Robeco Launches New Climate Transition-Focused Equities Index Suite

International asset manager Robeco announced the launch of the Robeco Climate Equities Indices, and new index family aimed at providing investors with exposure to investments supporting global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change, and catering to a broad range of climate investing stages.

According to Robeco, the new indices incorporate, to varying degress, the firm’s proprietary tools enabling forward-looking metrics into stocks contributing to a low-carbon economy and reducing carbon footprint, such as those with credible and ambitious emissions reduction targets, or companies providing transition-enabling solutions. Metrics incorporated into the indices include Robeco’s Climate Traffic Light, which assesses company alignment with the Paris Agreement, SGD Framework, which assesses company alignment with relevant SDGs, and Climate Beta, which measures company exposure to climate transition risk.

Lucian Peppelenbos, Climate Strategist at Robeco, said:

“We decided years ago to not only focus on carbon emissions data when looking at climate investing. We invested in resources to also evaluate other climate characteristics of companies such as their alignment with the Paris Agreement, whether companies provide solutions to lower the world’s future emissions and their level of climate transition risk. We have developed these metrics inhouse and integrate them into our investment solutions. It’s great that our climate IP is now being made available to an even larger group of investors.”

The index family is being launched with three new indices, targeting a diverse set of investor needs, including the Robeco Developed Low-Carbon Climate Leaders Tilt Equities Index, Robeco Developed Paris-Aligned Climate Leaders Tilt Equities Index, and Robeco Developed Climate Leaders Equities Index.

The Low Carbon Climate Leaders Tilt Index aims to reflect market returns, subject to carbon footprint 30% lower than the underlying universe, with a tilt towards stocks that contribute to the low-carbon economy transition, and away from stocks that are more susceptible to climate risk.

The Paris-Aligned Climate Leaders Tilt Index aims to reflect market returns, subject to meeting the requirements to EU Paris Aligned Benchmarks (PABs), with goals including a carbon footprint at least 50% below the underlying universe and at least 7% annual decarbonization. The index also avoids stocks that are misaligned with a path to net zero, tilts towards companies contributing to a low-carbon economy and away from stocks that are more susceptible to climate risk. According to Robeco, the index is targeted to investors looking to integrate more forward-looking climate metrics and more exposure to climate solutions providers.

The Climate Leaders Equities Index is aimed at investors seeking climate transition-related opportunities by investing in solutions providers for the low-carbon economy transition. The index aims to reflect market returns, subject to an overweight in stocks assessed as having a positive contribution to climate change mitigation and the transition to a low-carbon economy, and to stocks aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement, and underweighting stocks considered more susceptible to climate risk.

Joop Huij, Head of Robeco Indices, said:

“We’re excited to launch this climate index family to offer investors a more nuanced approach to climate index investing, compared to carbon emissions’ focussed indices.”