We’re thrilled to present our 2025 Annual Impact and Learning Report.
We’re proud of the progress we made in building networks and mobilising support for specific interventions in our existing programmes in India, Indonesia and Europe. We also built new programmes in Europe and India focused on the chemical sector, establishing strong networks as a foundation for building shared and impactful strategies together.
In practice that meant driving coordinated action across a 65+ organisation network working to decarbonise India’s steel sector, mobilising 130+ private sector actors to defend vital aviation fuel mandates in Europe, and building a green steel ecosystem in Indonesia. We broke new ground too, launching programmes of work on chemicals in both India and Europe and a learning partnership supporting clean air action across 14 cities on four continents.
That is what trust-based collaboration looks like in practice.
This report shares what we’ve achieved with our partners in 2025, what we learned along the way and how we’re carrying that momentum into 2026 and beyond. Explore how we’re working with businesses, investors and civil society to accelerate industrial decarbonisation at the speed and scale the climate crisis demands.
Decarbonising the steel sector in India
India is expected to triple steel production by 2050, despite the sector already accounting for 11 per cent of the country’s emissions. There is an urgent need to accelerate decarbonisation and to avoid locking in decades of high-carbon infrastructure. In 2025, the India Green Steel Network shifted from coordination and shared learning to driving its collective action on the critical policies and market levers that matter most.
Key highlights from our work
Network & collaboration
- The India Green Steel Network (IGSN) grew to 65+ organisations, including steel producers, institutional investors, think tanks, funders and civil society groups
- Our 2025 Annual IGSN Convening in New Delhi deepened collective thinking across the network, building shared positions on a number of key topics. Directly informing the network’s collective advocacy going into 2026.
- Our Green Steel 60 learning sessions continue to attract strong participation per session, building knowledge and connections across the ecosystem
- We launched the IGSN Learning Hub and a quarterly newsletter, receiving strong engagement from the network
Policy progress
- We built the evidence base for Green Public Procurement (GPP) policy, a tool that could reduce carbon emissions from India’s steel sector by up to 40 million tonnes per year
- We commissioned research with the Confederation of Indian Industry to assess supply and demand readiness for green steel procurement
- We examined international best practice from Japan, Italy and the United States to identify policy design elements relevant to the Indian context
Finance & implementation
- We advanced work on transition finance through the IGSN’s Sustainable Finance Working Group, launching recommendations to unlock funding for low-carbon steelmaking
- We convened 30+ organisations, including financial institutions, to surface practical barriers to transition lending
- We commissioned landscape analysis mapping bank exposure to the steel sector, with pilot capacity-building activities planned with domestic banks in 2026
Learnings from our steel programme
Policy momentum requires sustained, adaptive engagement
In 2025, government signals suggested a lower appetite for advancing critical policies like GPP mandates or a National Green Steel Mission, influenced partly by global geopolitical dynamics. Rather than stepping back, we continued to make the case for deeper decarbonisation by sharing knowledge, commissioning research and enabling collaboration across the network. This reinforced an important lesson: in complex policy environments, staying present and building evidence steadily is as important as seizing moments of opportunity.
Financial institutions need practical tools, not just recommendations
Our engagement with banks and investors showed that translating transition finance recommendations into practice requires sector-specific knowledge and hands-on capacity building. We also found significant differences between global and domestic banks in their approach to climate risk and transition planning. This shaped our decision to pilot tailored capacity-building with domestic banks in 2026 by meeting institutions where they are, rather than where we’d like them to be.
Scaling sustainable aviation in Europe
In Europe, about 660,000 more people could be taking flights each year by 2040. Without action, aviation will continue to drive up emissions at a time when they need to fall to zero. In 2025, government mandates across Europe came into force to support the production of alternative fuels but technological solutions are still struggling to take off, and airport expansion is rising back up the political agenda. Our programme focused on two fronts: activating the private sector to advance e-fuels production, and building civil society’s capacity to shift the public conversation on aviation’s climate impact.
Key highlights from our work
Activating the private sector
- We rallied 130+ private sector actors, including e-fuel producers, around an open letter urging the UK government to prioritise domestic e-fuel production. The UK’s Secretary of State for Transport responded, reaffirming the government’s commitment and awarding £32 million to Power-to-Liquid projects
- We worked with Transport & Environment to host a dialogue between EU policymakers, banks and institutional investors on the importance of the ReFuelEU mandate and many of our recommendations featured in the final plan
- We published a briefing for investors examining the risks of bio-based aviation fuels and the case for more sustainable alternatives
- We organised a roundtable attended by 30+ airports, airlines, fuel companies and investors including IATA, Schiphol Airport and EasyJet which led to the formation of two working groups for collective action
Shifting narratives
- We launched a practical guide helping civil society organisations engage new, persuadable audiences on aviation’s climate impact using evidence-based, values-led messaging
- We ran a six-week digital campaign in the UK reaching nearly a million individuals with alternative frames on airport expansion
- Our Aviation Communications Learning Network grew to 70+ individuals, becoming a valued space for collaboration, knowledge sharing and strategic planning
- We coordinated the network around shared alternative terminology for “sustainable aviation fuel” a term many in the civil society community felt was undermining collective efforts
Learnings from our aviation programme
Reframing the issue reaches new audiences
Aviation is a challenging issue to campaign on. But our research and campaigning in 2025 showed that when we reframe the conversation by focusing on fairness, public services and the economics of expansion rather than simply emissions, we can engage audiences who wouldn’t otherwise be part of this debate. Reaching these audiences at scale takes time and consistent effort, but the approach works in the real world.
