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December 2009
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1 Fossil fuel CO2 is one of the six green house gases identified as critical to climate change. Fossil fuel CO2 is the result of the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. In addition to the CO2 that already exists in the air, fossil fuel CO2 acts as a blanket trapping more of the suns energy and raising the temperature of the earth, hence the epithet global warming. Global warming induces changes in rainfall levels, daily temperatures, sea levels, and the rate of glacier melting.
Alka Banerjee
VP, Global Equities (212) 438 3536 alka_banerjee@sandp.com
CHINA (MAINLAND) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA RUSSIAN FEDERATION INDIA JAPAN GERMANY UNITED KINGDOM CANADA REPUBLIC OF KOREA ITALY (INCLUDING SAN MARINO) ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN MEXICO SOUTH AFRICA FRANCE (INCLUDING MONACO) SAUDI ARABIA AUSTRALIA BRAZIL SPAIN INDONESIA
87,043 1.86 UKRAINE Ranking of the world's countries by 2006 total CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning, cement production, and gas flaring. Emissions (CO2_TOT) are expressed in thousand metric tons of carbon (not CO2). Source: Tom Boden, Gregg Marland, and Bob Andres, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/overview_2006.html
In our view, governments alone cant fight the battle against carbon emissions. The task is too large and the scope too wide. Thus we think that a public private partnership is a must to make carbon reduction a reality. A process where stock market mechanisms reward companies that are more carbon efficient can be an effective way to deliver the eco-conscious message to the private sector. One popular approach so far has been to create equity indices and investment tools that focus on companies whose primary interest has been on producing clean technology and clean energy. This approach has its uses; it highlights the specific companies that are leading the charge in the green space and allows for focused investments that are betting on the market's ability to reward these companies.
However, it is an inescapable fact that fiduciary responsibility to achieve market returns dictates the flow of a large amount of institutional money. Niche investment strategies that cater to an audience of socially responsible investors havent crossed over into the mainstream market, as the relatively smaller size and liquidity of the clean companies hampers huge investments. What is required, in our view, is a broad market strategy that can meet the dual objectives of replicating a broad market and, at the same time, rewarding carbon efficiency. Pension funds, sovereign funds, and other government bodies with large assets can make a difference if they support an agenda that promotes carbon efficiency, and yet allows them to satisfy their fiduciary responsibilities at the same time.
S&P/IFCI Carbon Efficient Index Replicates the Risk Return Profile of the S&P/IFCI LargeMidCap
On the heels of the launch of the S&P U.S. Carbon Efficient Index in March 2009, Standard & Poors, under sponsorship of the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, began work in the area of emerging markets. The idea was to replicate the risk return profile of the S&P/IFCI LargeMidCap for emerging markets, but with an emphasis on carbon emissions. The resulting S&P/IFCI Carbon Efficient Index, which will launch on December 10, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, closely tracks the investment performance of the parent index while the index constituents provide a 24% reduced exposure to carbon emissions.
There are Challenges in Working with Emerging Markets' Carbon Footprint Data
The S&P/IFCI Carbon Efficient Index, like its parent, includes 21 emerging markets and more than 800 stocks. Market weights within the index range from approximately 20% for countries like China and Brazil to less than 1% for Hungary and the Philippines. Frequently, smaller markets lack sectoral diversity, and a limited number of companies contribute nearly 100% of their emissions. Carbon footprints2, as calculated by Trucost, a company that provides comprehensive data on corporate environmental impacts, are naturally highest for companies in the utilities, energy, and materials sectors. A simple exclusion of these companies from an index provides a vast sector bias toward investing in financials and technology companies, an approach unacceptable to most investors. Carbon footprints differ greatly between emerging markets, and between sectors within the same emerging market (see table on page 4). This exponentially increases the complexity of designing an emerging market carbon efficiency index.
Trucost has partnered with Standard & Poors to provide data on carbon efficiency. Trucost calculates total greenhouse gas emissions of each company in the index based on companys resource usage, emissions, and supply chain. It then divides total emissions by total revenue dollars earned to get a normalized, comparable carbon footprint.
Average Carbon Score 597.06 1,100.21 1,683.10 2,491.16 477.14 201.03 1,289.97 1,176.95 165.45 318.80 613.74 306.75 64.99 339.15 193.66 153.01 746.04 708.68 391.05 1,450.57 391.76 763.13
Min 15.51 62.12 25.16 4.58 57.37 17.40 16.97 97.40 13.50 24.59 Max 1,721.27 2,313.54 8,176.14 476.78 110.59 6,742.87 1,028.25 8,674.96 141.12 29,318.31 Range 1,705.76 2,251.43 8,150.98 472.20 53.22 6,725.47 1,011.27 8,577.56 127.63 29,293.72 Average 138.46 344.01 910.45 28.11 71.42 516.44 125.17 2,053.49 30.52 5,316.98 763.13
sector and market weights of the index at exactly the same proportion as the parent index. Based on a back tested history of three years this ensures a small tracking error with the parent index.
Carbon emission exposure reduction Over the four time periods 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009the average reduction in carbon emission exposure using our new index was in excess of 21%. In 2009, it was more than 24%.
Carbon Content: S&P IFCI LargeMid vs. S&P IFCI Carbon Efficient
900 800 700 600
S&P/IFCI LargeMid
Analysis of an index with deletions As an exercise to see what would happen if we designed an index without any high carbon emitters, we created a pro forma index that deleted all stocks of companies we identified as high polluters but had been included in the new S&P/IFCI Carbon Efficient Index with a lower weighting. We tested the performance of this hypothetical clean version with the S&P/IFCI LargeMidCap. The investment performance tracking error in this case ballooned to 2.6% over three years. This is important because a large tracking error introduces uncertainty over time on expected returns and can be an issue for investors that make large commitments, such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.
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