IFM survey finds 81% of investors eyeing transition-linked private assets

IFM Investors asked 700 investment professionals where they see long-term opportunity, and the answer was as clear as it remains uncommitted: 72% named the energy transition, with the research locating the weight of that conviction in private markets. Among those respondents, 81% reported interest in transition-linked private assets, and the enthusiasm ran strongest in Europe, Net Zero Investor reports.

The sample tilts institutional: 267 pension funds, 186 insurers, 146 wealth managers and 101 consultants, with assets under management from $5bn to more than $100bn. IFM said the findings suggest sustainability is increasingly embedded in investment decision-making rather than standing alone as a theme. Maria Nazarova-Doyle, IFM's global head of sustainable investment, reads the European result less as a story about investors' focus on sustainability than as proof that the conviction has persisted through geopolitical tension, inflation and market uncertainty.

The stated intent turns specific in infrastructure, where 63% of the global sample planned to increase allocations to infrastructure equity with the energy transition cited as a contributing factor, and the report ties the asset class's appeal to the long-dated thematic exposure and resilience it lends a portfolio. Nazarova-Doyle makes the returns case in the same terms: renewable generation, electricity networks, digital infrastructure and energy security all need structured long-term stewardship to generate returns and manage systemic risk, and she calls sustainability a baseline expectation of portfolio management and of the managers asset owners hire.

Read together, the two headline numbers suggest appetite sharpens as the question narrows toward private structures—the vehicles that reward underwriting and long hold periods rather than a green label. The survey's limit is that it measures stated interest, not committed capital: nothing in the research shows how much has been allocated or on what terms, and self-reported appetite at the start of a fundraising cycle is a weak predictor of a close.

The direction still cuts against the expectation that geopolitical strain would push European institutions away from transition assets, which is the persistence Nazarova-Doyle flags. PWD has argued that transition capital is maturing past label-hunting, and the geography in the survey fits the concrete version of that argument: demand concentrating in private infrastructure and long-duration assets, where returns come from delivery rather than designation. The next check is whether the allocations European pension funds and insurers report in their next round of commitments look anything like what they told the survey.