Can the energy transition stay on track? Our recent live lunchtime webinar ‘Renewables at a crossroads’ explored the opportunities and risks within the renewables sector and the effects that current global politics have on the global clean energy transition.
Green Shoots webinar: Renewables at a crossroads
23 April 2025
Article last updated 13 May 2025.
A recording of this event is available to watch below.
In a changing global political landscape, can the energy transition stay on track?
Our live lunchtime webinar ‘Renewables at a crossroads’ explored the opportunities and risks within the renewables sector and the effects that current global politics have on the global clean energy transition.
Global renewable energy capacity additions increased to almost 510GW in 2023 setting a new record for the 22nd year in a row. 2024 is expected to follow suit and record yet another increase.
Supportive policy in recent years has helped the renewables industry to accelerate progress. One of the most significant pieces of legislation introduced to stimulate investment in clean energy came in the form of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act in the US, which supercharged investment into US clean energy technologies and supply chains. At COP28 in 2023, countries agreed to triple renewable capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
However, following President Donald Trump’s re-election for a second term in 2024, an energy agenda that sought to promote oil and gas over renewable energy, the US’ intention to leave the Paris Agreement, along with executive orders promoting increased oil and gas development and imposing restrictions on wind power development were all announced early in his term.
Specialist guest speaker David Bird, investment director at Octopus Energy Generation, joined Joe Crehan, investment director at Greenbank, to discuss the implications that President Trump’s new policy direction may have for investment in clean energy in the US and in a broader global context.
The session explored:
- how this new policy direction is likely to impact the rapid growth in renewables and if it has the potential to derail the energy transition
- what it is likely to mean for the renewable subsidies of the Inflation Reduction Act
- how investors in US clean energy infrastructure view the new policy and political environment for the continued build out of clean energy infrastructure.
Green Shoots is Greenbank’s lunchtime webinar series where we are joined by specialist guest speakers to explore a sustainable investment topic.
If you have any queries about this event, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing marketing@greenbankinvestments.com