Incumbent industries are the key to unlocking, or blocking, progress
Our work in 2025 identified the significant role that Europe’s major energy companies play in controlling access to refuelling infrastructure and shaping the economics of alternative fuels. Understanding this dynamic has sharpened our focus: in 2026, we will increase pressure on these actors through targeted investor engagement and strategic communications.
Decarbonising the steel sector in Indonesia
Indonesia has an ambitious target to reach eight per cent annual economic growth by 2029. Without action, the country’s steel sector, already a significant source of emissions, could see its emissions grow 2.5 times by 2060. Our work in 2025, the first year of our Indonesia Steel programme, focused on making the case that decarbonising this sector is not only an environmental necessity, but an economic opportunity. We worked to build the ecosystem, evidence base and relationships needed to drive collective action.
Key highlights from our work
Building an ecosystem for change
- We convened 20 organisations to map the landscape on steel decarbonisation in Indonesia, identifying five key policy priorities for the sector
- We co-hosted a Policy Dialogue with 12 Indonesian steel companies, in partnership with World Resources Institute and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, to examine barriers and opportunities for decarbonisation across the value chain
- We launched #GreenSteel62, a learning event series for civil society organisations working on green steel in Indonesia with every participant rating our first session useful or extremely useful
- We convened a working group focused on market creation for green steel, identifying 10 research priorities and three early policy priorities
Building the evidence base
- We published a report on green steel standards and global demand, making the case that without internationally recognised standards, Indonesian producers will struggle to access growing global markets for low-carbon steel
- We established partnerships with the Center for Energy Studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada and The Habibie Center to build the economic case for steel decarbonisation and develop policy recommendations on Green Public Procurement
Learnings from our Indonesia programme
The ecosystem is growing and the timing matters
When we began our Indonesia programme in 2025, only a handful of organisations were engaged on steel decarbonisation. By the end of the year, that number had grown to 20. This rapid growth reflects genuine momentum but it also means that the work of aligning these actors, building shared priorities and avoiding duplication is increasingly important. Getting in early, when the ecosystem is still forming, is a significant advantage.
Decarbonisation must be framed as a growth story
In a context where economic growth and industrial competitiveness are top government priorities, environmental arguments alone will not move policy. Our most important strategic insight from 2025 is that the case for steel decarbonisation in Indonesia must be grounded in economic opportunity which includes jobs, competitiveness and access to global markets. Building this evidence base is the foundation for everything else.
New programmes and partnerships launched in 2025
In 2025, we didn’t just deepen our existing work. We broke new ground. We launched new programmes on the chemicals sector, one of the world’s most emissions-intensive industries, in both India and Europe. In India, our initial scoping identified the transition to green ammonia as the highest priority intervention, with fertilisers as the most immediate use case. In Europe, we mapped 300+ civil society players, influencers and allies engaged in chemicals decarbonisation, and identified key windows of opportunity for policy influence in 2026.
We also launched our first Learning Partnership, collaborating with Breathe Cities to support clean air action across 14 cities on four continents. This partnership has been an opportunity to apply our expertise in network and coalition building, learning and innovation and strategy co-design. It allowed us to explore how our model can deliver real value through shorter, more targeted interventions as well as long-term programmes.
Our priorities for 2026 and beyond
Our work in 2025 has reinforced something we’ve long believed: strong networks, built on genuine trust and shared purpose, are the foundation for lasting change. They take time to build. But they are truly worth it.
As we move into 2026, we do so with greater reach, stronger partnerships, and a clearer understanding of where and how we can have the greatest impact. We will run five multi-year programmes across India, Indonesia and Europe, design new initiatives in India and Europe, and establish our first cross-cutting programme that goes beyond geographies and sectors to tackle the connections between the challenges we work on.
We invite you to explore the full report below and learn more about our priorities for 2026. Together, we’re building the collective power needed to accelerate industrial decarbonisation and secure a just, prosperous world in which global temperature rise is limited to 1.5°C.
Accelerating industrial decarbonisation through collective action
Explore our Annual Impact and Learning Report below featuring key highlights from our diverse programmes, details on new programmes and initiatives, and the lessons we learnt that helped shape our evolving model of impact.
