Carbon for beginners

Jun 08, 2023

"If you could leave your desk or sofa and walk vertically upward for 45 minutes at an average pace, 50% of the atmosphere would be below you. Unfortunately, it’s pretty thin".

Bond investors are increasingly focused on measuring the carbon footprint of their investments. However, and this is a big however, carbon footprinting a bond portfolio is more complicated than an equity portfolio. For equity holders, their percentage ownership of a company (and hence the proportion of emissions they are responsible for) is clear. For bondholders, their fraction of ‘ownership’ is open to debate.

Our latest whitepaper provides a refresher on understanding carbon, why emissions matter and what they mean for bond portfolios, including;

  • A bond investor’s perspective
  • Risk-based approaches
  • Emissions and ESG assessments
  • Net-zero and greenwashing
  • Reporting to investors


With an estimated 37 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted from fossil fuels each year, or the equivalent to every person on the planet using a full tank of fuel each week, it is more important than ever for investors to be able to make robust decisions based on the carbon footprint analysis of their portfolios.

Global mean CO2 levels

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), April 2023

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