Is Climate Change part of Socially Responsible Investment?

Intuitively it would be thought that Social Responsible Investment (SRI), commonly known as Ethical or Green Funds would have a significant holding in companies that were tackling climate change. Our analysis suggests that this is not the case.

The reality is that the majority of holdings within SRI funds are of traditionally large companies with an overweighting in banks and telecommunications.

Most SRI funds’ top ten holdings are surprisingly main stream, with names like Vodafone and Royal Bank of Scotland occurring again and again. Some even hold BP, Shell and the bête noire of environmentalists: Total. Very few seem to be directly tackling climate change.