ESG criteria enhancement on third party UCITS indices
The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) screening criteria is being enhanced by third party index providers for indexes listed in the table below. The updated ESG screening criteria is expected to be implemented after the market close on 17 March 2023.
The new ESG screening criteria includes the reduction of the revenue thresholds for Tobacco and Thermal Coal activities, as well as the additional screening criteria on Small Arms and Unconventional Oil & Gas activities, as detailed in the table below.
| WTI ESG Exclusion Criteria | Current ESG criteria | ESG criteria enhancement |
| Global Standards Screening |
Companies that, or are violate certain commonly accepted international norms and standards, such as United Nations and OECD guidelines are currently excluded. |
Companies that violate certain commonly accepted international norms and standards, such as United Nations and OECD guidelines will be excluded. |
| Controversial Weapons | Companies involved in controversial weapons are currently excluded. | Companies involved in controversial weapons will be excluded. |
| Tobacco | Companies that are involved in tobacco production and supplying of tobacco-related products/services, or companies which derive more than 10% of revenue from tobacco distribution are currently excluded. | Companies that are involved in tobacco production and supplying of tobacco-related products/services, or companies which derive more than 5% of revenue from tobacco distribution will be excluded. |
| Thermal Coal | Companies which derive more than 25% of revenue from thermal coal extraction, or 25% of revenue or capacity from thermal coal-based power generation are currently excluded. | Companies which derive more than 5% of revenue from thermal coal extraction, or 5% of revenue or capacity from thermal coal-based power generation, or derive more than 5% of revenue from providing tailor-made products and services to support thermal coal extraction will be excluded. |
| Small Arms | Not currently applicable | Companies that derive more than 5% of revenue from activities connected to small arms will be excluded. Such activities include the manufacturing and selling of small arms, or the manufacturing and selling of key components involved in small arms manufacture, or being involved in the distribution of small arms. |
| Oil Sands | Not currently applicable | Companies which derive more than 5% of revenue from oil sands extraction will be excluded. |
| Arctic Oil & Gas Exploration | Not currently applicable | Companies which derive more than 5% of revenue from oil and gas exploration in the Arctic regions will be excluded. |
| Shale Energy | Not currently applicable | Companies that derive more than 5% of revenue from shale energy exploration and / or production will be excluded. |
| Parent Indexes | Fund Name | Index Name |
| Thematic indexes | WisdomTree New Economy Real Estate UCITS ETF | CenterSquare New Economy Real Estate UCITS Index |
| WisdomTree Recycling Decarbonisation UCITS ETF | Tortoise Recycling Decarbonization UCITS Index | |
| WisdomTree Cloud Computing UCITS ETF | BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud | |
| WisdomTree Artificial Intelligence UCITS ETF | NASDAQ CTA Artificial Intelligence Index |