With Donald Trump in the White House as the world’s new anti-climate leader, the Danish financial lobby, aka the industry organisation for Danish insurance and pension funds (F&P), was quick to report that it will now be difficult to invest more in the green transition – profitably.
In other words: When green investments have a tailwind in the stock markets, the message is that profit and climate easily go hand in hand.
When the winds change and green money is in danger of turning into red numbers, the message is quite different.
“We have underestimated the task,” said F&P, just three days after Trump was inaugurated, about the 450 billion Danish kroner for green transition that the Danish financial sector has previously proudly boasted about delivering.
Now pension funds are hesitant to make that promise.
F&P may want a green world, but they got cold feet when anti-ESG global politics hit home turf.
But there are others in the financial world who see things differently. For example, analyst Joeri de Wilde of the Dutch bank Triodos, which is known for its commitment to ethics and the climate.
He believes it will be very difficult for Trump to stop the green transition.
“Despite Trump’s focus on new oil drilling, the increasing share of renewable energy consumption shows that the momentum for clean energy is robust and very difficult to dampen,” he told Danwatch, referring to recent figures for global electricity production.
They show that more than 30 percent of the world’s electricity generation is now generated from renewable sources, and the increase has been steady over the past 18 years – including during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.

Figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) on the global investment appetite in climate-friendly energy sources also paint a picture of a profitable green transition that cannot be stopped, says Joeri de Wilde.
Despite geographical differences, the IEA concludes that overall, the world is now investing twice as much in renewable energy as it does in fossil fuels.
“Overall, it shows that it pays to invest in green energy instead of fossil fuels, which is confirmed by the significant increase in investments in renewable energy since 2017, when Trump first moved into the White House”, says Joeri de Wilde.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially for the global green momentum, studies in several countries show that public sentiment in favour of the green transition has reached a so-called critical mass. Sustainability is now the norm and no longer a niche.
This is also true in the US, where more than half the population is concerned about climate change and two-thirds believe that sustainable products should be the standard for businesses. The US is already past the green point of no return, and the MAGA movement is pointing backwards, not forwards.
“More and more people are becoming aware of sustainability and are willing to act on it. We see this happening in many countries, including the US. It indicates a shift in societal norms towards more sustainability. And we are closer than it seems, as only a significant minority, around 25 percent, is needed for decisive change,” says Joeri de Wilde.