Link: Is ESG over for Global Listed Infra? From Georgia Hall, ESG & Investment Director
“That’s it, guys, the party is over! The headlines have done an overnight U-turn on sustainability and ESG. Apparently, no one cares any longer and these are not priorities for companies, investors and regulators alike.
My perspective has changed after travelling with Steven Kempler to seven counties and eight cities in eight days, meeting 30% of the GLI portfolio and various clients across the UK and Europe (75% of which was by high-speed rail!)
🎯 The main takeaway? The headlines are noise, over-generalised and not reflective of the reality.
💡 Why? The conversation was dominated by energy transition investment, physical risks, customer affordability, energy security, defence, data centers/AI and the geopolitical environment. These topics are all interlinked.
Some quotes from CEOs of some of Europe’s largest infrastructure companies:
📢 “The focus used to be more about climate change but now it’s more about energy sovereignty. But the solution is just the same because the answer is renewables and grid infrastructure.”
📢 “When we have debates about defence, we forget to acknowledge that energy is a weapon. You can have endless discussions about ESG priorities, but when you come back to energy security, you ultimately reach the same conclusion.”
📢 “We have to adapt and redesign for climate change, especially to flooding. In 2024, we had major flooding in urban areas. The motorway network has been designed for 1 in 100-year floods – but these are now happening every decade. We are talking an order of magnitude of more than EUR 70bn of investment across all networks.”