During London Climate Action Week, one message stood out: the Global South doesn’t lack capacity—it lacks access to trust-based funding. It’s time to redefine risk, shift power, and invest directly in community-led climate solutions.
This article was originally published in on our LinkedIn.
By The Global South House
As London grappled with an intense heat wave during London Climate Action Week (LCAW), the debates on climate finance took on a symbolism that was hard to ignore. The extreme weather experienced by one of the Global North’s major capitals made even more evident a reality that communities in the Global South have faced for decades: the climate crisis is no longer a future threat, but a daily reality.
It was against this backdrop that one question ran through our event—“Pathways for Resourcing Community-Led Climate Solutions,” held on July 23”—if local, traditional, and Indigenous communities are on the front lines of ecosystem protection and climate resilience, why do they continue to receive only a fraction of the available resources?
The answer lies in the structure of the global financing system, in which the prevailing narrative is that it is necessary to build capacity in the Global South so that resources actually reach communities on the ground. The discussions held throughout LCAW demonstrated precisely the opposite. The Global South already possesses a robust, sophisticated, and proven infrastructure of socio-environmental financing mechanisms, organizations with operational excellence, and governance mechanisms capable of distributing resources efficiently, transparently, and with a deep understanding of local contexts.
The issue, therefore, is no longer one of capacity, but one of trust—which also requires us to revisit a concept that guides virtually all investment decisions: risk.
Traditionally, risk is measured by the possibility of financial loss. But this logic ignores the risk faced daily by those living in these territories: the loss of forests, rivers, ways of life, food security, and, in many cases, their very survival. When only the risk to capital is considered, financial flows end up reproducing historical inequalities and diverting resources away from precisely those who generate the greatest positive impacts on the climate.
Redefining risk means recognizing that financing mechanisms led by the Global South reduce uncertainty because they operate from a position of proximity. They know the territories, build long-term relationships, strengthen local organizations, and monitor the implementation of initiatives far beyond traditional impact indicators. This proximity transforms trust into operational capacity.
Another aspect that featured prominently in the discussions at our event was the need to broaden the perspective on which territories and populations receive international attention.
At the same time, gatherings such as those held during London Climate Action Week revealed another frequently underestimated asset: the intermediary role that builds relationships of trust between funders, local funds, and territorial leaders. It is in this space a dialogue in which experiences are exchanged, lessons are shared, and common agendas gain momentum to influence international negotiations.
This moment is particularly significant. As recognition grows that a just climate transition depends on the redistribution of power over resources, so too does the responsibility of governments, corporate and family philanthropy, development banks, and investors to review the financial architecture that their organizations perpetuate.
More than creating new mechanisms, the greatest challenge is recognizing those that already exist.
The Global South isn’t waiting to get started. It is already financing, implementing, monitoring, and transforming. The next step depends on a paradigm shift: less intermediation, less control based on mistrust, and more direct, flexible, agile, and long-term investment in organizations that know the territories because they are part of them.
In a context of increasingly frequent and intense climate events, funding those who are already protecting people and ecosystems is no longer just a matter of efficiency, but a prerequisite for climate justice to move beyond rhetoric and translate into action.
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