Blackstone eyes $100 billion in sustainable finance investment

Blackstone (BX 96,70 -2,32 -2,34%) launched today its Blackstone Credit Sustainable Resources Credit Platform that offers an opportunity to invest an estimated $100 billion in energy transition and climate change solutions projects over the next decade.

The Sustainable Resources Credit Platform is structured to complement the $731 billion firm’s existing private equity, energy and infrastructure strategies that are investing in companies that support the energy transition and climate change solutions.

Led by Robert Horn, who has been with Blackstone Credit since its founding, the project seeks to address the growing challenges, investment needs and expertise required by the transition to renewable energy. Horn has been named global head of the Sustainable Resources Group for Blackstone Credit. Prior to joining Blackstone Credit, Horn worked in Credit Suisse’s Global Energy Group, where he advised on high yield financings and merger and acquisition assignments for companies in the power and utilities sector. 

Horn is joined by Simon Hayden, who has joined Blackstone from EIG Global Energy Partners, where he was for almost 13 years. Now he is senior managing director for Blackstone Credit in London and leads the sustainable resources emphasis in Europe.

“Blackstone Credit’s unmatched scale is being unleashed to support companies that are driving the energy transition,” said Dwight Scott, global head of Blackstone Credit. “We are excited to launch this dedicated financing platform to build on the over $15 billion that Blackstone has committed since 2019 in investments that we believe are consistent with the broader energy transition.” 

According to Blackstone, the platform will invest across the credit spectrum in investment grade credit, non-investment grade credit, preferred and convertible securities. The sector range will also be broad, including residential solar and home efficiency; renewable electricity generation and storage; products, services technologies and natural resources that enable the energy transition; decarbonized transportation; sustainability linked loans; green financings of environmental projects and other energy infrastructure investments.

The business case for renewables financing comes as decarbonization commitments are moving quickly and over 90% of global emissions are said to now be covered by government net zero commitments.

Blackstone officials highlighted figures from the IRENA World Energy Transitions Outlook published last spring that concluded an estimated $100 trillion will be required through 2050 to decarbonize the global economy.

For its part, Blackstone has made over $6 billion in recent debt and equity investments across its alternative investment businesses recently, including this month’s $3 billion capital commitment to Invenergy Renewables, the largest developer of renewable energy projects in North America.

“We believe large scale and flexible capital are essential to funding decarbonization,” said Horn. “We look forward to providing efficient capital and Blackstone’s expertise to companies across a range of sectors that we believe are driving this important transition.”