Just Climate

Just Climate

Just Climate launched in 2021 as an independent business seeded and majority-owned by Generation Investment Management, the sustainability-focused firm co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore and ex-Goldman Sachs Asset Management head David Blood. The founding concept was that institutional capital had over-allocated to carbon-light software and neglected the industrial emission sources — steel, cement, shipping, aviation — responsible for the bulk of global greenhouse gases. Shaun Kingsbury, the former CEO of the UK Green Investment Bank, was recruited as Chief Investment Officer to execute this thesis. The firm's first major vehicle, the Climate Assets Fund I, closed in 2023 at $1.5 billion, exceeding its initial $1 billion target. The fund targets growth-stage and late-stage venture investments in climate solutions with a clear path to scaled industrial deployment. Confirmed positions include H2 Green Steel, which is building Europe's first large-scale green steel plant in Sweden, and Infinium, a producer of synthetic fuels derived from renewable power and captured carbon. Unlike many climate-tech peers, Just Climate avoids early-stage venture and exclusively focuses on capital-intensive industrial decarbonization assets. Its geographic coverage spans North America and Europe, with known investments in Sweden, Germany, and the United States. The firm operates from London as its headquarters, but the Altss record indicates a significant distributed footprint, with additional office locations in Dallas, Milwaukee, San Ramon, New York, Tulsa, Denver, and San Francisco. The exact professional headcount remains publicly undisclosed. Just Climate's relationship to Generation Investment Management is foundational but not day-to-day operational — it operates as a separate legal entity with its own investment committee. November 2023: Just Climate announced the final close of Climate Assets Fund I at $1.5 billion (per the firm, November 2023). Just Climate's structural differentiator is its embedded mandate to invest in the very industrial systems that generalist climate funds structurally avoid due to capital intensity and long duration. The firm does not raise perpetual capital, does not run a venture studio, and does not operate a corporate CVC arm. Instead, it functions as an institutional-grade growth equity platform with a single-sector focus and an explicit push to move beyond venture-scale software and into physical infrastructure and heavy industry value chains.