The China Beijing Environmental Exchange (“CBEEX”) and VantagePoint Partners, a global leader in CleanTech investing, today launched the first Chinese low carbon equity index. The China Low Carbon Index (“the Index”) is the first index to track China’s CleanTech sector and the first RMB-denominated low carbon index. The China Low Carbon Index was officially announced at the Earth Temple Forum being held in Beijing.
The Index will provide investors with valuable insight into Chinese CleanTech companies, which have often outperformed their peers in other markets: VantagePoint’s research and analysis of China’s CleanTech sector found that the market capitalizations of the companies included in the China Low Carbon Index have increased more than 259 percent since 2007.
The Index, which includes 35 publicly-traded Chinese companies, covers four main CleanTech sectors including clean-energy generation, energy transfer and storage, clean consumption and production, and waste management. Within these four sectors, the companies on the Index fall into nine distinct segments: solar energy, wind power, nuclear power, hydropower, clean coal, grid equipment, battery, energy efficiency, waste management and water treatment.
As of May 28, 2010, renewable energy companies (including solar, wind and hydro power) comprise 55 percent of the Index.
“Faced with the reality of global climate change, China has become a vanguard in developing a low carbon economy,” said Yan Xiong, Chairman of CBEEX.
“However, we are also aware that, as a country in the midst of industrialization and urbanization, our low carbon economy is still small in scale.”
In creating the China Low Carbon Index, “CBEEX and VantagePoint sought to develop a benchmark for the Chinese low carbon investment community to represent China’s CleanTech sector in a transparent and comprehensive manner,” said Dewen Mei, General Manager of CBEEX.
In addition, by raising the profiles of China’s leading new energy companies, the Index will play a role in enhancing their long-term development, both domestically and abroad.
Until the launch of the Index, many investors had been unaware of the number, scale, and financial success of these companies. “We are very glad that VantagePoint was able to lend their experience and expertise in the CleanTech sector to assist us in creating this valuable tool,” added Yan.
“China already leads G-20 countries in clean energy investments and is second only to the U.S. in terms of installed renewable energy capacity,” said Melissa Guzy, Managing Director of VantagePoint in China.
“In addition, the Chinese government is clearly committed to promoting the development of renewable energy for the long-term, with ambitious and mandatory targets in place for the next 10 years.”
