For Istanbul Innovation Days 2025, we are publishing a series of videos featuring thought leaders who have shaped our understanding of institutions. In this conversation, Sir Geoff Mulgan, co-founder of the Institutional Architecture Lab (TIAL), speaks with Arunabha Ghosh, Founder & CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and who played a key role in establishing the International Solar Alliance (ISA)
Ghosh notes a critical shift in global governance: implementation, not negotiation, is where challenges now arise. He reflects on the founding logic behind ISA, co-created by India and France a decade ago to address a simple but urgent problem: money was not flowing to where the sun shines most—the tropics. The aim was to remove implementation barriers to solar deployment, especially in countries historically left out of the renewable energy transition.
ISA ensured that all initiatives are co-created by at least two countries, making partnership the foundation for progress. It focused on aggregating projects across countries to reduce the cost of capital and creating scale for investors. Equally vital was capacity-building—training policymakers and creating tailored market designs to prepare countries for solar investments.
Ghosh explains ISA was part of a wider pattern of platform-based international collaboration, including Mission Innovation and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). The latter expands membership beyond states to include international organizations and the private sector, focusing on resilient infrastructure like airports and telecom systems. To build trust, we need not just coalitions of the willing, but coalitions of the doing.
Central to all these efforts is data and intelligence as their foundation. Ghosh argues for transparent, multivariate data platforms—combining satellite data, alternative surveys, and AI tools with official sources—to support real-time, actionable insight. As a potential development he sees functional specialization among global institutions, with dedicated roles for data provision, financing, and implementation.
Building human capabilities is equally vital. Ghosh shares how CEEW built India’s first climate resilience atlas at the district level and co-developed neighborhood-level heat action plans with local officials. The key, he says, is blending top-down analytics with bottom-up wisdom, enabling cities, insurers, and infrastructure providers to turn data into practical resilience measures.
His message to innovators? Co-develop solutions—don’t default to the outdated model of North-South technology transfer. Leverage institutional capacities and local experimentation to build together. Be truthful to data, using it to build trust. And above all, distinguish inclusion from voice. Real participation means shaping decisions, not just being present. Without voice, trust frays—and people exit old institutions. But what are the institutions of the future they will enter?
