The Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is one of the founding strategic partners of a new private markets investment business set up by Generation Investment Management to help tackle climate change.

Just Climate, as the new business has been called, will take significant minority stakes in private companies and projects that have the potential to deeply decarbonise the economy but are not yet fully served by traditional investment mandates.

The investment manager has said it intends to invest globally in “catalytic climate solutions” across energy, transport, industry and buildings as well as natural climate solutions, food, agriculture and oceans.

Former US vice president and Generation Investment Management Chairman Al Gore will chair Just Climate’s climate impact advisory group while David Blood, senior partner of Generation, will be chairman.

Shaun Kingsbury CBE, formerly CEO of UK Green Investment Bank, has joined Just Climate as CIO.

Alongside Generation and ISIF, the new company is backed by a consortium of founding strategic partners including Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Harvard Management Company, Imprint Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Hall Capital Partners and its clients.

“While significant capital is flowing into climate solutions today, it is not enough nor is it flowing to all of those places that it needs to be,” said Generation’s Blood.

“Just Climate has been founded to do the hard yards of addressing the most difficult to decarbonise segments of the global economy that investors have ignored until now. We believe our investments will have the potential to unlock these transition opportunities and mobilise further capital flows from the rest of the market.”

At ISIF, head of climate Paul Saunders said the Just Climate platform was “a major step forward in sustainable investing and increasing the capital available to target high-impact areas in the shift to a low-carbon economy”.

“As Ireland’s sovereign development fund with a significant ambition to address the climate challenge and a mandate that aligns with this platform, we are proud to be a part of it.”

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