Themes 2024

Navigating the Polycrisis: Sovereign Wealth Fund Sustainable Investments amid Geopolitical Shifts

The past four years have seen a simultaneous occurrence of multiple negative shocks: the COVID-19 pandemic and two devastating conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. Geopolitical risk has disrupted global value chains, causing strains on trade and inflationary pressures that monetary tightening can hardly alleviate.

Navigating the Polycrisis: Sovereign Wealth Fund Sustainable Investments amid Geopolitical Shifts Read More »

The Mobilizing Private Capital Equation

To close the investment gap for the SDGs and for the just energy transition – approximately $4.5 trillion annually – we need to drastically scale up private capital investment from the institutional investors that represent the deepest pockets in the world (asset owners: pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds). And since SDG and climate problems do not always represent commercially viable solutions, this private capital will need to be ‘mobilized’. Fortunately, we have very good tools to achieve this – the financial structuring instruments that are now typically referred to as ‘blended finance’ – but there are certain barriers to scaling this up. 

The Mobilizing Private Capital Equation Read More »

Transition Investment and Geopolitical Risk

Geopolitical rivalry is the competition for economic, military and technological power and influence between nations or blocs of nations. It often manifests itself in the form of sanctions, export bans, screening of inward and outward investment plans on national security grounds, subsidies to induce repatriation of production, and import tariffs. It impacts companies by affecting their revenue streams, costs, ability to scale of operations and innovate. Geopolitical rivalries can contribute to political polarization by influencing national discourse, intensifying ideological divides, and fostering a more antagonistic political environment both internationally and domestically.

Transition Investment and Geopolitical Risk Read More »