Adrian Del Maestro is the global energy consulting lead at AECOM, an engineering and construction company.

Just a few years ago, a net-zero future seemed almost certain. From the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act to the European Green Deal, major economies advanced with green optimism. Even limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,seemed possible at the time。

However, 2025 feels vastly different.

A wave of emerging tariffs is complicating the economics of low-carbon projects; geopolitical tensions are prompting many governments to shift investment focus toward new defense priorities, which may crowd out transition spending; more broadly, energy resilience is dominating national and corporate agendas, elevating the status of natural gas and nuclear power.

Net-zero targets seem to be entering a "reset period." The data confirms this.

Although total clean energy investment in 2024 reacheda remarkable $2.1 trillion, spending growth slowed by about half compared to the previous three years. Even as solar and wind investment continued to grow, spending on emerging transition technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen fell by 23% in 2024.

If this reset momentum persists, it will have severe consequences in the short term: from accelerating climate change to weakening the adoption of key transition technologies, the impact will be wide-ranging.

Getting net-zero back on track is not easy, but there is still a window to correct course. This requires re-emphasizing energy resilience, focusing limited resources on key technologies, while removing barriers in areas that are already profitable.

For governments, regardless of how short-term profit priorities affect corporate thinking, maintaining a long-term focus on achieving net-zero is crucial. This starts with enabling technologies.

For example, grid modernization must remain a key priority. It not only supports the ongoing electrification process but also cuts across all energy forms and electrification trends. Sustaining grid modernization requires a range of policy decisions, from accelerating grid connection permitting to strengthening community stakeholder engagement to ensure rapid project delivery. In the UK, for instance, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is crucial to achieving the "2030 clean power" goal. The bill will prioritize grid connections for ready projects rather than the previous speculative "first-come, first-served" process. While investing in grid infrastructure, countries and their regulators should continue to promote energy storage solutions, from batteries to pumped hydro, to address the intermittency challenges brought by renewable energy growth.

These approaches will also accelerate the deployment of today's most commercially viable and competitive energy technologies—solar PV and wind. They often stall due to lengthy permitting processes and regulatory hurdles. Removing these barriers can help triple renewable energy capacity by the end of this decade[1], while enhancing resilience against surging energy demand and global instability.

However, other industries are harder to electrify. Heavy industry, aviation, and shipping all contribute significantly to global emissions yet remain difficult to decarbonize. For example, in global aviation, as of 2024, sustainable aviation fuel production accounts for only about 0.5% of global jet fuel use. These sectors must continue to be a focus of government policy-making, especially with increasingly limited public funding.

The challenge for heavy industry is that emerging technologies like CCS and hydrogen still face fundamental issues regarding technological maturity, economic affordability, and scalability. Therefore, government policymakers need to take more measures to de-risk these projects and stimulate consumer demand. Given the current macroeconomic environment, this is challenging. Historically, government subsidies have focused more on encouraging hydrogen supply. However, given the lack of final investment decisions in this area, governments may need to focus more on stimulating hydrogen demand. In an era of global trade instability, such investments are crucial for countries seeking to foster domestic low-carbon industrial solutions.

Although this "reset" brings challenges to emerging technologies, it can be expected that new investment opportunities will span areas of shared interest between governments and businesses, such as transportation infrastructure clusters.

Take ports, for example. They are becoming industrial clusters for the next wave of electrification, with multimodal connections including ships, trains, and trucks. The cruise industry has already taken the lead in decarbonization by adopting shore power. Ports are also staging grounds for offshore wind deployment and, for governments, key hubs for economic growth, driving local employment and attracting private sector investment. As strategic nodes in global trade, port electrification will provide additional resilience to supply chains while supporting connections to offshore wind farms or hydrogen hubs. Electrification is already fully technically feasible. In the U.S., the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been leaders in electrification, with the Port of Los Angeles becoming the world's first port to provide shore power to container ships in 2004.

Geopolitics, climate change, and energy investment form a complex picture. As we enter this reset period, governments, businesses, and investors must respond with a new posture of energy resilience. They should commit to maintaining long-term investment in competitive technologies while taking proactive strategies for the sectors most vulnerable to the current slowdown. Doing this well can not only bring economic growth and security but also bring accelerated net-zero goals back into view—even in an era of increasing instability.