Always attentive to new opportunities emerging on the market and the need to diversify portfolios with a view to sustainability, NOVIS launched a fund in 2022 to allow investments in companies that produce clean energy. 

Sustainability is one of the drivers that has changed the financial world the most in recent years. Increased public awareness of critical environmental issues has, in fact, led to a greater awareness of the need for everyone to play their part, through their own choices.

In the financial sphere, this has resulted in increased demand for sustainable investments, in line with ESG criteria, in order to channel more capital towards companies that pay more attention to environmental and social impacts.

Europe itself is encouraging this turnaround, as the injection of private capital is crucial to achieving the ambitious goal of climate neutrality.

Aware of the important role that finance can play in channeling capital to support the ecological transition and how this can open up new opportunities for investors, NOVIS, a European insurance company specializing in life insurance, launched a fund in 2022 for those who wish to diversify their portfolios by investing in the ecological transition, one of the cornerstones of the European strategy to achieve climate neutrality.

Clean energy: investing with the NOVIS fund

Moving away from fossil fuels means reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so being able to produce energy using clean sources will allow production to continue while limiting the impact on the environment.

Compared to the different challenges of the ecological transition, the green energy challenge is among those witnessing significant progress in terms of available technologies. For this reason, it offers investors not only the possibility to diversify their portfoliosby including assets that respect ESG criteria but also to seize interesting opportunities emerging from the market.

The insurance fund NOVIS Sustainability Plus aims at this double objective; launched in August 2022, it joined the Sustainability Insurance Fund which promotes environmental and social features in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations.

The Sustainability Plus fund invests directly or indirectly in equities or bonds with a requirement of at least 45% of assets in energy-related companies without negative impacts on the environment (clean energy), such as the release and emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like carbon dioxide. In addition, at least 45% of activities must be invested in the sustainable use of marine resources for economic development, improved livelihoods and employment, and preserving the well-being of the marine ecosystem (blue economy).

How green energy companies are selected

At a time when sustainability criteria are still being defined internationally, managers have a key role in choosing and managing assets that follow ESG criteria.

As far as Sustainability Plus is concerned, investments in clean energy are made through the underlying iShares Global Clean Energy UCITS ETF, which invests in companies engaged in the production of clean energy or the provision of green energy technologies, both in developed countries and emerging markets. Companies that exceed their emissions from coal use are excluded.

The fund is managed by BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Limited. It is an authoritative manager, recognized as one of the world’s leading asset managers, with a proven track record also in sustainable investments.

As a guarantee for investors, there is also the assessment of Morningstar, which, in recent years, has defined criteria for assessing the actual sustainability of the numerous funds on the financial market. In particular, according to the Morningstar Sustainability Rating, which assesses how well portfolio companies are managing ESG risks compared to other funds in the same Global Category, iShare Global Clean Energy has a rating of 4 out of 5 (rating up to date as of 31 January 2023).

The NOVIS fund, therefore, qualifies as a solution for those wishing to support the energy transition by seizing existing opportunities and diversifying their portfolio.