In the first weeks of 2026, clean energy became a punching bag again with President Trump using the Davos stage to denounce renewables and deride “money losing windmills”. Clearly the politics aren’t on clean energy’s side, at least not in Washington.  

But what do the markets actually say? 

In the US, clean energy and clean transportation investment hit a record USD $75 billion in Q3 2025, the highest quarterly total on record. Companies are not backing off wind either: industry forecasts expected more than 7 GW of wind installations in 2025 (about 36% more than 2024). This isn’t surprising when you look at the underlying economics. The US Energy Information Administration comparisons show new onshore wind is among the lowest-cost new power sources at about $29.6/MWh for plants entering service in 2030—roughly on par with solar PV (~$31.9/MWh) and well below new natural-gas combined cycle (~$64.6/MWh). 

The implication is clear: there are tremendous business opportunities for forward-looking leaders who focus on fundamentals and execution. That’s why the Clean200 follows revenues, not rhetoric: the global clean economy is increasingly advancing on fundamentals, even when the US politics turns hostile. 

In 2025, the transition’s real test wasn’t technology—it was infrastructure. Data centers accounted for 1.5% of global demand in 2024 and that load has been growing roughly 12% per year, with AI accelerating the trend. In practice, 2025 clarified a key nuance: when demand grows faster than grids can connect new clean supply, the system leans on whatever is already dispatchable—often fossil fuels—at the margin. That dynamic showed up in the U.S., where coal generation rose 13% in 2025, even as clean investments kept growing. 

Globally, the capital allocation signal remained clear. The International Energy Agency projected global energy investment would reach about $3.3 trillion in 2025, with around $2.2 trillion going to clean energy technologies—nearly double fossil fuels. In other words: fossils can still win the next hour; clean energy is winning the next decade. 

Electrification reinforced that momentum. Global EV sales reached 20.7 million in 2025, up 20% from 17.1 million in 2024. Growth was uneven: Europe rose 33% and China 17%, while North America fell 4%—showing the transition is accelerating globally even as some markets hit policy and affordability headwinds. That momentum is also supported by sliding battery costs: BloombergNEF puts average lithium-ion pack prices at $108/kWh in 2025, down from $115 in 2024 and $139 in 2023 (US$84/kWh in China, the lowest globally).  

Decarbonization also pushed deeper into hard-to-abate sectors. A notable 2025 milestone: the International Maritime Organization approved an IMO Net-Zero Framework combining a global marine fuel standard with a GHG pricing mechanism for large ships, set up for formal adoption later in 2025 and entry into force in 2027. Even where debate remains on ambition, the direction is clear: climate rules are hardening in global sectors. 

Still, some parts of the transition hit a reality check. The “hydrogen reset” showed markets maturing. Developers scrapped or delayed projects as costs and demand gaps widened. Rather than a retreat, this looked like discipline — capital rotating toward nearer-term winners (grids, storage, electrification, efficiency) while hydrogen narrows toward uses where molecules truly outperform electrons. 

What this means for the Clean200 

The Clean200 follows sustainable revenues — where the world is already buying solutions at scale. In 2025, the sustainable economy became more electricity-dependent, and more infrastructure-constrained: AI-driven demand exposed grid bottlenecks, while capital continued to pour into clean power, storage, electrification and enabling supply chains. For investors and business leaders, the question has shifted from whether the transition is happening to which companies are positioned to supply what the global economy is now structurally demanding. 

This year’s Clean200 was selected from 8,229 global companies based on a rigorous assessment of how much revenue each earns from products and services aligned with the Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy. At the same time, companies were screened to ensure they are not fundamentally offside key responsible-investing criteria, including flags identified through As You Sow’s Invest Your Values platform—such as involvement in fossil fuels, deforestation, weapons, private prisons, or thermal coal, or a record of systematically obstructing climate policy. 

Key Findings:

This year’s Clean200 is concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region (36%), Europe (33%), and North America (26%), with the remaining 5% headquartered in South America. The United States led the 2026 ranking with 41 companies, followed by China with 28 and Japan with 15. 

Across the Clean200, companies derive an average of 53.7% 1 of revenue from activities classified as sustainable, representing over $2.8 trillion2 in revenue, well above the 16.7% average sustainable revenue share among their MSCI ACWI peers. 

Among firms included in the 2026 Clean200, the Information Technology sector generated the largest portion of sustainable revenue, contributing $782 billion (over one-quarter of the total). Consumer Discretionary followed with $649 billion, and Industrials with $611 billion. 

And it’s not just the climate case that holds up—the returns do, too. As of January 26, 2026, the Clean200—measured on a sustainable revenue-weighted basis—generated a total return (gross, USD) of 282.9% since its July 1, 2016 inception, compared with 111.0% for the MSCI ACWI/Energy Index of fossil fuel companies. 

To put it in another way, $10,000 invested in the Clean200 on July 1, 2016 would have grown to $38,290 by January 26, 2026, versus $21,100 for the MSCI ACWI/Energy fossil fuel benchmark.  

Over the same period, the Clean200 also outpaced the broader MSCI ACWI, which returned 221.3%.  

Corporate Knights and As You Sow are pleased to present the latest edition of the Clean200 designed to help investors identify companies advancing climate solutions while outperforming both the broad-based benchmark and its high-carbon global counterparts. 

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Clean200 vs MSCI ACWI vs MSCI ACWI/Energy
(July 1, 2016–Jan. 26, 2026, Total Return USD Gross)