The “train already left the station” for most private investors, said Vittorio Allegri, financial services director at FTI Consulting, since their “investment cycles are much longer term.”
In fact, most major green energy investors have already set their investment targets until 2030, said Tancrède Fulop, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, an investment research firm.
Meanwhile, European investment funds that prioritize climate impacts grew to record levels last year, an indicator of growing interest in green-friendly investments inside the EU.
In total, Morningstar found, Europe’s climate-themed funds grew sevenfold in value between 2019, when the European Commission first presented its Green Deal, and the first half of 2023. At $447 billion, these funds’ net assets were also five times the size of similar funds across the rest of the world combined.
Still, investors will be keeping an eye on whether EU countries actually enforce the green laws that are set to take effect in the coming years. If not, clean tech projects could “rapidly become unviable if there are unexpected policy shifts,” said James Rydge, head of ESG research for Europe, Middle East and Africa at HSBC.
But “at the EU level,” he said, “rolling back Green Deal legislation that is already adopted is very challenging and I’d say unlikely.”
