Financing the Energy Transition

The transition to a low-carbon economy will require significant investment in energy infrastructure — for everything from building wind, solar and nuclear facilities to electricity grids to charging stations for electric vehicles. In this week’s episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we talk to the Chief Executive of HSBC’s Infrastructure Finance and Sustainability unit, Sir Danny Alexander.  

Danny was the keynote speaker at the annual summit that S&P Global Sustainable1 hosted in London April 30. We sit down on the sidelines of the event to hear how HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, approaches financing for energy infrastructure.   

"We see the commercial opportunities that come from net-zero transition and the infrastructure that's needed to deliver that, but also that's coming from digital transformation from datacenters," he says. "[W]e are going to substantially increase our business in that space." 

Prior to joining HSBC, Danny was a Vice President at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Beijing-headquartered multilateral development bank. He was also formerly a politician in the UK.

In the interview, he explains why infrastructure investment is a theme that resonates around the world.

“We need infrastructure to live our daily lives, to grow our economies, to achieve all kinds of both public and private goals that countries and companies and individuals have,” Danny says. “[F]or all the sustainable investment, the core is the commercial opportunity. And so driving infrastructure investment that is commercially viable, that will lead us to many of the sustainable solutions that we're discussing today.” 

Learn more about the S&P Global Sustainable1 Summit in Singapore June 26, 2025: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/events/sustainable1-summit-2025   

Read the latest research on climate physical risk from S&P Global Sustainable here: For the world’s largest companies, climate physical risks have a $1.2 trillion annual price tag by the 2050s | S&P Global   

Learn more about S&P Global's Energy Transition data here: Sustainable1 Solutions: Energy Transition | S&P Global 

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1, a part of S&P Global.           

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