Investment data shows low carbon funds dominated the market in January, with asset management giant BlackRock to the fore
Sustainable investments attracted a large volume of assets at the start of the year, with net £1.3bn invested, over half of which went into a low carbon equity tracker managed by BlackRock according to the Morningstar Direct Fund Flows Commentary for January.
The BlackRock ACS World Low Carbon Equity tracker clocked up the highest net inflows in January, Morningstar data showed, with more than net £700m added to the fund during the month.
Morningstar said it considered the fund to be at the "light end of the sustainability scale", but its popularity demonstrates the "building investor interest" in the ESG space.
BlackRock saw the highest fund group net inflows in January, helped by the low carbon tracker, with the iShares UK Equity index and iShares North American Equity index also attracting more than £400m combined.
The second-highest fund group net inflows went to Royal London, with approximately 60 per cent going into money market funds, although the Royal London International Government Bond and Royal London UK Equity Income funds also saw net inflows.
Net flows into Royal London's "sustainable" or "ethical" funds totalled £200m in January.
A version of this article first appeared at Investment Week