About Us
Connect
Data Stories
Topics
MA Energy Explorer

About Us
Connect
Data Stories
Topics
MA Energy Explorer

Economy & Society

The S&P 500 Carbon Efficient Index

Date Published: January 22, 2024

A stock market index represents the performance of a group of stocks or securities in a financial market. Stock indices provide insights into the overall direction and health of financial markets. A growing number of indices include the risk of holding assets that are based on fossil fuels or that have high emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. These “carbon indices” are intended to inform investors about the potential exposure to government regulation or shifts in consumer attitudes that increase the cost of carbon, all of which would change the priorities of investors.

Data

PNG

Embed Code

The S&P 500 Carbon Efficient Index (CEI) is designed to measure the performance of companies in the S&P 500 while overweighting or underweighting those companies with lower or higher carbon emissions per unit of revenue. The index aims to integrate low carbon considerations into broad market indices, reweighing companies within industries based on their carbon-to-revenue footprints, to lower overall exposure to carbon emissions while maintaining industry allocations.¹

Data

PNG

Embed Code

The companies in the CEI come from sectors that comprise other common stock market indices. However, the CEI omits companies that are classified as large emitters of carbon that do not disclose their omissions. The index also overweights or underweights those companies with lower or higher carbon emissions per unit of revenue.

Data

PNG

Embed Code

How has the CEI performed in the recent past compared to broad market trends? The five-year annualized return for the index from January 2019 to January 2024 is about 13%. This performance is as good or better than several other major indices over the same period.

1 S&P Global, “S&P 500 Carbon Efficient Index,” accessed January 15, 2024, Link

Business, Climate Change, Economics, Economy & Society, Finance

About Us

Connect

Topics

MA Energy Explorer

Our Values

Team

FAQ

Contact Us

Subscribe

Collaborate

Donate

Well-Being

Fossil Fuels

Renewable Energy

Nuclear Energy

Climate & Environment

Electricity

End Use

Economy & Society

History of Energy

Energy Storage

Overview

Infrastructure

Energy Burden

Transportation

License: Unless otherwise noted, all visualizations, data, and stories produced by Visualizing Energy are open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This means that you have permission to copy, transform, and redistribute the material in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

A project of the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability