UK introduces a new team focused on investing in developing markets
The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and HM Treasury have announced the formation of the Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDE) Investor Taskforce, a collaborative initiative aimed at mobilising long-term investment for climate action and sustainable development in emerging markets.
The taskforce, which will be co-chaired by Henrdrik du Toit, founder and CEO of Ninety One, consists of 16 financial sector institutions, including pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, banks, development finance institutions, investment consultants, and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) as the secretariat. Other notable members include Aviva Investors, Phoenix Group, Legal & General, HSBC, Lloyds, the Private Infrastructure Development Group, S&P Global Ratings, and Ninety One.
The EMDE Investor Taskforce aims to develop investment strategies and frameworks that channel capital towards climate-related projects in emerging markets, addressing climate change risks and seizing sustainable economic opportunities in these regions. The taskforce’s goals include understanding current asset allocation and investment approaches in EMDEs to identify barriers and opportunities for climate finance investment, facilitating knowledge exchange on sustainable investment best practices tailored to EMDE contexts, and unlocking private capital flows to climate and sustainability projects through targeted initiatives and reporting.
Recent efforts by the taskforce involve commissioning asset owner interviews to better comprehend investor behavior and develop tailored recommendations to enhance investments in EMDE climate finance. These initiatives feed into wider global sustainable finance efforts, including regulatory and policy frameworks that support green, social, and climate-related financial instruments in emerging markets.
The impact of the EMDE Investor Taskforce on climate finance includes informing the design of investment products and policies to unlock trillions in sustainable finance for EMDEs, enhancing collaboration between public and private finance actors to scale climate-related investments, supporting capacity building, data disclosure, and regulatory improvements needed to de-risk and attract investors in emerging economies, and complementing other multilateral climate finance access initiatives.
Despite these efforts, only 18% of Africa's climate finance is attributed to private sector capital, and the financing gap for climate solutions in developing economies is estimated to be $1.8 trillion annually. The taskforce's work aligns with IIGCC's ambition to support investment into climate, transition, and sustainable opportunities across emerging markets, and it is hoped that the EMDE Investor Taskforce will play a significant role in addressing this financing gap.
The EMDE Investor Taskforce is hosting an event at the London Stock Exchange on October 21, 2025, which can be registered for. As the UK's minister of state for international development, Baroness Chapman, stated, these emerging markets are expected to contribute 65% of global economic growth by 2035, making it crucial to ensure that this growth is sustainable and aligned with global climate goals.
The EMDE Investor Taskforce, comprising financial institutions and investor groups, aims to develop and implement investment strategies in environmental-science projects that address climate-change risks and seize sustainable economic opportunities in emerging markets. The taskforce intends to unlock private capital flows, particularly from finance institutions like Aviva Investors, Phoenix Group, Legal & General, HSBC, and Lloyds, to finance climate and sustainability projects in developing economies, ultimately aiming to close the $1.8 trillion annual financing gap in these regions, which is pivotal for sustainable growth expected to contribute 65% of global economic growth by 2035.
