With all the discussion about promising VC-backed climate technology facing a "valley of death", what is actually needed to take these companies to scale? Building plants requires a lot of equity, a bit of senior debt, "but ultimately you need many more layers of the cap table", says Temple Fennell, co-founder and managing partner of Clean Energy Ventures. "You need insurance, you need wrappers of all types, you need EPC folks."

Fennell spoke to The New Private Markets Podcast on the sidelines of the Impact Investor Global Summit in London in May 2026. He is a veteran investor in climate technology, whose experience in sustainable investment was shaped by being part of the the Keller family office, which among other things converted its 3,500-acre farm to regenerative practices.

On the agenda:

• Clean Energy Ventures' expansion from the US to Europe;
• How clean tech companies can struggle when it comes to building plants;
• The specific project financing needs for these industrial companies;
• The recent glut of allocations to climate funds and how this is working through to returns.

When it comes to decarbonisation, investors have been spreading their capital too thinly across companies and technologies, says Stan Miranda, founder of the True North Institute and co-founder of All Aboard.

"We will not make the right investments if we don't face the reality of what's happening at the atmospheric level," says Miranda, "And for some reason or other investors in this space tend to back hope more than reality; and, as many people have said, hope is not a strategy here."

Miranda was among the speakers at the Impact Investor Global Summit in May this year in London, where this episode was recorded.

Miranda explains the rationale behind the All Aboard coalition, a group of climate tech investors working collaboratively in a bid to find and back the "winners" among climate tech companies.

"There's a philosophy in the climate investment world called 'all of the above', and the rationale behind it is that we don't know which technology is going to work, whether it's nuclear fusion or geothermal or clean hydrogen or various versions of carbon capture, so we need to invest in all of them. And that's the enemy of success here," says Miranda.

"We really need to talk to each other about what is really working commercially, what is not dependent upon policy support, and concentrate capital in those technologies. It won't be all of them, so it should be very focused and very collaborative, not 'all of the above'."

The European Investment Fund is one of the most important allocators to the continent's climate funds. More than half of the €6.3 billion it invested in sustainability and green transformation last year was deployed into private markets, according to its 2025 annual report. It was the second-most frequent allocator to impact funds in 2025 and Q1 2026, New Private Markets analysis shows.

In this episode, Matteo Squilloni, head of climate transition equity investments at EIF, discusses:

• How the number of climate-related proposals EIF received fell in 2025, and what this says about the state of the market;
• How EIF is balancing its private equity climate portfolio between re-ups and new managers;
• How banking on certain narratives and policy support over industrial fundamentals has driven the clearest failures in EIF's climate portfolio;
• Why AI-driven demand for energy and water is a genuine investment opportunity.

Squilloni was a recent speaker at the Impact Investor Global Summit in London, where he participated in a discussion on the global outlook for climate investing. Find more information on next year's event here.

In February, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a Canadian pension plan with C$270 billion ($197 billion; €167 billion) in assets, unveiled a revised climate strategy, with new targets and new ways to measure progress.

In this episode, Anna Murray, senior managing director and global head of sustainable investing, takes us behind the changes, explaining why the pension has moved away from emissions intensity as a primary way of measuring climate progress and how the new strategy shifts towards "real world impact".

"While the direction of travel is clear for the energy transition, it's not necessarily linear, so it's going to move all over the place depending on what geographies we're in, depending on what sectors we're talking about," says Murray. "So the idea [is that the new climate strategy] takes into account this nuance, while understanding that the direction of travel is clear."

Murray, who was listed among our sustainable private markets influencers in 2024, also gives her views on the evolution of sustainability within the context of institutional investment: "It is reasonable to see retrenchment from heavy-handed virtue signalling, and it is in fact quite inspiring and exciting that we are now in era of pragmatism and getting to work."

APG Asset Management is one of the world's most influential investors in private markets, and a leader in the integration of sustainability and impact into its investment approach. It manages around €590 billion on behalf of Dutch public pension funds and has an ambitious €30 billion target for impact investments.

In this discussion with Patrick Kanters, APG's chief investment officer, private markets, we dig into a number of topics, including:

• How APG is reassessing its exposure to emerging markets;
• How its impact allocation requires it to rethink the risk curve, and what that means for its underwriting process;
• Why APG is trying to "clamp down" on the amount of ESG information it is asking for from its partners;
• How geopolitcal friction and a more deglobalised world is shaping its approach to private markets investment, and investment in defence.

APG was among the winners of the New Private Markets Global Awards this year. It was named as Limited Partner of the Year (Impact) after making significant headway during 2025 in advancing its impact investment programme and contributing to the wider market.

Note: APG Asset Management will be among the many allocators at New Private Markets' upcoming Impact Investor Global Summit on 19-20 May in London.

For years, ESG was viewed more as an exercise in disclosure than a means to value creation. But sustainability is increasingly going beyond ticking boxes. It is becoming an increasingly important method for unlocking value in private equity portfolios.

Ahead of the Responsible Investment Forum: New York on 18-19 March, The New Private Markets Podcast discussed sustainability and value creation in private markets, among other topics, with Evan Greenfield, head of ESG for private equity at Canadian pension plan British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI).

With $25 billion in its private equity portfolio, BCI allocates around half to fund managers and devotes the other half to direct investments, giving it a well-rounded perspective on how the market is evolving.

Greenfield has heard the conversations about ESG change significantly over the years, and says that increasingly these days, investors see ESG as a tool to boost EBITDA growth, improve margins and ultimately increase exit valuations. "Sustainability is one of the last frontiers of value creation in a private equity landscape," Greenfield says.

From re-examining the role of ESG to proving its impact in dollars and cents, this episode explores how sustainability is becoming an advantage for private equity investors.

Impact investing reached an inflection point in 2025 as uncertainty gripped private markets, abetted by political turbulence, fundraising difficulties and liquidity constraints.

But such uncertainty may have been necessary for impact fund managers to focus on a sharper articulation of market fundamentals, according to Rekha Unnithan, global head of private equity impact investing at Nuveen, the asset management subsidiary of retirement services firm TIAA.

An appropriate response, Unnithan argues, is not retreat, but nuance. For climate-focused investors wary of shifting policies in Washington, DC, the emphasis is on backing profitable companies that do not depend on government subsidies. For sceptics, however, it's simple economics – companies that reduce costs, improve climate resilience and deliver real value, regardless of ideology.

While 2025 left behind a number of challenges for the impact investing market, there appear to be signs that things may improve in 2026 with transition activity picking up and capital seemingly starting to flow again.

But which themes will characterise the market in 2026? In this episode, Unnithan sits down with host Michael Bowen to discuss where the sustainable investing market may go from here.

How does a distribution drought affect LPs and how should they react?

In this episode, we speak to Tom Mitchell, partner in the foundation and endowments practice and head of sustainable and impact solutions at Cambridge Associates.

Cambridge Associates has been advising institutions on their investments since 1973. Mitchell has been with the firm since 2007 and helped launch its sustainable and impact investing platform.

This conversation was recorded at PEI Group's flagship private equity meeting, NEXUS, which took place in Orlando in late February. Mitchell was among the speaker lineup for NEXUS's New Private Markets Investor Forum, and in this conversation, he describes the LP experience amid a period of slow distributions and fast-moving news. He also describes where LPs with an impact mindset are focusing their energy and capital in 2026.

Note: NEXUS will return in 2027 and is heading to Scottsdale, Arizona!