First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (NYSE:FAN), which follows the wind energy industry, is up 4% since January and 6.6% in the past year.
The coal industry, meanwhile, has been facing setbacks from the investment community for several years.
The obvious shift to clean energy sources hasn’t yet been enough to declare coal’s definitive demise, but concerns over climate change from fossil fuel burning have caused many firms and individuals to drop coal-related holdings.
However, continued dependence on coal burning abroad continues to be a lifeline for coal companies in the U.S., pushing the industry into a sharp contrast to the clean energy sector, which has struggled to outperform the market in 2024.
Is Coal Dead? Some Don’t Think So
In 2020, the market saw the shutdown of VanEck Vectors Coal ETF, which was at the time the only remaining ETF following the coal industry.
At the time, fund manager BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) said the firm’s actively managed funds would no longer hold shares of companies deriving more than 25% of revenues from the thermal coal business, Barrons reported.
In turn, many investors and firms have switched towards environmentally-friendly energy stocks and ETFs.
Yet some in the industry continue to believe there’s a case for investing in coal.
In January of this year, Range ETFs, a firm dedicated to running ETFs around niche themes, …