Global investments in renewable energy reached a new record of more than $700 billion in 2024, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But this year has brought uncertainty and challenges on many fronts, perhaps most notably from the new Trump administration.

The good news is that uncertainty is something the sector is used to, says Jérôme Guillet, co-founder of renewables advisory firm Snow, and there are many bright spots.

At a time when oil and gas firms continue to roll back on their clean energy objectives, Guillet – who also writes a blog where he shares his views on energy policy and industry developments – explains why this is not a bad thing and he outlines how other major players like utilities are faring in the space.

Other key topics include the potentially overestimated role of new nuclear, decarbonisation in hard-to-abate sectors, and to what extent sustainable finance regulations help drive green investment.

Net-zero as a concept is under pressure, and for investors to assess the best path forward, it is crucial to understand how companies and other holdings are managing this – and what efforts they are undertaking to navigate the transition.

This is what the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has helped investors with since its inception in 2017. Carmen Nuzzo, the executive director of TPI’s academic centre, tells The Responsible Investor Podcast there are notable developments in what investors are asking for to help guide their investment and engagement activities.

Nuzzo talks to RI deputy editor Elza Holmstedt Pell about where the companies that the TPI Centre assesses are improving and where there are blind spots. She also discusses the increasing focus on emerging and developing economies and her view on the global regulatory rollback, as well as the rising use of AI in climate reporting, the next steps for transition plans and the TPI Centre’s research expansion plans.

With big asset managers rushing to exit climate initiatives and ESG opponents taking centre stage in the US, responsible investment is under scrutiny as never before. What does this mean for up-and-coming asset owners with sustainability ambitions?

This is a key question for Dan Mikulskis, CIO of People's Partnership, one of the fastest-growing workplace pension providers in the UK. In this episode, he talks to RI editor Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker about how sustainability fits into the investment strategy of People's Partnership.

The discussion explores the evolution of responsible investment over the past 10 years, from a neglected niche to the heady days of 2021, followed by political backlash and a tighter focus on impact and implementation. Key topics include the challenges of devising a responsible investment policy, asset owners' response to ESG rollbacks by asset managers, and the opportunities for pension funds to leverage their influence to drive the sustainability agenda.