Green dealmaking moves to the sidelines at CERAWeek

HOUSTON — Investors and bankers who once attended CERAWeek by S&P Global either visited in stealth mode or skipped the gathering entirely this year.

Why it matters: There's still a furious pace of dealmaking across low-carbon energy sectors, just fewer mainstream funders that want to talk publicly about it.

Driving the news: Decarbonization has proved a touchy subject at CERAWeek, a long-running oil and gas conference that in recent years seemed it would be overtaken by low-carbon investment.

Zoom in: While plenty of climate-focused investors and bankers met, mainstream firms slimmed the presence of their low-carbon teams.

• A small sample size: Energy transition teams from Blackstone, Macquarie, and TPG had a much smaller or considerably quieter presence.
• Few were up for talking about the decision — and, to be fair, answering "why you're not attending this specific conference" isn't exactly a priority press inquiry.

Yes, but: One source, citing the Trump administration's broad assault on low-carbon energy, says teams are more wary of discussing green dealmaking for fear of backlash.

• Another suggested their teams might simply have been on spring break.

The big picture: In fairness, there was overlap with a large infrastructure investment conference in Berlin. But there are also other factors at work.

• CERAWeek's speaker agenda this year reflected the shift from decarbonization back to fossil fuels, with few slots allocated to the topic of low-carbon investment compared to previous years.

The bottom line: Low-carbon dealmaking has shifted from the main stage to the side stage.