Private Sector Still Focused on Climate Investing, Pension Fund CEO

Jon Johnsen, PKA CEO, joins to discuss pension funds and PKA’s role in climate finance.

Pension funds like PKA sit at the intersection of finance, climate, and demographics. Their investment choices can accelerate (or delay) the global build-out of renewable energy, infrastructure, and sustainable assets. As geopolitical tensions drive tariffs and supply-chain rewiring, and as central banks keep rates higher for longer, Johnsen’s perspective offers a window into how some of the world’s largest pools of capital are reallocating — and what that means for global markets, emerging economies, and the energy transition.

US President Donald Trump used his address to world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday to denounce climate change and green energy, making a series of misleading claims in a rambling speech that went on for nearly an hour.

The speech comes in the midst of Climate Week NYC and as the world gears up for climate talks in Brazil in November.

Trump chided countries for their efforts to cut emissions and their immigration policies — what he called a “double-tailed monster.” He called climate change a “hoax” and “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” echoing his previous false claims. Voluminous amounts of research spanning decades show the planet is warming due to humans’ burning of fossil fuels.

The president also attacked renewable energy, calling it a “joke” and labeling wind turbines as “so pathetic.” He added that China has “very few wind farms.” Trump also went after the UK for pursuing wind energy while not doing more to explore for oil in the North Sea. He derided wind and solar farms “that go seven miles by seven miles,” saying, “we’re not letting this happen in America.”

In reality, renewable energy is increasingly powering the global economy, particularly in China. In 2024, 84% of the nation’s electricity demand growth was met by wind and solar power, according to a recent report by think tank Ember. China has more than three times the wind power capacity of the US and is the world leader in installing clean energy, according to data compiled by BloombergNEF. The UK, meanwhile, gets nearly a third of its electricity from wind, making it the nation’s top source of power.

“Trump’s views on UK energy policy are about as credible as his claims about paracetamol [acetaminophen] causing autism,” Tessa Khan, the executive director of UK-based NGO Uplift, said in a statement.

The US president’s attacks contrast starkly with the UN’s elevation of climate as a critical issue. “Almost every government in the world recognizes that climate change is not a hoax but a defining challenge,” Laurence Tubiana, chief executive officer of the European Climate Foundation and a key framer of the 2015 Paris Agreement, said in a statement. “Pretending otherwise is simply a denial of reality,” she added.

Trump’s speech underscores his 180-degree pivot from former President Joe Biden, who embraced climate action and pushed to onshore green manufacturing. With a Republican-controlled Congress, Trump has already undone much of his predecessor’s legacy, including by cutting tax credits for electric vehicles and solar and wind power.

The speech also shows the US trying to dislodge climate as a priority not just at home but worldwide. The administration has brokered trade deals that hinge on other countries’ commitments to buy US fossil fuels, and it has pressured the International Energy Agency over its forecasts of peak oil, which Washington rejects.

China, by contrast, has become a clean-tech manufacturing powerhouse and ramped up green investments abroad while playing an increasingly large role at UN climate talks. Tuesday’s speech may give it a bigger opening.

“Chinese leaders and executives must have found Trump’s remarks on green energy puzzling,” said Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “They may well hope the United States continues down that path. It just means one less competitor for them.”

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