IIED at London Climate Action Week 2025

London Climate Action Week 2025 logo As climate change plays an increasingly central role in global politics, trade, security and international finance, London Climate Action Week (LCAW) has become a key platform for shaping how the world responds – both politically and practically.

As co-lead of the LCAW theme “Financing inclusive and resilient climate transition”, IIED convened leaders and decision-makers to mobilise climate finance and drive systems reform – from urban resilience and sustainable food systems to conservation that respects women’s rights.

Working with our partners, we helped to inform discussions at this year’s event, which acted as a critical moment on the road to COP30 and the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, where decisions must shift power and resources to those most affected.

Key events

Monday, 23 June

Co-creating the climate resilient city: stories from the frontlines

Online event

Hosted by: IIED
With support from: Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA), Cities Alliance, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) (Kenya), Greater London Authority
Speakers included: Anna Walnycki (IIED, moderator), Michele Vianello (Greater London Authority), Julie Greenwalt (Cities Alliance), Joseph Muturi (SDI), Jessie Press-Williams (CCFLA)

This session brings together grassroots leaders, city authorities and funders to explore how cities can deliver climate action that is inclusive, just and locally rooted.

It will show how cities around the world are building resilience to climate impacts through locally-driven solutions, and feature real-world case studies from London and Nairobi – showcasing their experiences in community-led data collection, adaptation planning and local financing mechanisms.

Connections to climate finance, including through the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) will be explored – especially in the context of improving resilience in low-income urban communities, and Cities Alliance will share insights around financing local climate action in cities around the world.

Further reading: Slum upgrading is climate action | Cities are vulnerable to climate change and central to its solutions

Tuesday, 24 June

Women’s leadership in climate and conservation action needs greater financial support: voices from the Women in Global South Alliance, WiGSA

Venue: Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ
Hosted by: Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA)
With support from: IIED, CBD Women’s Caucus, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)

Speakers: Omaira Bolaños, RRI; Ruth Davis, UK Special Representative for Nature; Solange Bandiaky-Badji, RRI; Helen Tugendhat, Synchronicity Earth (moderator); WiGSA panelists: Devi Anggraini, Indonesia; Katia Penha, Brazil; Chouchouna Losale, DRC; Sara Omi, Panama; Namyak Sinandei, Tanzania; Sushmita Lama, Nepal

This event highlighted new findings on the lack of direct funding to women-led organisations, explored solutions such as community monitoring and community-generated and gender-disaggregated data, and called for a human rights-based approach to financing.

With the anticipated announcement of a second donor pledge at COP30 in November 2025, the session outlined tangible steps to ensure women’s tenure rights and leadership are integrated into global climate and biodiversity financing mechanisms while leveraging the UK government’s leadership in promoting inclusive, gender-responsive funding models.

Further reading: Reducing the data gap on the gender-climate-environment nexus | Gender equality and climate finance: from local realities to global commitments

Beyond raw exports: leveraging the energy transition for mineral value addition in producer countries

Webinar (via Zoom)

Hosted by: IIED
With support from: Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)

Speakers: Dr Alin Halimatussadiah, LPEM, Indonesia; David Sefa Adjai, NRGI; Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) speaker TBC; Lorenzo Cotula, IIED

This webinar explored how mineral-rich countries are developing policies to move beyond raw material exports and capturing greater domestic value through processing, refining and manufacturing, in light of rising global demand for transition minerals.

The session was structured around four focused inputs: two providing country case studies and two offering global perspectives. It explored the strategic rationale behind policy initiatives, the economic and policy conditions countries face, and the global dynamics that can impact room for country action. Addressing inequities in global value chains is crucial for sustainable development in low and middle-income countries, and to avoid mineral supply disruptions and support global cooperation on the climate crisis.

Watch a recording of the event

Further reading: Who will benefit from the Lobito Corridor revamp? | The Lobito Corridor: opportunities and challenges for a just transition | “Green developmentalism” and the role of international law in negotiating the energy transition

Just transitions in food, farming and fisheries: shining a light on labour and human rights in the shift to sustainable production and consumption

Workshop (invite-only, in-person)

Hosted by: IIED, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and BananaLink
With support from: SOAS

In response to the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, many industries and sectors are investing in alternative modes of production, including ‘regenerative' agriculture and aquaculture, and ‘nature-friendly farming’. But there is limited understanding of the consequences these transitions will have – and may already be having – on human rights and labour rights.

ETI, Banana Link and IIED, in collaboration with sectoral experts, companies, NGOs and trade unions, built on the evidence base needed to shape policy, practice and investment to ensure decent work in the transition to environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient futures.

This in-person workshop brought together experts and stakeholders from across food, environment and human rights sectors to catalyse engagement on just transitions in the food sector and begin to shape an action-oriented project on the human rights impacts of sustainable agri-food transitions.

Further reading: A just transition in agriculture: putting workers at the centre | What will green transitions mean for food producers and workers?

Wednesday, 25 June

Crisis as catalyst: rewiring food and climate action

Roundtable (invite-only, in-person session and networking reception)

Hosted by: Clim-Eat
With support from: IIED, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)

Transitioning food and agriculture to a 1.5°C-aligned pathway remains critically underfunded, despite the hidden costs of agrifood systems reaching approximately 10% of global GDP. As climate, funding and geopolitical crises converge, progress is not only stalling – it risks going in reverse.

