CLIMA CAPITAL PARTNERS
WE CREATE CLIMATE FINANCE SOLUTIONS
TO HELP CLIENTS THRIVE IN AN
EVER-CHANGING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
WHAT WE DO
We advise, and create economic value for the local economies of our partners through robust climate finance solutions, managing risks, and mitigating climate risks. We believe that value comes from thinking sustainably, leveraging local knowledge, and bringing new technologies to create a lasting impact on communities.
We understand climate change, technology, markets, finance, and collaboration. We utilize this knowledge to provide technical assistance and practical implementation for the following:
We structure investment funds, financing facilities, and project financing.
We assess and evaluate markets, and their risks, and develop tailored strategies for those markets.
We help provide access to public financing and provide sectoral-focused pragmatic solutions.
GLOBAL THEMES
We operate across various markets offering a diverse array of capabilities, all focused on improving how public and private sector players collaborate on climate issues, and investment opportunities.
INDUSTRIES
We work across of variety of industries and provide a wide range of expertise to complement specific sector needs. These are the pillars of our work, and where we provide the most value for our clients.
Renewable Energy
Solar, Wind, Biomass, Geothermal
Resource Efficiency
Green Buildings, Resource Efficiency, Retrofitting, Innovative Technologies
Waste Management
Agri-Waste, Food-Waste, E-Waste, Residential, Water Treatment
Supply Chain Risk Adaptation
Resource Maximization, Optimization, Insurance
Clean-Tech Applications
Technology Investment, Blended Solutions, Supply-Chain Optimization
Forestry
Sustainable Management, Investment, Resilience
TEAM
We leverage decades of investment experience in business and project development with a clear focus on climate. Our team is uniquely focused on collaboration and learning, creating opportunities and synergies to address the complex challenges our clients face in emerging markets.
Joumana Asso Founder, Managing Director
Ms. Asso has over 23 years of investment and advisory experience in emerging markets, including 11 years executing project and corporate finance deals in heavy industry and impact investing in clean technology start-ups (Private Equity and VC investments) at the International Finance Corporation, and nine years managing investment funds in climate-related assets, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean technology, forestry, and climate adaptation at the World Bank, the Climate Investment Funds, and in the private sector.
Prior to founding Clima Capital Partners, Ms. Asso contributed to setting up the private sector function, and managed the overall private sector portfolio and mandate of the Climate Investment Funds. She also coordinated and managed activities of the Clean Technology Fund’s operations in 2009-2011. In this capacity, Ms. Asso structured blended finance vehicles and solutions targeting various industries and segments of the market, tailored to the risk profile associated with each of segment.
Joumana has served as a Senior Advisor to the Green Climate Fund’s Private Sector Facility in 2016-2018, where she advised its Board and formulated innovative strategic approaches to further mobilization of private investment in mitigation and adaptation, using wholesales approaches with consideration to the risk profile of countries’ sectoral portfolios.
She is a climate finance expert with in-depth knowledge and experience in greening the financial sector and structuring climate finance lending programs, using blended finance structures and integrating risk management tools. She has led development of national climate finance strategies and NDC investment plans in Africa and the Middle East using unique financing approaches, mechanisms, and structuring anchored in the sectoral context and specificities of countries.
Joumana holds an MBA from HEC and a DESS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montreal. She has executed investment transactions and climate finance advisory across the globe, including China, India, the Balkans, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Western Europe and North America. She speaks French, English, and Arabic.
Hiro Tsubota Partner
Hiro has over 32 years of investment and advisory experience, including 24 years at the World Bank and eight years in investment banking in Europe and Japan. Expert in banking, structured finance, derivatives, and debt management, with a portfolio of projects, spread globally in Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Prior to joining Clima Capital Partners, he managed a broad range of financial sector development and public finance management projects. He was a lead expert on capital market development, and managed and contributed to developing diagnostic frameworks, such as the G20 Local Currency Bond Market Diagnostic Framework (2013). He also played a corporate role in numerous initiatives at the World Bank on financial innovations, including climate finance products such as green bonds.
In the sustainable finance area, he played a key corporate role at the World Bank to establish a framework for finance for development, focusing on how debt finance can be deployed in a sustainable manner as well as how scarce public sector resources could be best deployed and help leverage private-sector investments. He also led the preparation of internal background papers to determine the Bank’s position on climate finance instruments, such as green bonds, sustainability bonds, debt-for-nature swaps, and various forms of guarantees. At the country level, he advised governments on the deployment of these instruments. Since joining Clima Capital Partners earlier at the beginning of this year, he also provided technical leadership and quality assurance in completing the FSD Africa project on Green Bonds in the SADC Region, NDC-related work, and led multiple engagements in green banking in middle-income countries.
