outcomes. Panelists will share insights into their unique niches, the types of projects they support, and how they address critical gaps in the NCS market—such as access to seed funding, technical assistance, and investor-readiness. The discussion will also examine common challenges faced by project developers, how accelerators are positioned to help overcome them, and how to scale-up accelerators and reduce reliance on grant funding in order to increase impact.

Panelists:
Doug Hull – Senior Associate Director, Finance Earth
Lauren Steensma – Senior Associate, Terranomics
Claire Cockett – Nature-based Solutions Accelerator lead, WWF-UK
William Baldwin – Cantello – Director of Nature-based Solutions, WWF-UK
Christina Van Winkle – Forest Impact Accelerator lead, BirdLife International

Agenda
Overview: The evolving role of accelerators in the NCS ecosystem
Case studies from featured accelerators
Interactive panel discussion:
– Finance and technical support needs at different stages of NCS project development
– How investors and off-takers can engage early to shape investable pipelines
– Designing and running accelerator programmes to meet these needs
– Options to scale-up accelerators (including the role of repayable finance)
– Role of investors and off-takers in shaping project development through early engagement Live audience Q&A

Who Should Attend:
Impact investors, carbon credit off-takers, grant funders, NBS project developers, and other accelerators/incubators.