Family offices in Asia can take advantage of an emerging funding gap for developing climate technologies, according to Barclays plc. 

Venture capitalists continue to back early-stage innovations, while infrastructure investors are focused on solutions being deployed at scale. That’s left an obvious gap, said Daniel Hanna, the global head of sustainable finance at the firm’s corporate and investment bank.

“Asia’s private offices also have a huge role to play, and an opportunity in scaling climate technology,” Hanna told Bloomberg Television’s The Asia Trade in a Wednesday interview. “There is quite a lot of capital at the venture stage. There’s certainly a lot of dry powder at the infrastructure stage.”

Though Asia’s private office sector is booming, the region has shown less enthusiasm for green investments than other locations, according to data in a 2023 report from Preqin Ltd. Only about a third of the family offices surveyed allocated capital to specific environmental, social and governance (ESG)-linked themes, including clean energy, education or healthcare, the report said. 

Asia’s focus on transition finance has been successful, according to Hanna in the interview. While the concept isn’t explicitly defined, it typically refers to capital allocated to polluters to help move them away from fossil fuels. 

“Helping carbon-intensive companies to decarbonise is still a work in progress,” according to Hanna. “Asia is really leading at the forefront”, including with Japan’s transition bonds, he said.

  - Bloomberg