HANetf and iClima Earth have announced that the iClima Global Decarbonisation Enablers UCITS ETF (CLMA) and iClima Distributed Renewable Energy UCITS ETF (DGEN) are now classified as Article 9 sustainable investments under the new EU regulations.
Under the EU SFDR regulation, which came into force in March 2021, Article 9 or 'dark green' funds have sustainable investment as their objective and an index has been designated as a reference benchmark.
The iClima Global Decarbonisation Enablers fund (CLMA) was launched in December last year and iClima Distributed Renewable Energy (DGEN) was launched in June this year by iClima Earth on the HANetf platform.
iClima Earth said it has taken a thoughtful approach to how it has classified funds, in keeping with UN sustainable development goals and the need to have a clear purpose and specific tangible metric as a proxy for impact as well as a longstanding, high integrity approach to responsible investment.
CLMA is the world’s first climate change UCITS ETF that provides exposure to the performance of companies offering products and services that enable CO2e avoidance. It tracks the iClima Global Decarbonisation Enablers Index, which is up 56% over the past 12 months, and at the start of September, the ETF reached US$50mln assets under management.
DGEN, meanwhile, provides exposure to companies promoting the decentralisation of energy generation that allows green energy to be created and managed close to the point of use, such as residential solar panels, energy storage, smart meters, vehicle-to-grid energy, electric vehicle charging and smart inverters. It tracks the iClima Distributed Renewable Energy Index TR that is up 89% over the past 12 months.
Gabriela Herculano, CEO of iClima Earth said: “iClima Earth’s mission is to focus on companies that can de-carbonise the planet and promote companies that are innovating to provide solutions and technology that will enable us to reach net zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible."
She said both funds being re-classified from Article 6 to Article 9, was “demonstrating they have UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) as their objective throughout the investment process".
HANetf's Manooj Mistry said: “Article 9 funds need to incorporate sustainability and good governance into their investment objective and iClima Earth has a distinctive methodology of investing in companies that are at the forefront of fighting climate change. We’re delighted that iClima Earth are working with HANetf to develop ETFs with real impact. HANetf offers the most extensive range of thematic ETFs in Europe and we take pride in working with world leading experts in their field such as iClima Earth who not only support great investment themes but look to genuinely make an impact.”