The Brief

The Brief: What the heck is going on with climate stocks?

ImpactAlpha · July 17, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

📣 Agents of Impact meetup: San Diego. ImpactAlpha’s Zuleyma Bebell is back in San Diego. Help David Bank, Dennis Price and other Agents of Impact welcome her back to town at our informal happy hour tonight. We’ll start at 5:30pm PT and buy the first few rounds at the Harland Brewing Company at One Paseo in Del Mar. Bring news, views and a friend. Let us know you’re coming.

In today’s Brief:

  • Solar stocks defy Washington’s gravitational drag
  • EV lending in India
  • Financing land beneath renewable sites
  • Putting small businesses on the COP30 agenda

Featured: Personal Finance

Solar stocks defy Washington’s gravity. The current market landscape requires us to hold two, if not more, opposing truths in mind at once. Number one: President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill has been signed into law. While some of the worst provisions were successfully fought back by pro-renewable groups, the legislation is a major financial setback to the rollout of renewables and electric vehicles in the US. Number two: And yet, TAN, the exchange traded fund of US-listed solar companies, is at its highest value of any time since Trump was elected. “This is just not logically what one would expect to happen to such companies in the stock market after significant government support is rolled back,” write Zach Stein and James Regulinski of Carbon Collective, whose Climate Solutions ETF,  CCSO, is also sitting at an all time high. “So, what the heck is going on?” In the first monthly analysis for ImpactAlpha on how individuals, companies and organizations can incorporate the realities of our changing climate and energy systems into their investments, the co-founders offer up some hypotheses.

  • Anticipation vs reality. When Joe Biden was elected in 2020, TAN popped, with investors anticipating pro-solar legislation. Then, the solar ETF started to give away its gains. Even the eventual passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, arguably the most pro-solar piece of legislation ever passed, didn’t keep solar stocks from continuing to trade down. Why? Interest rates, say Stein and Regulinski. Capital intensive renewable energy is very sensitive to interest rate changes. Then, after Trump took office for his second term, solar stocks fell, but not as dramatically as they did in 2023 from interest rates. They dropped a lot further in April after the “Liberation Day” tariffs, but then, as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act got hammered out, they started climbing.
  • Sell the rumor, buy the news. “In both presidencies the rumor of what each governing body would do for solar stocks led to much sharper rises or falls than what actually happened,” write Stein and Regulinski. In the case of the IRA, the news on the ground of interest rates dampened the legislative impact. And the worst-case scenarios of how bad the Big Beautiful Bill would be didn’t actually come to pass for solar. In fact, the battery tax credit remains untouched, which could be “a sneaky big deal,” they say.
  • Looking forward: A new floor for solar stocks? Solar power isn’t going away, say the Carbon Collective co-founders. “The uncertainty is largely gone.” The growth curve for electricity demand is spiking (thanks to electrification and AI). And even in spite of federal policy changes, solar and battery systems may still be the cheapest and fastest way to bring new electricity to market. “In a world where policy winds shift quickly and market logic can feel upside-down, two things can indeed be true,” write Stein and Regulinski, “political setbacks for clean energy can coincide with market resilience – and even opportunity.”

Dealflow: Green Lending

India’s Mufin secures $6.5 million in debt to expand electric vehicle lending. Delhi-based Mufin Green Finance partners with equipment manufacturers to provide financing options for electric vehicles, and commercial and household solar installations. The company offers leasing options for fleet operators of two and three-wheel vehicles, financing for charging infrastructure, and battery swapping services that allow clients to generate income without the upfront acquisition costs. Developing World Markets, or DWM, has backed the company with $6.5 million in secured, non-convertible loans. The funding will help Mufin expand lending into India’s smaller cities. The company is active in 14 Indian states, serving nearly 25,000 clients. It has provided 3.5 billion rupees ($40.8 million) in EV financing.

  • Frontier focus. Connecticut-based DWM provides debt and equity to microfinance institutions, banks and cooperatives in emerging markets, with a focus on companies that serve small businesses and women and finance climate-smart solutions. Its portfolio includes Tanzanian microfinance institution Platinum Credit, and Alliance Finance Company, one of Sri Lanka’s oldest non-bank financial institutions. DWM’s investment in Mufin marks its first investment in India’s e-mobility sector. DWM’s Robert Constantino said the investment, “is an important credential in our growing climate finance and renewables private credit lending strategy.”

