Last month’s London Climate Action Week 2025 was the largest gathering since the annual event began in 2019. With more than 700 events across the city, it brought together some of the world’s leading climate activists, industry experts and political heavyweights.
One of the most urgent themes of the week was the need to scale up first-of-its-kind climate technologies. Yet while the ambition is clear, delivering it is not.
Significant funding gaps persist in UK climate tech, especially for asset-heavy, hardware-based solutions that require patient, large-scale capital beyond early-stage VC. To commercialise and scale these innovations sustainably, strong communications strategies are needed to attract the right kind of investment.
UK climate tech is grappling with a ‘missing middle’ problem. Global climate tech investment in the first half of 2025 has fallen by 19% year-on-year according to a report by Sightline Climate, and the second quarter of 2025 saw the lowest quarterly investment since 2020. As investor appetite for UK equities has declined, institutional capital, particularly from pension funds, has been slow to follow. Technologies that have outgrown VC backing often find themselves stranded, too capital-intensive for angel investors but too risky for mainstream funds. A wave of ‘climate tech tourists’ has come and gone, leaving high-potential solutions underserved and underfunded.
To compete in this environment, climate tech companies must build clear, compelling narratives that articulate both the commercial case and the climate benefit. It is not enough to describe a promising innovation. Communications need to make the investment story tangible, highlighting the solution’s relevance, impact and scalability in the context of real-world net-zero goals.
Innovation alone no longer guarantees investment. Commercial viability, customer uptake and demonstrable momentum are now the benchmarks for credibility. Communications should focus on evidence of market traction, highlighting use cases, partnerships and deployment milestones to create a sense of progress and urgency.
Investors want to back businesses that are moving from lab to market, not just from pitch to prototype. The role of communications is to shift perception from potential to performance.
Trust is a fundamental precondition for capital allocation. That trust is built through open knowledge sharing, transparent reporting and credible data.
For emerging climate tech companies, telling the story is about shaping a market narrative that gives institutional investors the confidence to act. Insightful, well-framed communications can generate the market conditions needed to accelerate deployment and growth.
One of the most persistent barriers to investment is perceived risk. Blended finance, where public, philanthropic and private capital are combined, can help de-risk early-stage projects and attract institutional backers that would otherwise stay away.
Communications here must do two things: explain how these structures work, and demonstrate where they have delivered results. For fund managers active in the space, this means moving beyond technical detail to tell clear stories of success. Highlighting credible track records and real-world outcomes is essential for engaging increasingly cautious LPs.
Scaling climate tech is not just a technical or financial challenge, it is a communications one too.
From educating investors and demystifying financial instruments to building trust and shaping compelling market narratives, communications is central to climate tech’s next chapter.
Companies and funds that invest in this capability will not only stand out, they will help reshape the entire funding landscape.
