Hamburg Sustainability Platform Closing in on a breakthrough to mobilize sustainable private investment in emerging markets and developing economies
Copyright© Christoph Söder / photothek.net
Members of the Hamburg Sustainability Platform (HSP) at the signing of a joint declaration of intent at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2025
Just a few months after its launch, the Hamburg Sustainability Platform (HSP), an initiative of public and private institutions is laying the foundation for truly scaling private investment for sustainable development in emerging markets and developing countries. The initiative now includes Germany, Canada, Denmark, France, the UK, South Africa, the KfW Development Bank, and the private institutional investors Allianz, AXA SA, CDPQ, and Zurich Insurance Group.
Signing a joint declaration of intent at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2025, the HSP reaffirmed their joint commitment to remove structural obstacles that so far stood in the way of mobilizing large-scale investments. Unique in being a joint effort between several public and private institutions, the initiative sends a strong signal towards better coordination. As such, the initiative rebranded itself and will now be operating under the name “SCALED” – Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development.
But there is more: SCALED is putting standardization into practice by preparing the launch of a company dedicated to mobilizing private capital for sustainable development projects more easily, quickly, and efficiently. The new company is expected to commence operations at the end of 2025 and immediately begin to work on investment vehicles, for example to support projects with sustainable impact such as solar farms or entrepreneurship support.
As a service provider for the whole market, the company aims at bringing together investors with common interests, set up standardized financial vehicles, such as funds, and find suitable international and local asset managers to implement the investments. Private and public investors can use these vehicles to make their investments in a straightforward manner according to a recurring pattern. As such, the company is foreseen to significantly contribute to closing the existing financing gaps in emerging markets and developing countries.
Depending on funding commitments from public and private sources, the company could facilitate several billion US dollars of private investments in various sectors and regions over the next years to achieve sustainable impact.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, and the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, support SCALED as knowledge partners. SCALED‘s Secretariat is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.