Executive summary

Transitioning to a green net-zero economy requires climate solutions that enable the economy to decarbonise,
such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and recycling technologies. This also creates significant investment
opportunities—companies providing climate and environmental solutions have been growing1 and outperforming the
market over the last decade. The economics of climate solutions are making fossil-fuel-dependent assets less attractive
from a financial point of view. These companies are likely to grow even more as economies progress toward their net-zero
goals.

There is an emerging toolbox for systematically identifying and managing portfolio exposure to climate-related
investment opportunities. Different metrics are typically employed across investors and asset classes, such as dollar
amount invested in green bonds for fixed income, and renewable energy generation for infrastructure. These metrics,
while helpful for measuring specific sectors or asset classes, are challenging for investors to use due to their lack of
comparability.

To address challenges in measuring climate solutions exposure, this paper examines four metrics: green
revenue, green capex, green patents and avoided emissions that are broadly applicable in a portfolio
management context. Each metric has its pros and cons but, altogether, they provide a comprehensive view of the
available metrics to assess companies’ exposure to climate solutions. This paper focuses on green revenue based on its
benefits. Green revenue is easier to interpret, directly links to companies’ cash flows and real-world impact, and the data
is more readily available and comparable.

We find Weighted Average Green Revenue (WAGR) to be the most promising metric currently for integrating
climate solutions measurements into portfolio construction. It builds on the portfolio weighting methodology used in
carbon metrics such as Weighted Average Carbon Intensity (WACI) that is widely adopted by investors. WAGR calculates
the green revenue percentage (GR%) of a portfolio by applying company GR% to the portfolio weight of each company.
Investors can set portfolio-level targets of climate solutions using WAGR, such as a minimum level, an improvement
relative to the benchmark, or to track specific WAGR pathways such as decarbonisation trajectories.

Using WAGR, this paper analyses portfolio exposure to climate solutions, including size, growth, industries,
green sectors, regions, and the level of ‘greenness’ (shown by the tiering structure under the FTSE Russell Green
Revenues Classification System), with the FTSE All-World Index as the reference portfolio. Figure 1 shows that FTSE AllWorld’s WAGR grew from 5.5% to 8.6% between 2016 and 2021 and fell during the down market of 2022. In comparison,
FTSE All-World’s unweighted green revenues record steadier year-on-year growth, which reflects the ‘value impact’ of
market capitalisation.

Weighted Average Green Revenue (WAGR): Integrating climate solutions into portfolio construction