On 22 June, during London Climate Action Week, we held a roundtable with the support of Natixis Investment Managers and NatureAlpha focused on financing the real economy transition. The session convened asset owners, insurers, asset managers and ecosystem actors to identify what is holding back capital deployment at scale, and what could move the needle in the next two to three years given a more fragmented and risk-aware market environment.

Key insights were clear. The challenge is no longer ambition, but deployability. While transition commitments are well established, participants highlighted a persistent gap between strategy and investment-grade opportunities that meet institutional requirements. Capital is not flowing at pace because many solutions remain too complex, fragmented or unfamiliar to integrate into existing mandates.

There was a strong call for “boring” solutions: stable, predictable and operationally simple structures that align with how large pools of capital are allocated. Different actors use the same terms — transition, resilience, adaptation, nature — but with different meanings, making it difficult to align on priorities and decision-making. This is compounded by inconsistencies in how fiduciary duty is interpreted, creating tension between short-term performance constraints and long-term transition risks and opportunities.

Participants emphasised the need to move beyond treating transition as a separate allocation. A total portfolio approach, embedding climate and nature across asset classes and risk-return frameworks, was seen as essential. At the same time, gaps persist in pipeline visibility and product design. Opportunities in areas such as adaptation, water and hard-to-abate sectors often exist, but are not clearly identified, structured or scaled in a way that makes them investable.

The discussion reinforces the need for clearer structures, shared definitions and closer collaboration between public and private actors to translate transition ambition into near-term capital deployment.