Dive Brief:
- In spite of a hostile political climate, sustainable assets in the United States increased modestly in 2025, from $6.5 trillion to $6.6 trillion, according to a report the U.S. Sustainable Investment Forum released this month. However, the overall U.S. investment market grew by 17.5% this year, meaning that sustainable assets’ market share shrank slightly compared to 2024, to 11%.
- The amount of assets with an active stewardship policy grew about 3% to cover about 69% of the U.S. market, per the report. Respondents were also asked about their use of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and around half of the 200 asset managers and owners who answered said they use the SDGs to guide investment decisions, up from 43% in 2024.
- Respondents were pessimistic about the future of sustainable investing. Only 53% said they expect the sustainable investment market to grow over the next year — down from 73% in 2024 — and 20% said they expected to see a decline in the market, up from 3% last year.
Dive Insight:
The climate for sustainable investing in the U.S. became considerably more complicated in 2025, the report noted, as the government slashed Inflation Reduction Act clean energy and EV tax credits and, more recently, targeted proxy advisors for their potential consideration of ESG and DEI. At the state level, ESG continues to come under attack, with legislatures and attorneys general seeking to restrict its use in investment decisions. In addition, proposals to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program threaten the foundational data needed to assess climate-related financial risk, the report said.
US SIF said the survey results suggest that “political pushback has moderated, not reversed ESG activity.” The organization said it received survey responses from 270 asset owners and managers, according to the report.
“Holistically, the results suggest an investor commitment to sustainable investing despite political volatility and macroeconomic pressure,” the report said.
Only about 13% of respondents said they decreased sustainable investment as a result of anti-ESG attacks. But 68% reported no change, and 19% said they increased sustainable investment. Meanwhile, 16% of respondents said they decreased investments in response to the changing political environment, but 62% said they made no changes, and 22% said they increased investments.
Additionally, 46% of respondents said the shift in the U.S. political climate has had no impact on their organization's approach to ESG, the report found. Only 6% said they reduced their U.S. fund offerings. Instead, 29% said the shift prompted them to place more focus on demonstrable financial materiality, and 24% said they stopped using the acronym ESG.
Despite respondents’ pessimism about the market as a whole, organizations themselves seem set to hold steady with their sustainable investment commitments. Just 2% of respondents see the current hostile climate to sustainable investing as a permanent setback; 54% said they believe it is cyclical, and 38% said it would change with a new political administration.
As a result, there does not appear to be a large appetite for organizational pullback. Only 2% of asset managers said they thought their firm would decrease its allocation to sustainable investments next year, according to the report. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they would maintain the current level, and 35% said their firm would likely increase sustainable investments.
