The UK’s long-term growth prospects depend on maintaining its leadership in transition finance despite politics and global competition for green capital. That was the key theme of the panel “Investment Opportunities and the Future of Sustainable Finance” at the Climate Financial Risk Forum 2025 Symposium held in London yesterday.
James Alexander, CEO of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF); Ingrid Holmes, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Green Finance Institute; and Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE, Chair of the Pathways, Policies, and Governance Working Group at the UK Transition Finance Council, joined the panel.
Skidmore warned against losing momentum on the country’s net-zero strategy, calling transition finance “the only economic game in town.” He said the UK must show leadership and give business and industry the confidence to continue on this course, describing the challenge as one of unlocking economic opportunities rather than just managing climate risk.
Skidmore, who led the government’s Mission Zero review, said the transition-finance agenda had been “parked for too long” and now needed to focus on decarbonising existing assets, not only funding new green ones. The UK government’s Transition Finance Playbook, he explained, aims to bridge the gap between financial planning, technology pathways and project delivery, ensuring that local projects have credible finance plans from the outset. He added that public support for clean energy remained strong and urged the UK to “stay the course” before the next general election to maintain investor trust.
Alexander said long-term clarity from policymakers is essential if investors are to back companies making credible transition plans. “If we’re all going to focus on transition, then we need transition plans — company by company — to show investors how they’ll get there,” he said. The transition, he added, will be a long-term journey requiring political alignment to give investors confidence that progress will continue even when conditions become difficult.
Alexander warned that, despite frameworks, the flow of capital into transition projects remains below expectations. Policy inconsistency and a shortage of investable deals were the main bottlenecks, and investors need planning and grid-connection barriers cleared to accelerate deployment. He argued that the UK’s status as a global centre for sustainable finance should be measured not only by domestic investment but also by how effectively it channels capital abroad. “We have immense financial expertise within a few miles of the city,” he said. “The real opportunity is to deploy that globally.”
Holmes pointed out that about £38 billion in infrastructure debt had already been attracted this year, with the figure expected to touch £50 billion by year-end, reflecting activity across carbon capture, hydrogen and smart-electricity infrastructure. Major projects in Teesside and Liverpool Bay involving carbon capture and storage, along with investment in smart-grid and water-resilience infrastructure, were creating the foundation for industrial decarbonisation clusters and setting a precedent for faster follow-on investments.
Holmes also highlighted investment opportunities in the water sector — long viewed as distant prospects but now attracting serious capital under regulated models. “Twenty years ago, people dismissed water resilience as too long-term,” she said. “Now we’re seeing £3–4 billion projects moving ahead — proof that adaptation finance is real and investable.”
The UK hosts more than 5,000 climate-tech startups, second only to the US, yet many struggle to grow beyond early stages. According to the panellists, concessional capital, revenue-certainty mechanisms and better support for feasibility studies are needed to move projects from prototype to bankable stage. Holmes called for a Transition Finance Lab to accelerate deal flow.
When asked what single measure they would like to see in the UK Autumn Budget, the panellists urged policymakers to redirect unspent public funds into guarantees for affordable transition finance and to adjust capital rules to reflect resilience. They also called for fairer energy pricing to drive industrial decarbonisation and renewed commitment to transition finance, carbon pricing and a long-term industrial strategy.
Alexander concluded that the UK cannot build a green economy “by dipping our toes in”, adding that “certainty, clarity and continuity” are what bring business confidence.
In his keynote speech earlier, Ashley Alder, FCA chair, highlighted that capital owners like pension funds remain focused on sustainability and actuaries are shifting from models to real-world risk and policy action through frameworks like Planetary Solvency.
The panel was moderated by Patricia Torres, head of Sustainable Finance Solutions, Bloomberg.
