Project Frame launches interactive platform to encourage transparency in climate investing
Project Frame (Frame), a program convened by nonprofit and catalytic capital investor Prime Coalition, is launching a new interactive platform that invites investors to lift the curtain on their emission impact assessment strategies, promoting greater accountability in climate investing.
There are currently no industry-wide standards or regulations that dictate forward-looking emissions impact assessment and reporting, despite an increasing number of financial institutions making net zero claims, which opens the door to greenwashing and can lead to funding damaging technologies.
Frame aims to center emissions impact assessment in investment decision-making so that we may collectively drive capital toward the best possible climate solutions that support a livable planet.
Frame’s platform allows investors, entrepreneurs, and others to improve their practices by understanding how those with similar impact goals approach emissions assessment and reporting, including what factors are considered pre-investment, beyond GHGs.
New case studies, released alongside the interactive platform, further demonstrate the necessity for common approaches to forward-looking emissions impact. They highlight the importance of accountability and transparency by clearly articulating challenges faced by impact analysts alongside practical steps to help others apply the framework.
Project Frame (Frame), a program convened by nonprofit and catalytic capital investor Prime Coalition, is launching an interactive platform to bring accountability to climate investing by encouraging transparency around emissions impact assessment strategies. This platform, coupled with Frame’s first batch of detailed case studies inspired by real investments, invites investors, entrepreneurs, and others to think critically about the climate solutions they support and how they can better identify which technologies have the potential to support a livable planet for all.
While the IEA projects that global spending on clean energy technologies and infrastructure will hit US$2 trillion in 2024, there are currently no industry-wide standards and regulations for emissions impact assessment and reporting for those investing in climate. As a result, investors use approaches unique to their firms to assess the emissions impact of their investments. This opacity begs the question: “How do investors actually assess the emissions impact potential of their investments?” This becomes all the more pressing as financial institutions worldwide make net zero commitments to address the urgency of the climate crisis. The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) currently hosts more than 675 member firms, including banks, asset managers, and investment consultants, who have committed to support the transition to net zero by 2050. Without transparency in emissions impact assessment and reporting, the potential for greenwashing by overstating one’s climate impact becomes increasingly real.
Frame’s Investor Profile series, first launched in 2022, is designed around the principle that decisions that drive toward impact are what matter; by inviting investors to showcase their impact assessment strategy, they are encouraged to reflect on the choices they make to steer capital towards climate solutions that can reduce global GHG emissions over time. Frame’s new platform reinforces this objective by further standardizing Profiles to highlight decision-making factors. It allows users to filter entries and zero in on similarities and differences between investors, answering the question: “How do fund characteristics affect assessment and reporting?” Investors who complete Profiles also use the exercise as a framework to thoughtfully consider their impact assessment strategy, noticing where gaps exist while signaling their commitment to transparent and accountable climate investing.
Frame increases opportunities for learning with the release of detailed forward-looking emissions impact assessment case studies. The case studies, the first selection inspired by real investments, document how approaches to future emissions impact assessment may vary depending on factors such as the climate solution’s development stage, the firm’s emissions targets, or the sector, underscoring the need for shared best practices. Together with Investor Profiles, Frame’s case studies showcase emissions impact assessment in practice while highlighting the importance of accountability and transparency by clearly articulating challenges faced by impact analysts.
Keri Browder, Director of Project Frame and Impact Accountability at Prime Coalition said: “The urgency of the climate crisis requires us to direct capital to climate solutions that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly, but doing so without thoughtfully considering the realistic impact potential of new climate solutions can be harmful and misleading. We at Project Frame are proud to encourage conversations around emissions impact assessment, working towards our goal of increasing accountability and transparency in investing.”
Antoine Pradayrol, Chief Investment Officer at Green Angel Ventures, an early-stage climate investment firm focused on carbon reduction and removal technologies said: "As a long standing specialist investor in early stage companies fighting climate change, we highly value the very existence of Project Frame as well as the team’s unwavering efforts to bring clarity and consistency to carbon impact measurements. And what better way to do it than to work collaboratively with other equally motivated investors in the space, each bringing their own perspective to the project?"
Chloe Coates, Research & Analysis Lead with Zero Carbon Capital, a venture capital fund that supports early-stage companies with high emissions reduction potential said: “Zero Carbon Capital is a proud member of the Project Frame community. Forward-looking emissions impact assessment is a critical part of our investment process; we want to allocate capital to the most impactful technologies for decarbonisation. Project Frame's methodology is extremely useful as guidance and the investor profiles show how it is applied in practice by leading climate investors. We hope this can drive more capital towards decarbonisation technologies, help investors determine meaningful future impact, and help LPs select the funds that do just that.”
About Project Frame
Project Frame is a nonprofit program, convened by Prime Coalition, purpose-built to organize investors around forward-looking emissions impact methodology and reporting best practices.Its mission is to mitigate climate change by demystifying climate investing and improving IMM to drive capital towards the best possible climate solutions while galvanizing a network around transparency, accountability and collaboration. As of May 2024, the Project Frame community is over 900 members strong, including 345 investment firms, representing $670.1B in venture and private equity assets under management.
For more information, visit projectframe.how or email impact@primecoalition.org.
About Prime Coalition
Prime Coalition is a non-profit organization on a mission to unlock catalytic capital and change the future of climate finance. Since 2015, Prime has mobilized over $315MM in catalytic capital with 247 partners to back 38 early-stage ventures. Through its steering capital strategy, including Prime Impact Fund, Azolla Ventures and Trellis Climate, Prime builds and implements impact-first investing teams toward acute gaps in climate finance that commercial capital cannot fill. With its influencing capital strategy, Prime offers a range of field-building resources, including Project Frame, the open-source CRANE tool, and the Catalytic Capital Intermediation Resources Library. For more information, visit: www.primecoalition.org or email: press@primecoalition.org.
