EEMX vs ESGE

EEMXBState Street SPDR MSCI Emerging Markets Fossil Fuel Reserves Free ETF

ESGEAiShares ESG Aware MSCI EM ETF

In short

EEMX One rule, cleanly applied: MSCI's emerging markets benchmark minus every company that owns oil, gas or coal reserves. State Street planted this flag in EM first, back in 2016, and left the other thousand-odd names alone.

ESGE The ESG emerging-markets fund built to not feel different: it screens MSCI's EM universe for environmental, social and governance traits while keeping risk and return close to the parent index, for 0.25% a year.

Stated mandate

EEMX The fund seeks to track the MSCI Emerging Markets ex Fossil Fuels Index before fees and expenses. Its strategy provides emerging-markets equity exposure while excluding companies that own fossil-fuel reserves.

ESGE The fund seeks to track large- and mid-capitalization emerging-market equities with positive environmental, social, and governance characteristics, while maintaining risk and return characteristics similar to its parent index.

Why people hold it

• EEMX One legible screen, not a scoring system: owners of fossil fuel reserves are out, everything else stays. You can explain the portfolio in a sentence.ssga.com
• At 0.30% it undercuts the median fee in its values-screened EM peer group, and the screen is applied literally: the name is the methodology.
• About a thousand emerging-markets holdings, so pulling out the reserve owners still leaves a broad index rather than a narrow bet.
• State Street bills it as the first emerging markets fossil fuel reserves free ETF, running since 2016, so the record spans several full EM cycles.ssga.com

• ESGE 0.25% a year, below the typical fee among ESG emerging-market ETFs.
• "Aware" is the whole design: the index tilts toward better ESG-rated companies while targeting risk and return characteristics similar to the standard MSCI EM parent.ishares.com
• Trading since 2016 and now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund, which is a rare combination in a corner full of small, thinly used products.
• Does exactly what its name says: full-time exposure to large- and mid-cap emerging-market stocks via the MSCI Emerging Markets Extended ESG Focus Index, one of the cleanest mandate fits in its peer group.ishares.com

Worth knowing

• EEMX Reserve ownership is the only line drawn. Refiners, coal-burning utilities and other heavy emitters that hold no reserves can still be in the portfolio.ssga.com
• It trades thinly next to the giant EM index funds, so the bid-ask spread is a real part of the cost of getting in and out.
• Cheaper screened EM options sit in the same group, including LDEM at 0.16% and ESGE at 0.25%.

• ESGE It is a tilt, not a purge. Because the index chases parent-like risk and return, the lineup stays close to mainstream EM rather than a deep-green portfolio.ishares.com
• Screening narrows the field to roughly 300 stocks, so holdings and country weights drift from a plain emerging-markets index fund.
• Not the cheapest badge in the aisle: sibling LDEM runs 0.16%, though it takes a stricter ESG-leaders approach.

Full EEMX profile⁠

Full ESGE profile⁠