Selecting projects with catalytic potential

The Climate Transformation Fund supports projects with the potential to deliver significant long-term climate impact, particularly where targeted funding can help overcome barriers that prevent solutions from scaling.

The 2026 open call attracted 239 applications across the Nature Protection and Restoration and Decarbonization pillars. Following two assessment rounds, 12 organizations were shortlisted and evaluated together with the CTF Advisory Group, considering their potential climate impact, additionality, feasibility, catalytic potential and ability to deliver benefits beyond the immediate grant period.

The two selected projects reflect a shared approach: rather than funding individual interventions alone, they aim to address structural barriers that limit investment and deployment at a larger scale.

The two new projects

Blue Catalyst Fund, Fair Carbon and Finance Earth (USD 185,000), Nature Protection and Restoration pillar. Unlocking early-stage finance for mangrove conservation and restoration.

Mangroves play an important role in climate mitigation, biodiversity protection and coastal resilience. Yet promising mangrove conservation and restoration projects often struggle to secure funding for the early development work needed before larger investments become possible.

The Blue Catalyst Fund, developed by Fair Carbon and Finance Earth with specialist technical partners, aims to address this financing gap. It provides milestone-based funding through unsecured contingent loans, combined with technical expertise and financial advisory support, to help early-stage mangrove projects become investment-ready.

CTF funding of USD 185,000 will support pre-feasibility work for two mangrove projects, including the assessments and project development activities needed to attract longer-term finance.

The model also aims to make philanthropic funding go further. When supported projects secure investment, recovered funds can be recycled into new projects, potentially allowing the same capital to support multiple conservation and restoration initiatives over time.

If successful, the Blue Catalyst Fund could help build a stronger pipeline of high-quality mangrove projects and unlock larger flows of private finance for coastal ecosystem protection and restoration.

Confederation of Indian Industry (USD 200,000), Decarbonization pillar. Building demand for low-carbon cement in India.

India's growing construction sector presents both a major decarbonization challenge and an opportunity to accelerate the adoption of lower-carbon building materials.

Although several low-carbon cement solutions are already technically proven, their wider deployment faces significant barriers. Fragmented demand, inconsistent procurement requirements and limited coordination between producers, buyers and policymakers make it difficult for the market to scale.

With a USD 200,000 grant from the CTF, the Confederation of Indian Industry through its Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre will establish a Low-Carbon Cement Coalition.

The coalition will bring together cement manufacturers, developers, contractors, government agencies and industry bodies to develop common procurement frameworks, product carbon benchmarks, demonstration projects and policy recommendations.

By creating more coordinated demand and improving market confidence, the initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of low-carbon cement across India's construction sector.

Rather than supporting individual production facilities, the project focuses on changing the market conditions that determine whether low-carbon cement can be deployed at scale.

What happens next

Both projects are at an early stage, and their longer-term climate impacts will depend on successful implementation and wider market uptake.

The CTF will follow their progress, assessing whether the Blue Catalyst Fund can help promising mangrove projects attract investment and whether the Low-Carbon Cement Coalition can translate industry collaboration into stronger demand for low-carbon construction materials.

These projects reflect an important principle behind the Climate Transformation Fund: targeted funding can have an impact well beyond the activities it directly finances when it helps remove barriers that hold back wider climate action.

Milkywire's Climate Transformation Fund brings together companies to fund catalytic climate solutions for global net zero across durable carbon removal, decarbonization and nature protection and restoration. The fund is supported by over 20 companies including Klarna, Spotify, Bolt, BioGaia, Mentimeter, Northzone, Planet A, Atomico and Future Energy Ventures. Many of these companies use an internal carbon fee to generate dedicated funding for climate action beyond their own value chains.

Fund the next round

If your company or foundation wants to help fund high-impact nature protection, restoration and decarbonization initiatives, either through the Climate Transformation Fund or through direct support, we would love to talk: climate@milkywire.com 

And if you are an organization working on solutions that could benefit from catalytic climate funding, sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this page to be notified when our next call for proposals opens.

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About Milkywire: Milkywire is an impact firm with eight years of experience helping companies take action for climate and nature, creating ambitious climate strategies and channeling funding to durable carbon removal and other critical solutions that global climate targets depend on. 

Milkywire has facilitated purchases of more than $12 million of durable carbon removal across 45+ projects in more than 20 countries, and is a top-three global carbon removal buyer by project diversity. 

About WRLD Foundation: WRLD Foundation is a US 501(c)(3) public charity and the Climate Transformation Fund's granting partner, receiving donor contributions and administering the legal agreements, disbursement, and oversight for every grant. (European donors can alternatively give through WRLD Foundation Sweden, a separate, independently governed nonprofit.) WRLD Foundation funds catalytic, community-led environmental solutions with complete transparency, turning donor generosity into verified impact across climate, water, and ecosystems.