‘Renewable energy stocks outperformed oil and gas’, Goldman Sachs tells Oregon’s $101bn public pension fund
The advice fed into a meeting convened by Oregon Investment Council to review the Public Employees Retirement Fund’s investment outlook
Oregon’s Investment Council (OIC), which oversees the state’s $101bn Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF) met yesterday for the second time this year. As part of the meeting, representatives from Goldman Sachs briefed the council on investment implications of the energy transition.
A statement released by Oregon State Treasury shows that this presentation highlighted outperformance in renewable energy listed equities.
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“Analysts reported that renewable energy stocks outperformed oil and gas in 2025 as well as other sectors (including tech stocks) and discussed opportunities for climate positive investments over the next four years”, the statement reads.
Meeting disclosures show that John Goldstein, global head of sustainability and impact solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset & Wealth Management delivered this presentation.
“The discussion provided timely insights into material changes across energy systems as the Oregon State Treasury continues implementing priorities from the Climate Resilience Investment Act”, the statement outlined.
The Council also reviewed the fund’s performance for the previous year, updated its capital market assumptions and identified the divers of long-term returns. In 2025, the fund returned 9.68% with positive returns reported across all classes.
Oregon State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner welcomed OPERF’s performance outlook.
“These healthy investment returns will contribute to the Public Employee Retirement System’s stability and help it stay on track to eliminate the unfunded liability by 2036,” commented Steiner.
Real assets
Earlier this year, the Treasury published an update on OPERF’s climate solutions investment plan. By 2035, OPERF is on track to triple exposure to ‘climate positive’ real assets, compared to a baseline of 2022 when $1.2bn invested in this category.
Ahead of the meeting, non-profit Climate Finance Action provided written testimony to the Council. CFA’s testimony, provided by founder Mary Cerulli reviewed OPERF’s 2025 net zero progress report.
“The report highlights that climate-positive holdings in real assets doubled to $2.4 billion and were the best-performing sector over five years, delivering 20% returns”, Cerulli pointed out.
“This confirms that investing in the ‘market conditions of today and the future’ is a fiduciary win”, she wrote.
At last count, the fund reported $2.4bn allocated to climate positive real assets. OPERF’s investments in transition infrastructure have also tripled since 2020, now accounting for 22% of its allocation.
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