ClimateTech investment takes centre stage as Abu Dhabi’s Angel Rising Symposium urges rapid scale-up to support climate resilience across the Global South.
Abu Dhabi’s Angel Rising Investor Symposium concluded with a firm message: ClimateTech investment across the Global South must accelerate significantly to meet escalating climate risks. The event, organised by startAD and VentureSouq at Abu Dhabi Global Market, gathered more than 150 investors, policymakers, founders and climate specialists — a mix that has come to define the forum’s influence over the past nine years.
Verified source: startAD
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During the opening remarks, H.E. Shaikha Mohamed Al Mazrouei from the Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi highlighted the emirate’s long-term Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2050, stressing that adaptation finance still captures only a “very small” fraction of global climate funding. Much of the world’s capital continues to favour mitigation over adaptation, leaving regions like MENA underfunded despite disproportionate vulnerability.
Executives from TAQA Group, Hub71, ClimateTech startups, and specialists in biodiversity and AI-driven energy systems contributed to discussions on policy alignment, blended finance and technology deployment. The tone throughout the symposium reflected a growing sense of coordination — a shift from earlier years when climate investment conversations often felt fragmented.
Nihal Shaikh, representing startAD, cited projections showing that communities in the Global South could face GDP losses of up to 64% by 2100 without decisive climate action. She noted Angel Rising’s ongoing role in demystifying ClimateTech investment and directing more early-stage capital into high-impact solutions. On the policy side, Sonia Weymuller of VentureSouq emphasised that regulatory clarity must advance in parallel with private-sector momentum.
Panel sessions explored technologies for water and energy resilience, AI-driven modelling, carbon accounting tools, and frameworks designed to derisk early-stage ventures. Following the formal programme, investors and founders held informal discussions around pilot projects and co-investment opportunities across MENA, conversations that could mature into meaningful collaborations over the coming year.
Since its inception in 2015, Angel Rising has hosted more than 900 investors and speakers from organisations including the Gates Foundation and J.P. Morgan, supported by initiatives like the Conscious Investor Fellowship.
As the region moves toward global milestones such as COP30, the symposium’s message lands at a pivotal moment. With the UAE intensifying its commitment to climate innovation, many attendees left with the sentiment that the region is no longer following global climate-investment trends — it is preparing to help set them.
