By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) -U.S. and Asian investors are looking to Europe after a pullback in U.S. government support for domestic projects linked to the transition to a low-carbon economy, Tony Dalwood, CEO of investment manager Gresham House, said.
Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has moved to cut various environmental initiatives, regulations and standards championed by his predecessor, including ending tax credits for green energy projects years earlier than planned.
Pressure to slow down the transition to net-zero emissions is also growing in other countries, but many governments remain committed to investing more and making it easier to invest in projects such as hydrogen and solar power.
“What we’re seeing is (U.S.) … investors wanting to come to Europe and talk about it a bit more,” across infrastructure, energy transition investments and natural capital, Dalwood said on Thursday at a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event during London Climate Action Week.
“And that’s applying elsewhere across the globe; Asia thinking should they invest in Europe more than they did previously, when they would have gone to North America. That’s definite, talking to (investors) globally in the last six months.”
Dalwood said the British government’s action to commit to green energy in an Industrial Strategy released this week was an important signal.
Under the plan, the government wants to increase investment in clean energy to more than 30 billion pounds ($41.23 billion) a year by 2035, although in a nod to political pressures over the costs of the transition, it said it aimed to cut green levies for business.
For Gresham House, which has around $12 billion in assets under management and is Britain’s biggest commercial forestry manager, the UK’s support for green energy was particularly important for the growth of the market for so-called “natural capital”, Dalwood said.
This includes investments in sustainable forestry and agriculture, biodiversity gains, carbon sequestration and water management, which investors see as ways to meet sustainability goals.
“Some of our clients have gone from zero to 4% allocations in their asset allocation over the last 12 months in natural capital, and forestry is a big part of that,” Dalwood said, adding he expected it to grow “to a much larger number”.
($1 = 0.7276 pounds)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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