Prior to joining the World Bank, Hiro was an investment banker advising governments, including subnational governments in Germany and Japan on bond issuance and financial risk management.
He holds an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, graduated in economics from Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, and studied economics at the University of Economics, Vienna, Austria. He is fluent in English, German, and Japanese, and has a working knowledge of French.
Fady M. Zeidan Advisory Board Member
Mr Fady M. Zeidan has over 30-year track record in international finance and development and most recently in global health and financing.
He is the former General Counsel and Head of Legal and Governance at the Global Fund (Geneva) and the former Deputy General Counsel at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank Group. At the IFC, Mr Zeidan has led a large team of lawyers that spanned Washington DC, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America to support investment and advisory operations, in structuring and drafting legal agreements in project finance, corporate finance, and for setting up funds and asset management vehicles.
Mr Zeidan has also led corporate initiatives to develop innovative approaches including in blended climate structuring and to mobilize private and public resources to increase the IFC’s capital and institutional impact in its client countries.
He previously worked at the International Monetary Fund and was also in private practice in Beirut, Paris and New York. He holds degrees from Harvard Law School, Université de Droit, d'Économie et des Sciences Sociales de Paris II, and Université Saint Joseph in Beirut. He is fluent in French, English, Arabic and has working knowledge of Spanish.
Lawrence Mcgrath Advisory Board Member
Lawrence has over 20 years of private equity experience in middle-market buyouts, primarily in infrastructure and clean energy projects, either through direct investments and co-investments, or by establishing a consortium of well-aligned investors.
Lawrence has acquired and developed green infrastructure projects in Central and Western Europe. He also has extensive experience with Western European companies in developing investments for transportation and power generation, solar, wind, and run-of-river hydro projects.
Lawrence’s career began with the acquisitions of state-owned electric distribution and power companies in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia during the 1990s. As a result, he is familiar with contracted power generation projects and regulated utilities.
Responsibilities included origination, shareholder agreement negotiations, deal structuring, due diligence, financial analysis, strategic sales, and fund management; member of the investment committee and board representative for the companies acquired under his leadership.
Subrata Mitra Advisory Board Member
Subrata has over 20 years of experience in multi-asset portfolio management, traded securities (stock, bonds, and commodities), derivatives, private credits, private equity/alternative investments, and PE fund management. He has extensive transaction experience in a range of industries in several Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Subrata worked for major multilateral and multinational organizations that include International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank, Royal Dutch/Shell, and Global Investment House – Kuwait; closed/managed investment of over US$1 billion, and managed a US$500 million private equity fund listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (led the launching and listing of the fund). Currently, Subrata works for one of the largest family offices in Oman.
Subrata’s sector expertise includes pharmaceuticals, biotech, photovoltaics, information technology, electronics, hospitality, cement, automobile and auto-component, steel, packaging, paper, fiberglass, education, banking, trade finance, leasing, housing finance, consumer finance, development finance, and impact investments. He held many senior management positions. Subrata has been a board member of several listed and unlisted companies in both the financial and manufacturing sectors. He has a master’s in Risk Management from the NYU Stern School of Business, an MBA in Finance from the IBA/Dhaka University, and a Master’s in Accounting (with Honors) from the Dhaka University.
Younès Molato Senior Advisor
Younès has 17 years of investment banking experience in Europe, North and West Africa, including more than 10 years originating and executing corporate finance transactions with a focus on energy infrastructure, consumer, and healthcare (over €20 billion in total value). He was based in France, Spain, and now Morocco.
Before joining MCF, a regional corporate finance and investment advisory firm, to lead its activities in Morocco and West Africa, Younès established and developed BNP Paribas’ Corporate and Institutional Banking Corporate franchise in North and West Africa through a regional office based in Morocco. Collaborating with top management and board members, he advised the bank’s key corporate clients in the region, managing €20 billion in equivalent credit facilities for investment and flow banking transactions.
Younes has advised on structuring transactions using debt, guarantees, equity, quasi-equity/mezzanine in renewable energy, and a range of infrastructure projects. His in-depth knowledge of the banking sector and financial instruments provide insights into a full range of structuring techniques that can be used to de-risk investments and mobilize funding in key climate-related areas that otherwise are underserved by mainstream banking products.
Younès holds a master’s degree from ESSEC Business School – Paris, a bachelor’s from ISCAE Business School, and attended sustainability certification programs from Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Tsinghua University. Younès speaks French, English, Arabic, and Spanish.
Benoit Martimort Senior Advisor
Benoit has over 25 years of experience working on science-policy interfaces for research organizations and think tanks in Canada and France to promote the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.
