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Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:

Rampart has one of the few energy-focused funds that exist across the hedge fund industry. Energy, whether traditional or new, has provoked heated debates since the awareness of global warming and peak oil came to the fore. These funds try to take advantage of price discrepancies that these markets provide or of new opportunities arising in the nascent markets of renewables.

"The intense media pressure following the discussions in Copenhagen will continue to highlight the environmental sector," said earlier this year Ian Simm, CEO of Impax Asset Management, a specialist environmental investment manager in London.

He believes that, as interest in clean energy, energy efficiency and the drivers behind environmental markets will continue to strengthen, 2010's trends will include a tentative return to global growth with increasingly positive macroeconomic data and consumer spending improvements; better economics of recycling in light of rising commodity prices; and new markets arising from global warming policies.

The HFRI Energy/Basic Materials Index, which returned 4.06% in December and 41.58% in 2009, was one of HFR's top performing indices that year. The same index was down 38.3% in 2008 (the worst performer that year) and up 16.4% in 2007 (the top performer that year).

Our fund today, the Rampart Capital European Energy Fund, is soon to be launched by two managers who believe that European en......................

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