Rover110 wrote:Although I am suspicious of any change, I did want to steer the discussion towards "how much might it affect the returns".
I don't think you'll get a detailed response, or one that's universally valid. But the global picture is that tackling climate change hasn't historically been a money spinner unless you happen to be making wind turbines, or maybe EVs or heat pumps.
For everyone else, including governments, it's decades of massive unrelenting cost and development up front, and the returns are going to be long-term and slow-boil - and dammit, the companies that make the investments won't even be the main beneficiaries. (It can be quite hard to convince your board that your company should spend billions on something that'll be there for the general benefit of all mankind. Even for the Chinese, who are still building coal fired power stations at the rate of one a week.)
So far, so cynical. (Sorry.
) The angels are on the side of a cleaner world, and it's great that pension funds are getting heavily into the sector. Everybody wants to leave the world a better place, after all. But investment managers have more than one hat to wear, and they need growth for now, not just for later. A judicious mix of policies is always going to be a safer bet. That much seems obvious, at least to me.
In the short term, there's more. High borrowing costs, rising government deficits and wobbly currencies add another layer of short-term unpredictability, and all of that is putting a slow brake on construction projects, although hopefully not a lasting one. Times will change for the better, but right now it isn't a wonder that enthusiasm has waned a bit.
BJ