The future of energy transition and climate finance

THE weighty and highly charged topic of energy transition – and the role that climate finance plays in it – was the focus of a panel I moderated at the Insead Alumni Forum Europe, which was recently held in London.

I was joined by a group of speakers with expert interest and experience in the sector, including Lord John Browne, chairman and co-founder of BeyondNetZero, a US$3.5 billion fund that invests in energy transition and climate-related technology. Also on the panel were Allison Bennington, a partner at investment fund PJT Partners and global head of its environmental, social and governance (ESG) practice, and Insead alumnus Huw van Steenis (MBA 95J), a vice-chair and partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman who currently sits on the climate advisory board of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.

Have we reached peak ESG investing?

While the sector has witnessed exponential growth in the past few years, 2022 saw some notable defections alongside a general sense of fatigue surrounding ESG investing. Recently, Vanguard – the world’s second-largest asset manager with US$8.1 trillion in assets under management – pulled out of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, part of the United Nations’ Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero that was founded with the aim of steering the global economy towards net-zero emissions.