BNP Paribas Asset Management has announced the launch of BNP Paribas Easy ESG Eurozone Biodiversity Leaders PAB UCITS ETF, offering investors exposure to companies with a lower potential impact on biodiversity than their peers.
Listed since 29 September on Euronext Paris and Deutsche Börse Xetra, this thematic fund is PAB-aligned and classified as SFDR Article 9.
BNP Paribas Easy ESG Eurozone Biodiversity Leaders PAB ETF replicates a Euronext index consisting of around 60 Eurozone stocks selected according to their potential impact on biodiversity, calculated using Iceberg Data Lab’s ‘Corporate Biodiversity Footprint’ score.
Portfolio companies, which are Euronext Eurozone 300 Index constituents, are selected according to a ‘best-in-class’ methodology that retains 30 per cent of companies from each sector. Companies subject to UNGC controversies or in sectors such as controversial weapons, coal mining, uranium, shale gas, or tobacco production are automatically excluded.
The firm writes that responding to investors’ growing interest in United Nations SDG 15 that aims to ‘Protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems’, this new fund enhances BNPP AM’s range of thematic ETFs, which already covers low carbon, circular economy, oceans, innovative medical technologies, green hydrogen and sustainable bonds. It also complements BNPP AM’s active management offering, including BNP Paribas Ecosystem Restoration fund, which invests in companies globally committed to restoring and preserving natural capital.
The launch of the fund additionally extends BNPP AM’s recent partnerships with Iceberg Data Lab, I Care & Consult and the CDP, to develop frameworks for analysing and measuring the potential negative impacts on biodiversity by portfolio companies. It contributes to BNPP AM’s biodiversity roadmap, a key stage of which was the recent publication of the biodiversity footprint of its investments. More broadly, it forms part of the BNP Paribas Group’s sustainable development policy, committed to biodiversity preservation through its membership of the Act4nature initiative, aiming to mobilise companies to promote nature.
Denis Panel, Head of Multi-Asset, Quantitative & Solutions (‘MAQS’) at BNPP AM, comments: “A quarter of the planet’s species are in danger of disappearing by 2050, and half of the world’s GDP is threatened by the progressive degradation of nature. This new ETF offers clients the opportunity to invest in companies whose potential impact on biodiversity is lower than that of their peers, while adhering to strict requirements regarding the exclusion of fossil fuels and reducing carbon intensity. The launch reaffirms BNPP AM’s position as the European leader in thematic ESG index management”.
Stéphane Boujnah, Chairman of the Management Board of Euronext, comments: “We are proud of this new collaboration with BNP Paribas Asset Management, through which we further confirm our ESG strategy and leadership, and enable investors to finance high-impact projects and companies. Euronext welcomes the launch of this fund replicating the EuronextBiodiversity Leaders PAB index, which aims to track a diversified portfolio of Eurozone companies while taking into account their biodiversity footprint and being aligned with the Paris Agreement.”
