Two of Oxford and Cambridge’s most renowned colleges have recruited the French asset manager Amundi to invest several tens of millions in low-CO2 index funds — an eyecatching move in a week when the financial and political worlds’ recent slew of green initiatives shows no sign of slowing down.

In a 18 November statement, Amundi said it had developed the low-carbon tracker in conjunction with the bursars of “a number” of Oxford and Cambridge colleges, which each run their own endowments in addition to the universities’ central funds.