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Another Green ETF (RENW) Enters the Industry

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The concept of renewable energy has been quite lucrative to ETF issuers for the past few years. EIA projects that renewable generation will supply 44% of U.S. electricity by 2050, up from 21% in 2021. EIA also projects that the total share of U.S. fossil fuel-fired power generation will decrease from 60% to 44%. No wonder, Harbor Capital recently launched a fund called Harbor Energy Transition Strategy ETF (RENW - Free Report) .

RENW in Focus

The Harbor Energy Transition Strategy ETF (RENW - Free Report) looks to give an opportunity to invest in this transition with the commodities required to enable change as the world is moving toward a net-zero carbon emissions goal. The fund charges 80 bps in fees.

EU Emission Allowance (14.6%), Natural Gas (11.9%), Dutch Natural Gas (11.4%), Aluminum (11.5%), Comex Copper (6.7%), Nickel (5.4%) and Zinc (4.4%) are the top seven holdings of the fund.

How Does It Fit In a Portfolio?

One segment of the investing landscape, which been hogging the attention of investors over the past few years is undoubtedly the ‘green’, or clean energy, ETF area. The war between Russia and Ukraine and West’s abandonment of Russia has made the energy supply scenario worse this year and boosted oil and gas prices materially. The world has also now understood the need for green energy generation.

Russia is energy-rich and Europe is highly dependent on that country for energy, importing about 40% of its energy requirement. Russia is the provider of about 35% of Europe’s gas. Hence, the latest Russia-Ukraine tensions have led to uncertainty in the energy market supply chain.

In any case, oil prices have been rising since the beginning of 2022 on a demand recovery and less OPEC+ output. With oil prices running hot, the trend of a bull run in the clear energy space should be in the cards as many have shifted to the other sources of energy.

“When there’s less certainty about other sources of energy, that will help renewables because they’re a cheap source of electricity,” said Joe Keefe, CEO of Pax World Funds, a line of fossil-fuel-free funds. “They’ve become very competitive from a price standpoint and are good long-term investments,” according to Keefe as quoted on a Morningstar article in early this year.

Activity is also building up in nations like China, Europe, the United States, Japan and India. China has already made a name for itself in this field. After the Fukushima disaster in March 2011 that stymied its nuclear power industry, Japan has also shifted its focus toward renewable energy options.

President Biden has expansionary plans for clean energy. He has a plan — a Clean Energy Revolution — to address the issue of climate emergency. He sees America as becoming a 100% clean energy economy by 2035 and having net-zero emission by 2050.  

Sustainable Investing: A Great Plus

Apart from the social standpoint, sustainable investing practice has a valid reason for increased gains. As per the source, lesser focus on environmental issues by the companies may result in lawsuits, fines and damages. In most cases, sound corporate governance leads to greater corporate durability.

Competition

Though the space is jam-packed with various clean energy ETFs, RENW’s investment objective is a little different. It bets on the commodities needed for clean transition, not exactly the stock involved in the clean energy business. As the commodity market is in high momentum currently and has been faring better than stocks in 2022, we see success is likely for RENW.

iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN - Free Report) , First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund (QCLN - Free Report) , Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW - Free Report) are the funds currently ruling the clean energy ETF space. All these funds have assets more than $1.0 billion.

 


 

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