International Energy Week: fund managers flag short-term risks to renewable agenda

Supply chain challenges and inflation

Today (22 February) marks the start of International Energy Week, the first global meeting to assess the outcomes of COP26 and the “new energy era”. Fund managers in the clean energy sector spoke to Investment Week about how the most immediate impact to renewable energy sector since COP has not been the policy promises but short-term headwinds such as supply chains and cost of raw materials.

The consensus around COP26, which marked 100 days on Monday (21 February), was that it could have been better, but it could have been worse. "The conference produced results which we considered to be better than feared, but not as good as hoped," explained Jonathan Waghorn, manager of the Guinness Sustainable Energy fund. He went on to say the key highlights were additional pledges from countries and new net zero targets. However, Will Argent, manager of the Gravis Clean Energy Income fund, said that while COP saw many nations "ratchetting up clean energy ambitions and decarbonisat...