Measuring financed emissions is crucial for climate disclosure, but not always straightforward. Proper data alignment and timeliness are essential to help investors make informed decisions and contribute to effective climate action.

Investors may want to understand not only if their portfolios are aligned with global climate goals but why they may (or may not) fall short of the mark. A performance-attribution analysis can help them understand how “hot” or “cold” their portfolios are.

Using Implied Temperature Rise — an intuitive metric that can be used to assess net-zero alignment — we analyze temperatures for climate-focused indexes designed to meet or exceed the requirements of the EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks standard.

With COP26 over, the hard work begins as investors seek to limit temperature rise to less than 2°C above preindustrial levels in their portfolios. We investigate how they can understand whether a portfolio or fund is aligned with temperature targets.