Trump-era policy reversals triggered $22B in U.S. green project cancellations in H1 2025, including GM’s $4.3B EV plant and Equinor’s $955M impairment on Empire Wind after offshore lease suspensions and steel tariffs. Over 16,500 jobs were lost as 58 clean energy projects were canceled or scaled back. Meanwhile, global ESG funds rebounded with $4.9B in Q2 inflows, driven by Europe’s $8.6B surge, while the U.S. logged a $5.7B outflow, its 11th straight quarter of withdrawals. Japan’s $1.7T Government Pension Investment Fund expanded ESG holdings to 14.7% of equities, reinforcing sustainability as a risk buffer amid global volatility. Norges Bank sustained its green investment posture, contrasting with U.S. asset managers pulling ESG language under regulatory and political pressure.
Strategic Moves | Capital flows in energy, infrastructure, and policy
Energy Systems & Grid Reliability
- Meta secured a long-term PPA for 100% of output from Enbridge’s $900M, 600MW Clear Fork solar plant in Texas, locking renewable power through 2027 to stabilize AI-driven data center energy demands, accelerated under OBBB’s tax credit wind-down and aligned with Meta’s 9.8GW U.S. clean energy portfolio expansion and nuclear hedging strategy.
- Sol Systems secured a $675M revolving construction facility led by KKR, BBVA, ING, and NatWest to fund 500MW of solar and storage projects in Illinois, Ohio, and Texas, extending its 7GW national pipeline and accelerating grid-tied capacity ahead of 2026 IRA tax equity phaseouts and seasonal demand volatility.
- Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland committed over £125M with HYRO and Carlton Power to install 147GWh/year of green hydrogen capacity at Barrow and Northfleet sites, replacing 50% of natural gas use across tissue lines and cutting 28,500 tCO₂ annually under the UK’s HAR1 scheme and Hydrogen Business Model to stabilize steam supply and secure energy resilience through 2027.
- Avalanche Energy secured $10M from Washington State’s carbon market to build the FusionWERX test facility after operating its compact fusion prototype at 300,000 volts and 6MV/m ion density, enabling neutron production for radioisotopes and materials testing, and accelerating decentralized fusion R&D with IP-secure access for third-party reactor developers.
- Aigen raised $10M led by NEA to expand deployment of 50 solar-powered, AI-driven weed-killing robots tested across North Dakota and Minnesota, eliminating chemical herbicide use and mitigating resistance build-up, which threatens crop resilience and yields under rising regulatory and soil health constraints.
Resilient Infrastructure & Materials
- Goldman Sachs Alternatives agreed to acquire Liquid Environmental Solutions and its 26 treatment hubs and 64 U.S. service sites from Audax, doubling down on non-hazardous liquid waste recovery for food, retail, and hospitality sectors, expanding circular economy logistics to mitigate landfill loads, local discharge risks, and infrastructure stress in waste-critical metro zones.
- GeologicAI raised $44M Series B from BHP, Rio Tinto, Breakthrough Energy, and Blue Earth to scale its AI-integrated drill core scanners across five continents, enabling high-resolution, real-time critical mineral analysis to cut discovery timelines and reduce exploration waste in lithium and copper supply chains under mounting electrification pressure.
- Mission Barns secured USDA regulatory approval to commercialize its cultured pork fat, enabling mass production via custom bioreactors and displacing synthetic additives in alt-proteins, cutting sodium and flavoring loads while stabilizing supply chains for 50+ CPG partners targeting lower-emissions meat formats.
Resilience Finance & Policy
- Deutsche Bank posted €28B in Q2 2025 sustainable finance volume, its strongest since 2021, bringing total commitments to €417B toward a €500B target, with €17B led by investment banking including Slovenia’s €1B sovereign SLB and Iberdrola’s €750M EuGB issuance, reinforcing transition-aligned liquidity in European sovereign and utility sectors under tightening carbon regulations.
- Mizuho Financial Group acquired Augusta & Co, a London-based energy transition advisory firm with €30B raised across 130+ renewable deals since 2002, integrating Augusta’s specialist M&A platform to expand low-carbon infrastructure financing and deliver bespoke transaction support for cross-border utility and grid asset divestitures.
- The UK ETS Authority will integrate engineered carbon removals into the national trading scheme by 2029, requiring 200-year verified storage and limiting eligibility to UK-based DAC and BECCS projects, creating a one-for-one offset framework to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors and establish GGR auction liquidity under a fixed emissions cap.
Omer Agadi, Analyst, Firstime Ventures
