We closed our week at New York Climate Week with our Partner Forum. 24 partner organisations from across the Trafigura Foundation and Puma Energy Fund networks joined us to work through a single question: what does it actually take to build resilience that lasts?
Their answers were direct, and four messages came through clearly.
1. Collaborate, don’t compete
Partners asked us to connect them to each other. They see more value in sharing what they know across the network than in working side by side without contact.
2. Tell simple stories, including the failures
Resilience is hard to measure. Partners encouraged us to tell simple stories about what is changing, and to be as open about what has not worked as about what has.
3. AI is already changing the work, but access isn’t equal
Artificial intelligence is already part of how our partners work. Not every organisation has the same access to it, and that gap matters.
4. Bring more funders in
Adaptation needs long-term funding, and no single foundation can provide it alone. Partners want us to help bring other funders to the table.
A week on our partners’ stages
The Forum closed a week spent largely on our partners’ stages. Dario Soto Abril spoke with Clim-Eat on a just rural transition, with Blue Alliance Marine Protected Areas on financing ocean conservation, and with Latimpacto on building climate partnerships. He also joined The HALO Trust, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Start Network at their events.
We also co-hosted a panel with Nuru, Root Capital, the International Rescue Committee and Fair Trade USA on financing resilience in fragile regions.
Thank you to every partner who challenged our thinking.
Resilience is systemic: no one builds it alone. It is built when funders trust partners to set the agenda, connect them with one another, and reward collaboration over competition, and when we take AI seriously as both an accelerator and a source of new inequalities.
