The Brief

The Brief: Climate United stands up for green community lending

ImpactAlpha · March 10, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

🔌 This week’s PluggedIn: Financing a just climate transition. The battle over the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is going to court (see below). The Justice Climate Fund, which was awarded nearly $1 billion to support a network of more than 1,200 community lenders, is trying to carry on. Justice Climate Fund’s Amir Kirkwood will join Sherrell Dorsey on the next PluggedIn to discuss the critical role of community development financial institutions in financing equitable access to clean energy, and to share strategies from Black and Brown LPs and GPs who are transforming climate investing. Tune in this Wednesday, March 12, 10am PT / 1pm ET/ 5pm London. RSVP today.

In today’s Brief:

  • Battle for the US green bank
  • Emergency response for electric utilities
  • Agtech acquisition
  • Green banker to lead Canada

Climate United carries legal banner in battle for the green bank. Beth Bafford is fighting to bring the benefits of clean energy and green jobs to communities across the US. To do so, she is taking the Environmental Protection Agency to court. Bafford leads Climate United, a coalition of community lenders for solar mini-grids, electric school buses, and other cost-saving upgrades. The coalition is today expected to ask a judge to unblock some $7 billion in funds that are frozen in accounts at Citibank because of threats from the Trump administration. Under a ​​financial agent agreement with the EPA, Citibank is stewarding a total of $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds. A temporary restraining order that compels Citi to free the bank accounts would allow Climate United to continue funding the $400 million in loans it has already approved, and to pay its operating expenses. Climate United raised philanthropic funds to pay for the suit. Needed now: More Agents of Impact to push back against slurs, conspiracy theories and misinformation being spread by EPA chief Lee Zeldin and the president himself.

  • Frozen funds. With nearly $7 billion, Climate United has the largest allocation among eight groups that were awarded grants to establish what amounts to a distributed “green bank,” an ecosystem of underwriters to finance cost-saving infrastructure and improvements. Climate United has also approved the most loans. After failing to get an explanation for the holdup by Citi, Climate United on Saturday filed suit against the EPA and the bank for illegally withholding obligated funds. Other GGRF awardees may join the suit to regain access to funds that have been frozen for nearly four weeks. “This isn’t about politics; it’s about economics,” Bafford tells ImpactAlpha. Among the approved and partially funded deals that may be in limbo is a $250 commitment for 500 electric drayage trucks to be used at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Calif., and other cities, and a $32 million pre-construction loan for 18 solar power plants to be built across the University of Arkansas system.
  • Contingency plan. If possession is nine-tenths of the law, then Climate United suit should have a better chance than other efforts to unblock approved funding that has been frozen by Trump administration officials. GGRF funding has already left government coffers and is sitting in accounts at Citi per a custodial contract signed last year. That arrangement was meant to safeguard a historic accomplishment: kickstarting America’s locally driven, bottom-up green revival with financing for projects to bring cleaner air, cheaper transportation, lower energy bills and good jobs to every block, neighborhood and state. The $20 billion was put on deposit at Citi not to evade oversight – it provides more transparency than alternative disbursement methods – but to guard against the impoundment of congressionally approved funds under the Inflation Reduction Act. The arrangement also helps recipients leverage the funds for public-private partnerships.
  • Pressure tactics. Citibank halted disbursement after the new administration conjured a welter of accusations, legal threats and investigations by the Department of Justice and FBI. Some awardees have received letters asking for all documents and communications regarding the program and to appear before a grand jury in the coming weeks. Neither of the agencies nor the EPA have provided any evidence of fraud. A US attorney in Washington, DC, last month resigned rather than launch an investigation, arguing that there was no legal basis to do so. Zeldin has claimed that Citi “voluntarily” froze the GGRF funds. Climate United’s suit claims it was the EPA that directed the bank to freeze the funds. Citi’s chief legal officer, Brent McIntosh, served in the first Trump administration’s Treasury department. “Citi will of course comply with any judicial decision,” the bank told The New York Times. 
  • Impact leadership. The GGRF represents an “abundance agenda” to invest in the supply side of low-cost clean energy, affordable housing, and other public benefits that remain undercapitalized despite attractive financial returns. The funds are meant to leverage private finance and create a self-sustaining lending network. Climate United has already committed $400 million in loans but has only drawn down about $100 million in GGRF funds, leaving it unable to fulfill its commitments to developers and borrowers. Bafford joined Climate United from Calvert Impact, which has structured and syndicated impact deals for decades, including for community lenders during the Covid pandemic. To create Climate United, Calvert teamed up with the community development financial institutions Self-Help Ventures Fund and Community Preservation Corp., both active affordable housing lenders. The three nonprofit CDFIs “bring a decades-long track record of successfully raising and deploying $30 billion in capital with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities,” the EPA noted in its award announcement last April.
  • Keep reading, “Climate United carries legal banner in battle for the green bank,” by David Bank and Amy Cortese on ImpactAlpha. 