La Caisse invests $200 million in Renewa to expand financing for land beneath clean energy infrastructure. It’s not just solar and wind projects that need financing, but also the land they sit on. Nearly 10 million acres of land in the US will be needed for solar assets by 2050, while land-based wind will need around 128 million acres. Houston-based Renewa provides leasing options for landowners and developers to acquire the land needed for such clean energy infrastructure. Canadian pension and insurance fund manager La Caisse invested $200 million for a stake in Renewa as part of its sustainable land management strategy. Last month La Caisse said it aims to reach C$400 billion (US$292 billion) in climate investments by 2030. “Given the scale and reach of our global renewable energy projects, we see opportunities with [Renewa’s] model,” said La Caisse’s Emmanuel Jaclot.

  • Rapid growth. The Australian government’s sovereign investment company QIC acquired Renewa in 2022. With 140 renewable energy projects, the asset manager has grown its portfolio of renewables infrastructure land to one of North America’s largest. Renewa clients include Enel Green Power North America, Acciona and Duke Energy. Said co-founders Stephen Lee and Gage Mooring, “Access to land and innovative capital solutions for landowners and developers are essential to making renewable energy growth possible.”
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Village Capital launched a $4 million fund in partnership with the Netherlands’ FMO and RVO to co-invest with local entrepreneur support organizations in agriculture tech, clean energy, circular economy and digital finance ventures. (Techeconomy)
  • British startup Laka, which provides peer-to-peer insurance for electric bike users, raised €8.8 million ($9.6 million) in a Series B round from Ponooc, Achmea Innovation Fund and Autotech Ventures. (EU-Startups)
  • Peak XV, WestBridge, Konark Trust and others invested 1.7 billion rupees ($20 million) in Indian startup Truemeds to help patients find more affordable alternatives to medicine brands online. (Inc42) 
  • Camino Ruiz, a Kenyan aquaculture and fish processing company, received a $1 million loan from Sahel Capital to increase its production. (Sahel Capital)

Signals: COP Watch

Climate leaders call on Brazil to elevate the role of Global South small businesses at COP30. The annual Conference of Parties climate talks often focus on the big fish: governments, development finance institutions and deep-pocketed investors that can channel capital to big projects. They may do well to consider the minnows: small and mid-sized businesses in emerging markets that are at the forefront of climate innovation and real-world impact. Such businesses generate more than half of global GDP and form the backbone of most economies, yet they are often left out of the conversation about the transition to a low-carbon economy. With COP30 in Brazil just four months away, some leaders see an opportunity to lift up the role of small businesses in combatting global warming. “This is a direct call to elevate small and medium enterprises from the sidelines of climate finance to the core of the COP30 agenda, both in the negotiation rooms and across the Action Agenda, to highlight a real opportunity for impact,” writes the Global Climate Finance Forum, a group of investors, policy makers and philanthropists in a letter to the COP30 presidency. “COP30 offers a critical opportunity to unlock climate finance where it matters most.”

  • Action agenda. The group calls for a clear commitment to track and increase the volume of climate finance to small businesses in low and middle-income countries, and to prioritize blended finance, catalytic capital and guarantee structures “that unlock early-stage and locally embedded innovation.” The group highlights the need for results-based finance, revenue-backed contracts, portfolio guarantees and regional blended finance platforms that are tailored to small businesses. Also needed: a performance indicator to track the share of climate finance flowing to small enterprises. Small businesses are often supported by local financiers. These institutions, notes GCFF, “are better positioned to understand small and medium enterprises’ realities and align finance with regional contexts.”
  • Proximity matters. Increasing proximity between providers and users of financial capital improves outcomes in multiple ways, writes Gillian Marcelle of Resilience Capital Ventures, in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Marcelle, a founding member of the GCFF, says such proximity improves risk measurement and management for all stakeholders. “Knowledge about context and multiplier effects is better,” she adds. “Screening for outliers and innovators is better done close up.”
  • More. 

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

Jovitus Rutakinikwa, previously with SME Impact Fund Tanzania, joins Balloon Ventures where he will lead Balloon Ventures Tanzania… ICA Fund promotes Dennise Estrada to chief financial officer… Jack Warning, formerly with Cerity Partners Ventures, joins Supply Change Capital as platform senior associate… Jordan Henault, previously with the US Department of Energy, joins BlueHub Capital as a grants and compliance analyst.

Echoing Green is hiring a vice president and global impact officer… Google DeepMind Impact Accelerator seeks a global health portfolio lead in London… Indigenous Prosperity Foundation is recruiting a senior finance officer in Ottawa… Sustainable Capital Advisors is looking for research and analyst fellows to join its team… Aligned Climate Capital seeks a construction project manager in Los Angeles, Portland or New York… Blue Earth Capital is recruiting a specialist to join its private equity partnerships team.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– July 17, 2025