In the course of one week in May 2019, climate change activists disrupted a U.K. pension’s conference and called for local authority schemes to divest from fossil-fuel companies, while the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s GPFG, decided to allocate part of its assets to unlisted renewable energy infrastructure, and a big European institutional investor created a sustainable development director position reporting directly to the managing director.

Sustainable or responsible investment —defined as a comprehensive approach aiming for market rates of return while delivering positive environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes, as opposed to impact, or ethical investment — should be a no-brainer. Over recent years, it has grown considerably in its importance to the investor community. Most infrastructure investors polled already think their company has a responsibility to the community to advance the sustainability agenda, and are affiliated to a s