The indices, covering respectively the Americas, the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and Asia and Oceania, are the first of a new family of clean energy indices that the partners will start publishing over the next few months. The next ones to emerge will be an index tracking shares of solar power companies; another tracking wind company stocks; one tracking equities of companies specializing in energy-smart technologies such as efficiency, storage and smart grid; and another tracking the shares of companies involved in electric vehicle development.

The three regional indices being launched today each presently follow a basket of between 125 and 325 companies with a moderate, or greater, exposure to renewable energy and energy-smart technologies. These sectors have seen rapid growth in capital spending - with global new investment in clean energy reaching a record $243bn in 20101 - but also sharp shifts in market share and geographical profile. Even before launch, the three new indices cast intriguing light on the evolution of the sector. Following the boom in wind farm development in China, that country's export success in solar panels and other Asian countries' progress with battery technology, there are approximately as many equities that qualify for the ASOC regional index as there are in the EMEA and Americas regional indices combined.

"The new indices provide a solid foundation for tracking the regional exposures by domicile for clean energy initiatives while accurately weighting each company's economic exposure to their respective sector," said George Patterson, managing director European indices at NYSE Euronext Global Index Group, "NYSE Euronext is pleased to collaborate again with Bloomberg New Energy Finance in providing innovative products to the marketplace."

Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, commented: "There are several clean energy equity indices already available to investors - including the NEX2 index we helped launch in 2006 - and they have done a good job in informing the market about the overall trends. However there is a need for more detail, particularly about the differing growth prospects for clean energy companies in regions of the world. Asia for instance has taken over as the most dynamic area for clean energy investment, while the Americas are playing host to entrepreneurial effort in first- and second-generation biofuels and a take-off in wind development in Latin America."

Bloomberg New Energy Finance decided to partner with NYSE Euronext, to benefit from the latter's experience in indices and exchange-traded funds. NYSE Euronext has been involved in developing and calculating clean energy equity index products for the better part of a decade. Liebreich said: "By working with NYSE Euronext, we ensure that our family of indices will generally be tradable and innovative, and serve as extraordinary research tools."