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The new vehicle is a fund of hedge funds, which aims to provide investors with access to a concentrated portfolio of managers, focusing on alternative energy in areas such as resource and energy efficiency, energy technology, clean power generation, greenhouse gas management and water and waste management.

Seeded with $20m (£10m), the fund has been built using Ermitage's advanced portfolio construction system called Optics, which utilises the team's hedge fund research, macroeconomic and risk analysis.

The fund focuses on generating attractive risk-adjusted returns from best of breed managers, while diversifying risk across global markets, sectors, styles and themes.

It aims to generate 16-20 per cent during bull runs and to protect assets during bear markets.

To achieve this performance, the fund’s risk budget will be similar to traditional equity markets, Ermitage said.

Its equity exposure allows investors to access clean resource investment opportunities that are not typically accessible to conventional commodity indices, such as the renewable energy sector.

Jonathan Wauton, chief investment officer of Ermitage, said: "This fund has the benefit of investing within a market sector with a strong ethical appeal.

"The clean resources theme has been a sub-strategy within our Resources fund for almost two years, and our decision to create a pure play clean resources product reflects our view of the opportunities that exist in this emerging space.

"This is a rapidly evolving sector, and by focusing on best of breed asset managers, the fund will seek to be aligned with the latest developments – including global climate change policies and technologies."

The product is available in dollar, euro and sterling currency classes, and has a minimum investment of €125,000 (£99,000).

FUND FACTS

AMC: 1.5 per cent

Performance fee: 10 per cent