MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, announced today the expansion of its family of Low Carbon Indexes with the launch of the MSCI Global Low Carbon Target Indexes. These indexes complement the MSCI Global Low Carbon Leaders Indexes launched earlier this month.

The MSCI Global Low Carbon Target Indexes were developed in response to investor demand for benchmarks designed to help identify potential risks associated with the transition to a low carbon economy while representing the performance of the broad equity market.

Commenting on the launch, David Blood, Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management*, said, “There is growing awareness of the risks of holding stranded carbon assets, yet there have been few practical tools, such as benchmarks, that focus on carbon risk exposure. We congratulate MSCI on the launch of these new indexes and on achieving an important milestone for investors in the shift to a low carbon economy.”

“MSCI’s family of low carbon indexes is a significant step in the right direction by a leading global index provider and should help fill the gap for low carbon benchmarks for investment products,” added Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Investments of the Assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, Yukio Takasu.

The MSCI Global Low Carbon Target Indexes re-weigh stocks based on their carbon exposure in the form of carbon emissions and fossil fuel reserves. The indexes are designed to achieve maximum carbon exposure reduction given a specific tracking error target while including all the companies in the parent index.

The MSCI Global Low Carbon Target Indexes are based on the MSCI ACWI Index, the global policy benchmark covering developed and emerging markets, and utilize MSCI ESG CarbonMetrics data from MSCI ESG Research Inc.

Remy Briand, Managing Director and Global Head of Index and ESG Research, added, “We are very happy to see increasing interest in low carbon index strategies from leading asset owners and pension funds around the world such as the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. We are committed to providing a comprehensive and actionable suite of tools to help our clients manage their exposure to carbon risk.”

For more information, please visit our website.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc. is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. MSCI products and services include indexes, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and ESG data and research.

The company’s flagship product offerings are: the MSCI indexes with over USD 9 trillion estimated to be benchmarked to them on a worldwide basis1; Barra multi-asset class factor models, portfolio risk and performance analytics; RiskMetrics multi-asset class market and credit risk analytics; IPD real estate information, indexes and analytics; MSCI ESG (environmental, social and governance) Research screening, analysis and ratings; and FEA valuation models and risk management software for the energy and commodities markets. MSCI is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world.

1As of March 31, 2014, as reported on June 25, 2014, by eVestment, Lipper and Bloomberg

* According to a filing made by Generation Investment Management LLP (“Generation”), with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 14, 2014, Generation is a shareholder of MSCI, with holdings in excess of 5% of MSCI’s common stock.

For further information on MSCI, please visit our web site at www.msci.com