Dealflow: Climate Adaptation 

Daupler snags $15 million to streamline emergency response for water and electric utilities. When the city of Durham, NC, was responding to Hurricane Helene’s damage to critical public infrastructure last September, it used response management software developed by Kansas City-based Daupler. The software helps water and electric utilities more efficiently and effectively manage outages and other critical incidents. “Daupler has changed the way we do business,” said Tim Segard of the city of Durham, which signed a contract with Daupler in 2018. “Response times are faster, customer service is better, and crews appreciate having quick access to the tools they need.” Utility customers in South Carolina and Florida also used Daupler’s software during Hurricane Helene. Daupler has clients in 38 US states, Canada and New Zealand. With the Series B financing, the company is looking to expand to Europe. 

  • Climate adaptation. “Utilities are under increasing pressure to do more with less, often lacking the staff and resources to efficiently respond to incidents like water-main breaks or power outages at any hour,” said Daupler’s John Bertrand. Global utilities are battling aging infrastructure and weather-related disruptions that are getting more extreme with climate change. “Our AI-powered tools not only identify and triage incidents but also automatically schedule and dispatch crews, ensuring faster, more efficient resolutions,” Bertrand said. Aqualateral, a New York-based water and climate-focused investor, led the round. Participating investors include Burnt Island Ventures and KCRise Fund.
  • Check it out.

Acquisition in India to boost fruit distribution. Fasal launched in India in 2018 to provide horticulture farmers with precision farming and financial management tools that boost resource optimization and productivity. The startup’s remote sensors give farmers real time data on crop, soil and weather conditions and predictive analytics in local languages. This helps them plan for weather changes and pest infestations, and manage irrigation, fertilizer and pesticide applications. Fasal also runs a produce distribution business covering over 85,000 acres of farmland growing grapes, apples, guavas, palm, coffee, pepper and other crops. The Swiss-Indian agtech startup Innoterra, which runs an analytics and food distribution tracking service in 14 countries, has acquired Fasal’s produce distribution arm.

  • Supply chains. The acquisition will enhance Inoterra’s marketplace, called Farmlink, with data on supply chain and sourcing operations in India’s fruit sector. “By tapping into Fasal’s strong farmer network, particularly in bananas and pomegranates, we are strengthening our capabilities in key regions and expecting up to 80% increase in our fruit distribution,” said Innoterra’s Avinash Kasinathan. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • GoodSAM, a Greenwich, Conn.-based food brand that provides small, regenerative farmers with access to premium markets, closed a $9 million funding round led by ALIVE Ventures in and Desert Bloom (GoodSAM)
  • New Mexico-based Spiritus, which is developing a modular, low-cost direct-air carbon capture system, raised $30 million in Series A funding from Aramco, Khosla, TDK Ventures and others. (Spiritus)
  • Dallas-based Watter scored $5 million in seed financing, led by Hunt Innovative Technologies and 17Shoals, to use waste heat from computing devices to heat water in residential homes and commercial buildings. (Watter)
  • Sahel Capital provided Benin-based agricultural produce trading platform MM LEKKER with a $400,000 loan to help smallholder farmers reduce post-harvest losses. (Empower Africa)

Signals: O Canada

Canada puts a green banker in charge of its response to Trump. The former chief of the Bank of England and chair of Brookfield Asset Management, Mark Carney, won a landslide victory in a vote by Canada’s Liberal Party to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Carney helped steer Canada through the 2008 financial crisis as governor of the Bank of Canada before taking the same job in the UK. With Michael Bloomberg, he spearheaded the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosure, or TCFD, and led efforts by central banks to identify climate-related risks. In a 2015 speech, Carney famously called out climate’s “tragedy of the horizon,” caused by the short term outlook of most investors. “You are the first generation of investors to understand climate risks – but you are also the last generation that can do something to mitigate them,” Carney told the crowd at PRI in Person two years ago. As a UN Special Envoy for Climate Action, he co-chaired the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ, which has since reorganized after a rash of defections by major financial institutions.

  • Prime fundraiser At Brookfield, Carney led the firm’s energy transition investments, helping to raise a whopping $15 billion for the firm’s first Global Transition Fund. The fund “provides a significant scale of capital with catalytic long-term investment the world needs to help put our planet on a sustainable net-zero pathway,” Carney said in 2022. Amid a tariff battle with the US, Carney also oversaw a controversial move of Brookfield’s headquarters from Toronto to New York. He stepped down from the private equity firm in January to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party, which holds the prime ministership. Carney must call an election by October 20.
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Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

Lohas partners with Cinelaunch to expand financing for impact-focused films… Sabrina Lee Sanchez will become Acumen’s private partnerships director… Ares Management Corp. is looking for a DEI business and investment process associate in New York. Ares is also looking for a real estate ESG analyst… Arnold Ventures is recruiting a health care advocacy manager in Washington, DC. 

Better Society Capital seeks an investment partnerships and advisory manager in London… Also in London, Morgan Stanley’s private markets climate impact team has an opening for an investment management vice president… DT Global is on the hunt for an impact investing ecosystem manager in Jakarta.

ImpactAlpha, B Lab, Ownership Works, Lafayette Square Institute, the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing and the Aspen Institute are the recipients of the 2024 Empowering Ownership Grant Program, created by Sorenson Impact Foundation to advance economic opportunities through the ownership economy. 

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– March 10, 2025