The secret to unlocking climate impact
Gender-inclusive climate solutions are vital for resilience—but still overlooked by most climate funders.
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Across the globe women bear the brunt of climate change, from rising food insecurity to economic vulnerability to climate-related health risks. And yet they are also among the most effective changemakers, building practical, scalable solutions to protect their communities and the planet. Research shows that companies with women in leadership—on boards and in management—perform better on sustainability, invest more in climate innovation, and emit less CO2. In fact, one study found that companies with a female founder have performed 63% better than those with all-male founding teams. Despite this, climate finance largely ignores them: 99% of climate funding today is gender-unaware, and just 0.01% goes to initiatives that explicitly link gender and climate.
That’s not just an oversight. It’s a missed opportunity to the tune of $990 billion.
At Acumen, we’ve spent over two decades investing in early-stage enterprises that address poverty, energy access, and climate resilience across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Time and again, we’ve seen that when women lead and engage — as founders, board members, employees, and customers — businesses grow stronger, communities become more resilient, and climate impact deepens.
Here’s what we’ve learned about how to drive inclusive climate action and why it matters more than ever.
Investing in resilient supply chains
Climate change disrupts critical supply chains like food, health, and energy, especially in low-income communities that rely on them for jobs, income, and essential services. That’s why we’re using high-risk, catalytic capital to strengthen these vulnerable links in places commercial investors often won’t go, from smallholder farms to factories to clinics.
Take our investee S4S Technologies in India. Co-founded by chemist and climate advocate Nidhi Pant, S4S provides solar dryers that help women micro-entrepreneurs preserve fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. These women take surplus produce that S4S aggregates from smallholder farmers, dry it, and sell it to institutional buyers. The result? Farmers increase their income by 10 to 20% and the women using the dryers can earn up to five times more.
It’s a triple win: cutting food loss, reducing emissions, and creating economic opportunities for women across the value chain. This is what gender-smart, climate-smart innovation looks like.
Investing in green growth
As the world transitions to clean energy, there’s a real risk that the poorest and most vulnerable will be left behind, particularly in regions like sub-Saharan Africa where underemployment is high and supply chains remain extractive. But there’s also a powerful opportunity to shift that trajectory.
By investing in local manufacturing, assembly, and recycling, we can strengthen energy resilience, reduce emissions, and create quality jobs, especially for women. Sectors like renewables, waste management, and regenerative agriculture are growing, but the workforce isn’t keeping pace. Bridging this skills gap in a gender-responsive way is essential to building a just and inclusive green economy.
A standout example from our portfolio is BURN Manufacturing in East Africa. As one of the region’s leading producers of clean cookstoves, BURN has created more than 2,500 jobs, over half held by women. Their high-efficiency stoves cut fuel consumption, lower carbon emissions, improve household health, and reduce pressure on deforested ecosystems. By prioritizing the role that women can play as consumers, employees, and increasingly as leaders within the company, BURN has demonstrated the value that is created by climate-positive businesses that prioritize inclusion and local capacity.
Scaling what works
Acumen is committed to scaling this impact. We’re mobilizing $1 billion for the green economy by 2030, and over 85% of our current climate investments incorporate gender-inclusive strategies. Internally, we’ve trained more than 50 investment professionals in gender lens investing, piloted pre-investment programs for women-led agribusinesses, and developed tools to better measure inclusive business models.
Today, 73% of our global portfolio meets the 2X Challenge criteria for gender inclusion. In Africa, we’ve seen our investments in women-led businesses grow by 22%, our portfolio’s female board representation increase by 30%, and our female workforce grow by 16%.
These aren’t just numbers. They reflect a deliberate approach: We invest where impact is greatest and where opportunity is most often overlooked. These efforts show us where there are hurdles and barriers, and we work systematically to dismantle them.
We saw this firsthand at the recent African Women Climate Entrepreneurs Forum Acumen co-hosted in Nairobi. Entrepreneurs and investors from across the continent echoed the same message. Gender inclusion isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s essential to solving the climate crisis. Women are restoring ecosystems, innovating in energy, regenerating soil, and doing so with vision and grit. What they need is capital, technical support, and investor networks that recognize their value.
Four priorities for inclusive climate action
To accelerate inclusive climate action, we need to act boldly and with focus. Here are four priorities we believe the investment community must embrace:
1. Reframe the narrative
Gender equity isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a value driver. Gender-diverse teams outperform, and inclusive leadership leads to stronger, more resilient organizations. In a moment when some markets are pulling back on DEI, we must stay the course: If you care about financial performance and climate outcomes, bet on women and the business models that engage them.
2. Activate the full capital spectrum
Philanthropy alone can’t bridge the gap. We need blended finance, catalytic capital, and gender-smart investment across the risk-return spectrum. Women and next-gen wealth holders, in particular, are often leading the charge—aligning investment with impact.
3. Channel capital to those closest to the problem
Early-stage, locally led ventures—especially those founded by women—often have the deepest insights and most relevant solutions. These businesses need patient, flexible, and values-aligned capital, even if they don’t fit traditional venture capital models.
4. Share what we learn
Industry actors like 2X Global, Heading for Change, Value for Women, Criterion Institute are building collective platforms for climate and gender finance and helping us connect data, insights, and case studies. Building our bank of context specific examples (agriculture, infrastructure, energy etc.) helps us to not only invest better as funders, but offer demonstrations for existing solutions and what works.
A call to action
If we’re serious about tackling climate change and building a more resilient world, we need to start betting on women—simply because it’s smart strategy. Women are already leading the way—building enterprises that restore ecosystems, power communities, and sustainably feed growing populations, but their potential is being held back by a lack of capital and opportunity. Unlocking that potential isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s one of the fastest, most powerful ways to accelerate climate action and drive systemic change. We don’t have time to keep overlooking the leaders already doing the work.