Eight years ago they said impact investing was a fad and climate change was arguable. Now the same people call Max Studennikoff of CC Forum asking for a $1 trillion opportunity, blue or green. His answer: where have you been all along? This is TBLI Radical Truth with Robert Rubinstein, an impact investing and climate finance podcast from TBLI Group. Max built CC Forum, the gathering the press calls the Green Davos, on one conviction: the world does not lack capital and it does not lack climate conferences, it lacks alignment between the people who control the money, the people who write the rules and the entrepreneurs who can actually change the system. We argue about whether events can move capital at all, why he refuses to take a cut of any deal struck at his own forum, and why he thinks the market, not policy, decides which technology wins. ABOUT THE GUEST Max Studennikoff is the founder and chairman of CC Forum: Investment in Sustainable Development, held across London, Paris, Monaco, Los Angeles, Dubai, Bahrain and Zurich since 2018, and patronised by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Albert II of Monaco, President Macron and the Crown Prince of Bahrain. The 14th edition runs in London in late October, and the next one after that is the forum's first Pan-African edition. IN THIS EPISODE Impact investing, climate finance and the machinery of convening: the 2016 Davos coffee that produced the idea, the property he sold to fund the first edition, why deal flow is his only measure of success, 400 speaker applications for 100 places, why CC Forum takes no cut of the deals it creates, the trillions going into AI, COP, Chinese solar, and why the real barrier was never convincing anyone, it was access to the person who writes the cheque. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction: CC Forum, the Green Davos 04:09 Davos, 2016: the coffee conversation that started it 05:53 "Create a club of impact investors. That's what the world needs" 07:27 Selling a property to fund the first edition 15:07 Deal flow is the one and only criterion of success 22:38 The rowing boat, and the people who cling to the outside of it 29:47 The sceptics come back: "Max, is there a $1 trillion opportunity?" 34:34 400 applications to speak, 100 places on stage 44:11 "Profiteering from technology is immoral" 45:35 COP: 200 heads of state, private planes, a preposterous outcome 47:09 "We are making the right moves. The pace is wrong" 48:22 Pakistan, and a third of national energy consumption installed in a year 53:26 Solarge: no glass, no aluminium, no PFAS 55:38 The real challenge is not convincing, it is access MORE ON MAX STUDENNIKOFF CC Forum: https://cc-forum.com Max Studennikoff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-s-179938155/ RELATED EPISODES Yarrow Kraner, HATCH, on getting people who cannot normally work together into one room. Christopher Marquis on the impact mafia. ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCAST Most finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it. I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network. Every week on this show, one unfiltered conversation with someone actually moving capital toward a liveable future, and no polite silence about the ones only claiming to. No sponsors. No pretending. Follow TBLI Radical Truth for a new episode every week. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_yg THE EXTRACTION MACHINE How business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 40 years inside the system. If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further. TBLI GROUP https://www.tbligroup.com Robert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/ Recorded in Amsterdam, September 2026.
