Real Estate Lending to Private Climate Credit - Impossible?

Hi everyone,

Just to say this community is awesome - been a reader for some time now and have always appreciated the insights provided.

This’ll be my first post given I’ve come to a point where I’m looking for a career change and I’m in need of some advice so thanks in advance for any help!

I fell into CRE lending after doing an internship at one of the top US banks for CRE in London. The job market was tough at the time, the team was great and I found the work interesting enough so when I graduated I accepted the full-time offer. I’m now 3 years in, in an Associate position and quickly realising this is not what I want to do for the rest my career. I love the structuring, modelling + relationship-building side, but I just don’t have a passion for real estate (which I appreciate isn’t a necessity for a career but I want to/ think I have found a career where I’m interested in the underlying subject matter). I’ve done some soul-searching and I want to try and move into Private Credit (Direct Lending) with a specific focus on “climate credit” or the energy transition as, in short, (i) I much prefer analysing companies to real estate (ii) I find areas like clean energy or sustainable transport/ agriculture really interesting.

I’m obviously aware RE is quite specialised but I’m really hoping that I’m not trapped in the sector / there’s a way I can get out. I’m still relatively young (25) so I’m hoping the kind people of WSO will reassure me and help me find a way to what I want to do. I currently do a mix of mortgage-secured lending, unsecured lending to REITs, loan-on-loans to debt funds, and CMBS so I do think there’s some transferable skills I can bring into PC / I’m hoping I don’t get pigeonholed as a real-estate guy (although a lot of what I've read makes me fear I may do...).

From my research there’s 3 main options for me:

1. Internal Move: I could try to move into IB internally, leveraging my hopefully good rep in the firm, as a route into PC (thinking M&A, Climate Tech Industry Group, LevFin) but all these require 6m+ of IB experience even for Analyst roles so I'm not sure if I could compete with other potential candidates if I’m being realistic
2. Apply to PC Directly: again, these all require IB or Direct Lending so I doubt whether I could compete
3. Masters: try to secure a top MFin (e.g. LBS) and use that to try and land a job which is as close to my end goal as possible (i.e. this route should make it easier to try and secure a PC role or route to this / transition out of CRE).

Right now I’m leaning towards #3 as I think that’s the only way I’d be considered for the types of job I’d need to make the transition, but I’d be massively appreciative of any advice anyone could give me on how I could make this switch as I'm willing to do whatever it takes. 

TLDR: what's the best way to move out of CRE Lending into Private Climate Credit?