Key Takeaways from PRI in Person 2026: Sustainability Moves to the Investment Core

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) marked its 20 anniversary this year. Yet responsible investment is still evolving, and its implications for the investment industry continue to unfold.

Following PRI in Person 2026 in Amsterdam, four themes stand out: sustainability is becoming more closely tied to investment performance, asset owners are strengthening their influence, physical climate risk remains difficult to assess, and adaptation is emerging as an investment opportunity.

Here are our takeaways:

1. Investment integration is becoming an advantage

Environmental and social factors are increasingly relevant to investment decisions. Energy, food and resource costs are volatile and increasing faster than inflation. Data centres depend on both reliable power and community support, and clean energy can offer cost advantages and reduce exposure to geopolitical disruption. While these factors increasingly shape cash flows, asset values and investment assumptions, the key is turning this information into better investment decisions. Integration cannot remain the responsibility of a separate sustainability team. Sustainability professionals need to work alongside portfolio managers and contribute subject-matter expertise, test assumptions, assess scenarios and help distinguish material signals from noise. This is because the advantage will come not from collecting more information, but from understanding which factors matter financially and how they affect investment outcomes.

2. Sustainability advances when asset owners demand it

Influence begins with a seat at the table, and asset owner expectations are increasingly shaping how managers approach sustainability, from investment due diligence through ownership and monitoring. Across private markets, speakers emphasized the ability to work directly with portfolio companies on value creation and risk management. In private credit, ESG due diligence, interest-rate ratchets, annual sustainability reviews and sustainability-linked covenants also appear to be moving closer to the mainstream.

The more consequential shift may be happening upstream, as limited partners translate their responsible investment beliefs into clearer expectations of managers through due diligence, side letters, dialogue and evaluation. Their questions are becoming more sophisticated, but not necessarily less pragmatic: many want candour about trade-offs, setbacks and lessons learned.

For general partners, polished claims will matter less than evidence, transparency and a credible account of what changed when sustainability was considered.

3. Physical climate risk remains an underwriting blind spot

Climate hazards can affect companies, assets and investment portfolios across sectors and regions. The challenge is understanding where and when physical climate hazards will materialize, how severe their impacts will be, and who will ultimately bear the cost — companies, insurers, communities, governments or investors.

Investor demand and artificial intelligence are accelerating the development of climate data and models, but more data has not yet produced a single version of the truth. Different providers can generate different risk pictures for the same asset. The challenge is therefore not simply to buy another data set but rather apply expertise to interpret model outputs, test assumptions, understand interdependencies and translate findings into underwriting, operations, insurer engagement and asset-hardening decisions^[1].

4. Adaptation is emerging as an investable theme

The 2026 editions of Climate Week NYC and PRI in Person made one point clear: investor interest in adaptation and resilience is growing. The opportunity set ranges from familiar businesses, including air-conditioning, water technologies and resilient building materials, to nature-based infrastructure that reduces flood risk, protects communities and supports natural habitats. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that USD 1.2 tn in annual spending will be needed by 2050 to protect companies, communities and households under a 2°C warming scenario^[2].

This is not yet a neatly packaged asset class. Investors still need better ways to understand the interdependencies among climate, nature and biodiversity loss, and to measure and monetize the value of improved resilience. The disclosure gap is striking. Conference participants noted that only a small set of public companies currently report decision-useful information on physical climate risks and adaptation measures. These complexities are why the field deserves attention: the market is beginning to price a need that is large, persistent and only partially served.

A practical starting point is operational: understand how physical risks could disrupt critical activities, identify vulnerabilities across facilities, supply chains and infrastructure, and test preparedness under multiple scenarios. From there, investors can assess where capital improvements, insurance, redundancy or nature-based solutions can protect value, and invest accordingly. The direction is clear: adaptation is moving from a policy discussion to a capital-allocation question.

What this means for investors

The technologies exist; capital is available and private sector implementation will continue where the economics are compelling. But investing in a more sustainable world at scale needs clearer policy signals, better disclosure and stronger conviction from decision-makers.

For investors, the opportunity is to identify where environmental and social pressures are already changing costs, revenues, resilience and competitive advantage, and to incorporate those changes before the market fully prices them.

At Quinn+Partners, the team investors on integrating sustainability, climate change and impact into investment decisions to support stronger performance and better investment outcomes. To explore how Q+P can support the advancement of a responsible investment approach, please get in touch.

[1] https://www.quinnandpartners.com/insights/key-takeaways-from-forecast-2026/

[2] https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/media-center/climate-adaptation-more-than-covers-its-cost