S&P launches US Carbon Efficient index

Standard & Poor's is launching a US Carbon Efficient index, the first in a series of global low-carbon indices.

The index will measure the performance of large-cap US companies with relatively low carbon emissions - as measured by environmental data organisation Trucost Plc. It seeks to closely track the S&P 500.

David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Index Services says: "Organisations around the world are paying greater attention to the impact of greenhouse gases on our climate, as increasingly more investors consider carbon efficiency as an important investment theme."

The new index will be included in S&P's global thematic index series, which now covers green themes like water, forestry, eco and carbon efficiency.

It will be rebalanced quarterly, with stocks then being ranked by carbon footprints. The 100 equities with the highest footprints, whose aggregate exclusion does not reduce any individual GICS sector weight of the S&P 500 by more than 50%, are removed.