He accompanies public and private institutions through coaching, training, facilitation, and consulting on strategic changes and positioning to increase their impact and improve the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their visions, actions, and operations. Since 2019, Benoit is the international affairs advisor for the United Nations Science-Policy-Business Forum for the Environment.
Benoit has led the communication, outreach, and the development policy function at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris. He also created and directed the International Affairs Department of the Institute for Development Research (IDR) in Marseille, where he positioned French and African scientific and research teams in major international environmental negotiations (climate change, desertification, biodiversity, human settlement) and multilateral funds, including climate funds.
Prior to that, Benoit managed numerous projects at the Observatoire de l’écopolitique (Canada), where he supported Francophone countries in the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.
He taught international governance of sustainable development at Sciences Po (Paris), Agroparitech, and IAMM, and in Canada at the University of UQAM. He was an advisor to Laurence Tubiana, director of the Sustainable Development Chair at Sciences Po, between 2010 and 2017.
Benoit holds a Master in Engineering Science (Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, France), a graduate degree in Environment and Prevention (University of Montreal, Canada), a master’s degree in Environmental Science (UQAM, Canada) and had completed the academic part of political science Ph.D. program at UQAM. He is also a certified coach and facilitator in collective intelligence. He is trained in NLP and non-violent communication. He is fluent in English and French.
Andrea Bacher Senior Climate Investment Funds and Strategy Expert
Trained in economics, sustainability management, law, and communication, Andrea has over 15 years of experience in international projects development and management, corporate strategy, public policy, stakeholder engagement, partnerships, and capacity building with a focus on climate change, energy, corporate sustainability management, sustainable green and blue economy finance, circular economy, and gender.
She has worked with international organizations and the private sector, including the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations, the World Bank, the German Development Agency (GIZ), and private companies and sector associations worldwide.
Andrea also led and coordinated the global private sector for multiple major UN conferences, such as the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015 (COP21) and the UN Summits on Sustainable Development (2012, 2015). Andrea has served as the global focal point for the private sector to the United Nations Climate Negotiations (UNFCCC, 7 years), as private sector observer to the Green Climate Fund (5 year) and the Climate Investment Funds (5 years),and was a member of the steering committee of UNEP’s International Resource Panel (6 years).
She holds a LLM in International Business Law from the Queen Mary University London, a LLM in French and European Law from the Sorbonne University Paris, a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development Management from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris), and a diploma in Business Economics and Journalism from the University of Applied Sciences of Central Switzerland. Andrea is fluent in French, German and English.
Angy Akke Del Pino Climate Finance and Business Development Manager
A climate change professional with expertise and knowledge of climate change and climate finance frameworks and mechanisms. Angy’s work experience extends across the real and financial sectors, with a focus on development of action plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation for countries through sectoral interventions. She has experience with greening of the financial sector, integration of ESG and climate risk considerations in banks’ strategies and portfolios, and development of climate finance and NDC implementation strategies and plans at the country level. She has also developed climate finance strategies for financial institutions in emerging markets, and has assisted national governments in accessing climate finance from the Green Climate Fund and other concessional finance sources.
She has held senior positions at international climate change consulting firms and has previously worked at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Angy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. She is fluent in French, English, Spanish, Greek, and Arabic.
Riccardo Stanco Climate Finance Advisory and Investment Analyst
Riccardo has over five years of work experience in financial consultancy in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He is specialized in climate finance and has worked on the design of climate finance facilities, financing of renewable energy projects, climate impact modeling, and the design of eligibility and monitoring and verification frameworks. He acts as a financial analyst as well, with excellent financial modeling skills.
Riccardo has managed complex projects and large mandates with multilateral development banks, bilateral agencies, commercial banks, and national governments in Europe and Africa.
He holds an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Economics and Business Economics from the Erasmus University in The Netherlands. He speaks Dutch and English.
Santiago Navarro Analyst, Market Strategy and Development
Santiago has over three years of experience focused on biodiversity and climate finance frameworks for sustainable development. As an analyst at Clima Capital Partners, he contributes to market scoping, intelligence, analysis, and development of tools to address economic, social, and political barriers to climate finance, sustainable investing, and NDC implementation in developing countries across regions. His engagements include the development of national climate finance policies and strategies in Africa and the Middle East, climate cost-benefit analysis, economic analysis, and monitoring and evaluation of climate-related projects.
Prior to joining Clima Capital Partners, he worked as a research analyst at Dynamic Planet, a boutique consultancy that advises and invests in natural capital investment funds, eco-enterprises, and high-impact partnership development. Santiago has also worked as a research analyst at the Inter-American Development Bank, where he focused on the health and long-term care needs of aging populations in El Salvador and Chile. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Economics from Middlebury College (USA) and speaks English, Spanish, and Italian.