London School of Economics

CETEx’s work on sector transition planning and transition finance

CETEx’s Transition Finance team supports policymakers and the financial sector in identifying transition investment opportunities through empirically grounded research and practical analysis.

CETEx is the Knowledge Partner to the Sector Transition Plans initiative between the UK government, industry, finance and broader civil society stakeholders. CETEx’s role is to develop financing plans for key sectors of the UK economy. This work is overseen by the Net Zero Council which provides the high-level forum for government to work together with leaders from across the UK to unlock the opportunities of the green transition.

Through the initiative CETEx will lead the development of finance plans for both existing and emerging sector transition plans. These finance plans will quantify the investment needed to transform each sector and identify the policies, mechanisms and sources of finance required to deliver it, translating high-level ambition into actionable financing strategy that links national policy frameworks with entity-level transition planning.

As a research centre within the LSE Global School of Sustainability (GSoS), we draw on GSoS and wider LSE expertise across climate economics, financial markets and public policy to show how private and public finance can work alongside industrial, fiscal, financial and prudential policy to manage climate-related risks and mobilise investment at scale.

The Transition Finance team’s work spans four connected areas:

  • Financing sector transitions: We develop finance plans that quantify a sector’s investment needs and chart clear pathways to mobilise capital.
  • Investment mobilisation: We identify the financial, policy and market barriers that constrain investment, and what it takes to overcome them at scale.
  • Public–private finance coordination: We set out how public finance, fiscal policy and private capital can work together to allocate capital where it delivers most.
  • Transition planning: We strengthen the credibility and delivery of transition plans at both the entity and sector level, across sectors and jurisdictions.

The CETEx delivery team:

The Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE is Chair of CETEx and Co-chair of the Sector Transition Plan Working Group for the Net Zero Council, which will help ensure that the development of these financing plans aligns with the broader work of the Council.

The team also benefits from an expert advisory group, comprised of:

  • Dr Mathilde Mesnard, Deputy Director of the OECD’s Environment Directorate and member of the CETEx Global Advisory Board
  • Dr Benjamin Braun, Assistant Professor in Political Economy
  • James Close, Senior Visiting Fellow, CETEx
  • Dr Maarten De Ridder, Assistant Professor of Economics, LSE
  • Tom Gosling, Professor in Practice and Director of the Initiative in Sustainable Finance within the Financial Markets Group at the London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE
  • Vanessa Havard-Williams OBE, Senior Visiting Fellow, CETEx
  • Mark Manning, Senior Visiting Fellow, CETEx
  • Carmen Nuzzo, Professor in Practice and Executive Director of the Transition Pathways Institute’s Global Climate Transition Centre, LSE

Ex officio members of the advisory group: