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Bloomberg
This year’s rally in exchange-traded funds specialising in clean energy is leaving larger peers in the environmental,
social and governance (ESG) sector far behind.
One example is the $1.2 billion Invesco Solar ETF’s 75% jump this year, which exceeds the 9% climb in the $8.6 billion iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF, the biggest such fund in the ESG space. The S&P Global Clean Energy Index has climbed 41% this year, compared with an advance of 2% in a global stock market gauge.
A range of factors have been cited for the clean-tech rally, including greater investor pressure to pursue ESG themes, maturing wind and solar industries that demonstrated resiliency after the collapse in
oil prices earlier this year, as well as the prospect of huge government spending on green projects.
“An S&P 500 ESG versus the niche clean energy ETF, you
are still going to see very significant differences in ESG style and therefore outcome in performance and composition, as well in terms of securities,†said Cathrine de Coninck-Lopez, global head of ESG with
Invesco.