The current institutional landscape, spanning international governance bodies, multilateral finance institutions, philanthropic actors and policy coalitions – has not kept pace with the urgency or complexity of the food-climate nexus. This roundtable facilitated by IIED’s Duncan Williamson asked: “How can we reform the global architecture to accelerate climate action in food systems – and recruit the next generation of ‘agents of change’ to lead the charge?”

Through provocative inputs and interactive discussions, participants unpacked the most urgent structural bottlenecks, share bold ideas for system redesign, and identify concrete opportunities to push for reform ahead of COP30.

Further reading: Sustainable food systems multi-stakeholder mechanisms: contributions to the environmental agenda

Women, sustainability and justice: a call for systemic change

Panel event

Venue: European School of Economics, MacLaren Hall, 11-13 Mandeville Place, London W1U 3AJ
Hosted by: National Alliance of Women's Organizations
With support from: IEF, G20 Interfaith Forum; European School of Economics; Justina Mutale Foundation; Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance; Climate Education Centre

Speakers include: Karen Wong Perez, IIED

This event featured two engaging panels on women's leadership in environmental justice and nature-based solutions, gender-responsive climate policy and legal reform, and the importance of trust, unity and moral leadership in climate governance.

Practicing locally led adaptation (LLA)

Workshop (invite-only, in-person)
Hosted by: IIED, FCDO and the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA)

While international negotiations fall short on climate finance, civil society and social movements are stepping up, driving locally led adaptation that puts people and communities first. Bilateral and philanthropic institutions must recognise their crucial role in supporting these efforts, advancing a locally-led approach to climate action that is in line with the Paris Agreement.

Driving more climate finance to the local level not only helps build climate resilience but also enables a greater process of democratisation and inclusion for local organisations by strengthening civil society and political participation. Women’s, feminist and socio-environmental funds play a specific role in facilitating funders to reach local feminist organisations by enabling funders to work through single mechanisms.

This workshop discussed practical approaches to operationalising LLA with focus on gender justice, social and disability inclusion, as well as showcasing examples from good intermediaries for practical implementation of LLA and sharing learning and evidence on how to channel support and resources to feminist movements as a key tool to advance locally-led adaptation.

Further reading: Shifting climate adaptation finance to local communities through effective intermediaries

Thursday, 26 June

'Paradigm shift' in financing climate action: Practical lessons from the LDC Initiative for effective adaptation and resilience

Online event

Speakers included: Clara Gallagher (moderator), LIFE-AR/IIED; Madeleine Diouf Sarr, Senegal Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development; Joseph Epitu, LIFE-AR Uganda; Eddah Lijoni Jere (LIFE-AR Malawi)

This dynamic virtual panel of convened experts and leaders explored how least developed countries (LDCs) are transforming adaptation finance and championing 'business-unusual' approaches to accessing and delivering climate finance behind community priorities.

Framed by the ambitious LDC 2050 Vision for climate resilience and the LIFE-AR initiative, the session focused on how principle-driven approaches to delivering climate finance works in practice.

LLA indicators: tracking implementation and accountability

Workshop (invite-only, in-person)
Hosted by: IIED

Climate finance is often guided by top-down accountability systems that prioritise interests to taxpayers and funders in the global North, not to climate-affected communities in the global South. To stay true to the principles of locally led adaptation and prioritise local needs, methodologies are necessary for mutual and downward accountability between funders and communities.

IIED along with partners, has been developing indicators to track progress in implementing the LLA principles with mutual and downward accountability. These provide a tool to assess how well each actor in the delivery chain of an adaptation interventions – including the providers (funders), intermediaries (who hold and reallocate funds), and recipients (who receive funds to implement adaptation actions) – operationalises the LLA principles.

This workshop delved into LLA markers and indicators that are actionable by donors and intermediaries. It built on feedback from an earlier regional workshop which brought together practitioners from South and South East Asia representing funders, intermediaries and CSOs. By bridging global with local perspectives, London and Kathmandu workshops aimed to foster a shared understanding and actionable strategies for implementing LLA principles.

The feedback will be used to prepare a toolkit document that outlines practical guidance on using the LLA markers and indicators.

Further reading: How to fix funding bottlenecks and pave the way for locally led adaptation

Friday, 27 June

London Climate Resilience Finance Summit 2025

Summit (In-person)

Hosted by: IIED
With support from: British International Investment; UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO); Howden Group; Quadrature Climate Foundation; Wellcome Trust; Zurich

Mobilising finance for climate resilience is now high on the international policy agenda, but key stakeholders from government, finance and delivery organisations rarely meet to discuss practical steps to drive this vital effort.

This one-day event brought together stakeholders across the resilience and finance ecosystems to discuss opportunities to unlock finance for climate resilience at all levels, from the local to global. IIED co-hosted the following 'challenge' sessions:

London Climate Action Week marked the halfway point between the climate COPs, and this summit was a key opportunity to discuss next steps and build collaboration across all sectors for delivering global solutions.

Further reading: Finance for climate adaptation in the most vulnerable places… Time for a major rethink?

Watch a playlist of livestream recordings of the plenary sessions