The Column – Market Insights
Who would have expected that in the year of Trump II which led to the United States’ exit from the Paris Agreement, removing the country from the global commitments of the main climate treaty, in the year in which scientific research on the topic is weakened on the US side and the development of renewable energy is hindered, in the twelve months in which the European Union itself must backtrack on the regulatory side, has the world invested a record amount in the energy transition?
Not many, I think. This is an important and incontrovertible fact which demonstrates, in my opinion, that:
- the transition is underway and no one is stopping it, because it would make no sense to do so.
- Companies in multiple sectors have invested a lot of money to make their businesses more sustainable and do not intend to back down.
- it is increasingly clear that it is possible to have an energy mix different from that of the past 100 years and a new distribution network. And that resistance is linked to the status quo.
But let’s move on to the numbers: in 2025, 2.3tr dollars were invested in energy transition as certified in the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) graph, the most authoritative source in the world. 8% more than in 2024. Certainly a figure that has risen less than in previous years, but perhaps it is more significant to observe that in 5 years investments have multiplied two and a half times.
Asia is driving with China and now also India who are investing massively in renewable energy, intelligent electricity networks (the so-called smart grids), batteries; Europe is ahead thanks to a virtuous path that has lasted since the trading market for CO2 emission permits was born (European ETS, 2005), the The United States is the country that is doing the least proportionately with high emissions per capita (14 tons/person, double that of the virtuous European countries) and second only to the super energy-intensive Gulf countries (Qatar 45, Saudi Arabia 25).
On the other hand, with American policy that has come to deny the direct correlation between carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and climate change, scientifically proven for decades, to even leave the IPCC (intergovernmental panel on climate change), to make it illegal to consider sustainability as a factor for investment choices and to plan drilling in the USA (and perhaps in some non-American territories) to continue to obtain energy mainly from fossil fuels, there is very little to be surprised.
The most important aspect in our opinion is that companies that are protagonists of the energy transition have returned to performing well on the stock market; a very important signal that testifies to two elements:
- that their business is working well or is in any case recovering after the difficulties of the 2023-2024 period.
- that the market has started to appreciate them again.
We are not talking about a technical rebound but about a phenomenon that lasts from autumn 2024 and which the index sees S&P Global Clean Energy Transition (100 global companies protagonists of the energy transition) perform better than the S&P500 (American stock market index which performed very well over the period).
Well done to all those who are part of this virtuous system which, in our opinion, will continue to see significant growth in terms of business, turnover and profits produced.
