High hopes for carbon index

A global carbon equity index has been launched by Arthur D. Little, a management consultancy, and ECPI, a sustainability research company. The index includes utilities, basic materials, industrial, consumer, energy and technology stocks. Arthur D. Little and ECPI say that the companies in the index will be screened using a customised carbon rating. “The carbon rating determines the strength of companies’ strategy for dealing with the future physical, reputational, market and, more importantly, the regulatory risks of climate legislation,” they say. They add that the index would have outperfomed the general market by 68.78 per cent between 2006 and the end of 2009.