Skip to main content
Retreating alpine glacier tongue with exposed grey moraine and turquoise meltwater

Challenge runs

Hit the carbon target and still make money

Each challenge runs for a set number of years with a carbon target and a return floor. Miss either one and your anchor investor pulls out. Every year is harder than the one before.

Challenge run · Standard

The Glacier Mandate

An anchor investor has tied its re-up to a hard decarbonisation path. You have four years, twelve companies and one cement plant that produces most of the problem.

Length
4 years
Target
Carbon below 310kt · IRR above 12%
Take the mandate

Opening position

Fund IRR
14.0%
Reputation
60
Risk load
34
Portfolio carbon
620kt
AUM
$1.40bn
Dry powder
$3200m

Challenge run · Hard

Stranded

You inherit a fund raised in a different decade. Lenders are withdrawing, insurers are repricing and two assets have no bidders at any price you can defend.

Length
5 years
Target
Carbon below 520kt · IRR above 10%
Take the mandate

Opening position

Fund IRR
9.0%
Reputation
44
Risk load
58
Portfolio carbon
1180kt
AUM
$2.10bn
Dry powder
$2600m

Challenge run · Brutal

The Last Winter

Your platform depends on cold weather. Every year the snowline moves up the mountain, insurance costs more and the exit window narrows.

Length
6 years
Target
Carbon below 240kt · IRR above 13%
Take the mandate

Opening position

Fund IRR
11.0%
Reputation
52
Risk load
46
Portfolio carbon
480kt
AUM
$1.25bn
Dry powder
$2100m

Challenge run · Hard

Uninsurable

You run the property book of a regional insurer. The hazard models were rebuilt last winter and every coastline you cover moved a band. Regulators cap what you can charge; reinsurers no longer cap what they charge you.

Length
5 years
Target
Carbon below 300kt · IRR above 11%
Take the mandate

Opening position

Fund IRR
10.0%
Reputation
58
Risk load
52
Portfolio carbon
400kt
AUM
$1.60bn
Dry powder
$2800m

Challenge run · Brutal

The Sovereign Transition

A sovereign fund hands you scale on one condition: a hard emissions-intensity rule on new capital. Everything easy is already priced, and the asset that would fix your carbon number employs a whole town.

Length
6 years
Target
Carbon below 380kt · IRR above 12%
Take the mandate

Opening position

Fund IRR
12.0%
Reputation
56
Risk load
40
Portfolio carbon
940kt
AUM
$2.60bn
Dry powder
$3600m