In December 2024, Norwegian oil giant Equinor’s purchase of a 10% stake in Ørsted, the world leader in offshore wind energy, caused both wonder and hope among green investors.
Had the oil giant from Denmarks brotherly nation woken up from its fossil-fuelled sleeping beauty slumber and finally become interested in green transition, many wondered.
No, Equinor had not woken up. This became clear on February 6 when the company presented its quarterly report and future plans for the coming years.
Not only did Equinor drop its target to increase investments in renewable energy, but also the ambitions for additional green energy capacity were significantly reduced.
At the same time, CEO Anders Opedal promised record returns for investors and increasing oil production in the coming years.
Ørsted’s new co-owner is a climate lukewarmer oilgiant – and an ominous reflection of where the financial markets are right now.
Equinor’s genuflection to short-term profit reflects a global trend where major oil companies are cutting back on green investments and focusing on fossil fuels and extending the life of existing fields.
French TotalEnergies has announced it will reduce green investments by DKK 2.9 billion this year as the oil giant is “not seeing enough return”.
British Shell has resumed production in the disputed Penguins oil and gas field in the North Sea and BP will spend billions to rebuild Iraqi oil and gas fields.
Interest rate hikes, inflation and more expensive supply chains are blamed for the lack of interest in renewable energy projects.
This development is severely damaging the image of Nordic investors in oil companies, who loudly promote themselves as particularly climate-friendly and leaders in responsible investment.
For example, Danica, Danske Bank’s pension fund, which has invested DKK 175 million in Equinor, DKK 214 million in TotalEnergies and DKK 842 million in BP.
How will Danica reconcile its stated goal of “helping society become carbon neutral” with investments in fossil fuel companies focusing on more oil production?
And how will Industriens Pension “promote climate and environmental concerns” with its multi-million dollar investments in ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco – the world’s largest CO2 emitter and the company with the most fossil fuel development projects in the pipeline?
Climate investments are further politicised
ohe newsletter MONEY MONEY MONEY investigates whether investors are focusing more or less on sustainable companies – and what the consequences are.
New global figures for 2024 are bad news for renewable energy: startups are finding it harder to get funding.
Venture investors, those who invest first in brand new start-ups, have lost their appetite for throwing money at renewable energy.
This is according to an analysis from Pitchbook, a platform for data on global financial markets.
The analysis, which covers four sectors – new energy sources, new energy transfer technology, infrastructure and clean fuels – shows a decrease from 998 to 916 from 2023 to 2024 in investment deals between venture investors and clean energy startups.
The decrease comes after several years of growth.
Development in start-up investments in renewable energy
According to Pitchbook, the decrease was due to 2024 being characterised by political uncertainty in Europe and the US, especially leading up to the US presidential election in November.
The German election result has only reinforced this uncertainty, as you can read elsewhere in this newsletter.
Many climate initiatives are increasingly seen as political issues rather than concrete crisis management, and Pitchbook expects political cycles in the future to greatly influence financial support for green startups.
As the EU and other countries count on private investors to finance the great green transition, Pitchbook’s analysis only makes the situation more worrying.
In the US, Trump is removing Biden’s subsidies for green investments. This weakens investor interest – a trend that is spreading globally.
Venture investors have simply become more reluctant to fund green startups.
Many new electric cars, but a long way to go!
If the number of new electric cars is a measure of the green transition, 2025 started very well for Denmark.
Statistics Denmark reports that 7,000 new electric cars were registered in January, corresponding to 64.1% of the 10,900 new passenger cars.
In January 2025, the share of fossil-fuelled cars was 34.2%, which remains unchanged from December 2024, while the share of plug-in hybrids fell to 1.7% from 4.0%.
In January, private households bought 5,400 electric cars – 77.8% of their total car purchases. For company cars, the share was 40.4%.
In January 2025, electric cars accounted for 12.5% of all passenger cars in Denmark, corresponding to 357,400 cars. The green transition is far from complete, but it is an increase of 73.9% compared to the previous year.
Along with the increase in the number of electric cars, the number of petrol and diesel cars has decreased. Since January 2024, there are now 52,200 fewer petrol cars and 63,800 fewer diesel cars on Danish roads.
Despite the decrease in the number of fossil fuel cars, the total number of passenger cars in Denmark has increased by 1.4% since January 2024 and now stands at 2.865 million units (Source: Statistics Denmark).