A new set of indexes from MSCI Inc. aims to help investors align their portfolios with the climate change goals established under the Paris Agreement.
MSCI has launched eight new indexes, the MSCI Climate Paris Aligned Index Suite, designed to enable investors to tailor their investment strategies to the global warming scenario sought in the 2015 global agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The new suite of indexes is intended to help investors address their portfolios’ transition risks and physical risks, and to identify green opportunities based on a variety of inputs, including MSCI climate data, emissions data and green revenues.
The indexes are also designed to support economic decarbonization to align with a 1.5°C scenario.
“We have witnessed tremendous interest in ESG and climate indexes over the past 18 months and continue to see fast adoption,” said Diana Tidd, head of index at MSCI.
“As end-investor awareness and stakeholder pressure rises, institutional investors increasingly want to invest to affect more systemic, global change beyond the company or portfolio level. We designed the MSCI Climate Paris Aligned Indexes to provide a solution for institutional investors looking to do just that,” Tidd said.
“Climate risks, whether physical or related to the transition to a lower carbon economy, are changing the risk-return profile of companies and industries. Extreme weather events pose new risks to companies’ assets, while carbon-intensive industries are being forced to undergo transformational change,” added Remy Briand, head of ESG at MSCI.