Ten years after the Paris Cop and the commitment made by many countries to limit global warmingthe year 2025 will remain as that of the return of the theme of energy transition. The growing need for electrical installations has awakened the entire segment of stocks linked to shovels and picks in the sector, enough to revitalize climate funds. Even more strongly than the surge in renewable energies in the midst of the Ukrainian war when it was a question of freeing ourselves from Russian gas.
Climate funds have come a long way. After a record 2020, the blow suddenly fell under the blows of rising rates and the American about-face with regard to pro-climate policies. Fund performance plunged. Withdrawals have multiplied.
2025, the year of rebound
But the power is coming back: the new energy index Msci New Energy jumped 30% in 2025 while the markets improve (CAC 40 -NTR: + 13.3%, Eurostoxx 50 -NTR: + 24.3% over the same year). “THE electricity price have doubled in the United States since the launch of Chat GPT. AI must resolve the bottleneck problems in the sector and invest in electricity network infrastructure, energy storage, and renewable energies which are once again sought-after assets in the United States.» underlines Louis O’Connor, manager at Uzès Gestion. Didn’t Alphabet (Google) just at the end of December buy the clean energy project developer Intersect Power for $4.75 billion (4 billion euros).
Capital has selected five funds, all Greenfin certifieda demanding label launched on the occasion of the Cop de Paris in 2015. This label guarantees you a high environmental, social and governmental level. Some focus on the euro zone, others invest throughout the world.
Their managers are followers of “stock picking“, that is to say they choose values for their intrinsic qualities. THE label requirements require them to compose a portfolio uncorrelated with the major indices, in particular by avoiding fossil fuels and limiting the weight of values which have nothing to do with eco-activities.
Climate funds: winners and losers
In these funds you find specialists in electrification (Schneider, Legrand) in energy storage (Stif, the American Tesla, the Chinese CATL, etc.), groups engaged in decarbonization and waste recovery (Séché Véolia, etc.); materials or construction groups (Eiffage, the Finnish Konekranes); clean transport (Alstom); real estate companies that invest in economical buildings (Unibail, Klepierre); services to optimize resources (Cap Gemini, Sopra Steria) including technological stocks (ASML, Infineon, Koontron, Halma, or even the AI giant Nvidia. “Nvidia is relatively well rated according to extra-financial criteria because its chips demonstrate from generation to generation a significant improvement in energy consumption per AI token generated» says Louis O’Connor.
The climate funds that have suffered the most in recent years are those that overly favor growth stocks or indebted companies that are particularly sensitive to rising rates. THE winners of 2025 are those who knew how to negotiate the brutal reversals of the markets, took the AI wave at the right time and demonstrates selectivity at the cost of difficult trade-offs. “The Dorval European Climate Initiative fund has never been as active and responsive as in 2025 in order to adapt the fund to the economic and stock market context.» testifies Laurent Trulès.
Now, the managers are restoring balance between these growth stocks and those more defensive. Even if it means using their investment latitude outside of eco-activities. Green managers also have financial goals.
