How Private Markets are Powering the Energy Transition to Fuel Net Zero

Private markets are increasingly becoming the decisive force in financing the global energy transition. As the world moves toward a net-zero future, institutional investors, private equity, and infrastructure funds are uniquely positioned to deploy patient, strategic capital into hard-to-abate sectors and emerging climate solutions. This webinar brought insights from leading voices from finance, industry, and policy to examine the investment vehicles, risk frameworks, and collaborative models driving scalable decarbonization. From clean infrastructure to breakthrough technologies, participants heard how private capital is not only accelerating the pace of transition but also reshaping the future of sustainable investing.

Highlights of the Discussion

• Private markets are emerging as a decisive force in the energy transition
• Equity finance plays a catalytic role in mobilising climate capital
• Innovative instruments like transition credits are driving coal phase-outs
• Circular economy solutions offer overlooked emissions-reduction potential

The speakers underscored several key themes:

Unlocking catalytic equity for scale: Private capital, especially equity, is essential to finance the early, high-risk stages of energy transition projects, particularly in emerging markets. There was a resounding call from all speakers for more catalytic equity—capital that is willing to move first, take risk, and enable others to follow. Growth-stage equity was highlighted as an enabler of additional debt financing, helping to crowd in institutional investors and unlock scalable climate solutions. Yet, the equity gap remains acute, especially in developing economies where risks are perceived as higher.

Deploying innovative tools to retire coal: Transition credits, a new form of carbon credit, are being piloted to accelerate the early retirement of coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia. These credits help compensate asset owners for foregone revenues while enabling reinvestment into renewables and supporting just transition outcomes for affected workers and communities. Kimberly Tan (GenZero) introduced a groundbreaking pilot in the Philippines that will shut down a 250MW coal plant a decade early, avoiding 20 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions. Revenues from high-integrity carbon credits will fund both clean energy alternatives and worker transition support.

Investing beyond renewables – into infrastructure and efficiency: Climate finance must go beyond wind and solar. Grid upgrades, decentralised generation, battery storage, localised biomass, and efficiency improvements across industrial and consumer sectors offer strong risk-adjusted returns. Several examples highlighted how flexible private equity structures can bridge financing gaps and bring first-of-a-kind technologies to market. François-Xavier Vucekovic (Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity) shared an investment in a Norwegian company producing “black pellets” from biomass as a low-carbon from waste product as a substitute for coal.

Circularity as a carbon strategy: From recycled plastics to biodegradable consumer goods and refurbished electronics, circular economy solutions offer measurable emissions reductions. Yet they remain underfunded. Alex Ouiment-Storrs (Lombard Odier Investment Managers) described backing a French circular economy startup that produces high-performing, plastic-free personal care products. The company’s refillable formats reduce packaging waste and emissions, while achieving cost and performance parity with conventional goods, critical to mass-market adoption.

The need for patient, purpose-aligned capital: Many of the solutions presented—from carbon monetisation to circularity—require long time horizons and execution capacity. Private equity was seen as particularly well-suited to this challenge, given its hands-on approach from investors and longer investment cycles compared to public markets. Kayode Akinola (Blue Earth Capital) reminded the audience that innovation does not always mean creating something new. Often, it’s about applying known technologies or models from other industries or regions—or revisiting concepts that didn’t scale previously due to timing, capital, or regulatory gaps. The moderator, Barbara Buchner (Climate Policy Initiative) echoed this view, noting the value of looking for fit-for-purpose concepts ready to scale in new contexts.

From pilot to platform: A recurring theme was the need to move beyond isolated pilots and create ecosystems that allow promising solutions to scale. This includes more reliable demand signals (e.g. offtake agreements), better regulatory frameworks, and coordinated policy support for infrastructure, data, and skills development.

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