New research from MSCI, “Footprinting the World’s Largest Asset Managers”, shows that large European asset managers are less carbon intensive than their US counterparts.

The research to assess the carbon footprint of the world’s 10 largest asset managers revealed that big European players were marginally less carbon-intensive than their U.S. peers. AUM were proportional to larger financed emissions. This was particularly true at U.S. fund managers in the peer group, where each USD trillion invested led to an extra 10-20 tons of CO2.

Other key findings include:

• Assets under management were proportional to larger financed emissions. This was particularly true at U.S. fund managers in the peer group, where each USD trillion invested led to an extra 10-20 tons of CO2.

• Size matters when it comes to financed emissions. MSCI observed a moderate correlation between AUM and financed emissions. With a larger breadth of fund offerings across geographies and sectors, the larger fund providers exhibited higher financed emissions.

• Asset managers with more carbon-intensive equity assets were likely to have more carbon-intensive fixed income assets.

• Assessing the carbon footprint of a portfolio is often the first step investors can take in addressing the investment implications of climate change.