Sept. 27, 2007 Financial giant HSBC has unveiled a new benchmarking index designed to help investors track the stock market performance of 300 companies poised to profit from the challenges presented by climate change.

The new HSBC Global Climate Change Benchmark Index, which tracks back to 2004, outperformed the MSCI World Index by around 70%.

From this benchmark, HSBC has established four climate change indices that it says can be used to create portfolios for a diverse range of investment needs:

• Climate Change Index
  
• Low Carbon Energy Production Index (solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal)
  
• Energy Efficiency & Energy Management Index (fuel efficiency autos, energy efficient solutions, fuel cells)
  
• Water, Waste & Pollution Control Index (water recycling, waste technologies, environmental pollution control)
  

"What makes this different and exciting is the index structure which captures a highly diverse number of investment themes with very attractive risk return characteristics," says Joaquim de Lima, global head of Quant Research for Equities. "The construction and stock selection of the indices is based purely on quantitative criteria such as value generation and liquidity and these factors will be regularly reviewed."

With this new index HSBC joins financial powerhouses JPMorgan and Merril Lynch, both of which introduced climate-related indices earlier this year. Merril Lynch's Energy Efficiency Index, launched in July, tracks the market performance of companies it considers well-placed to benefit from tough climate change policies. The JPMorgan Environmental Index-Carbon Beta, launched in March, evaluates the risks and potential business opportunities posed by global warming to U.S. corporations.