PARIS, Feb. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global Ratings has today published its "ESG Overview: Global Sovereigns." The report discusses environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credit factors that inform our analysis of 135 sovereign governments we rate globally. ESG credit factors are important to our analysis of sovereign creditworthiness and are embedded in several of our rating factors. Changes in ESG credit factors therefore influence--positively and negatively--our sovereign ratings and outlooks (see "How Environmental, Social, And Governance Factors Help Shape The Ratings On Governments, Insurers, And Financial Institutions," published Oct. 23, 2018, on RatingsDirect). ESG can affect a broad range of rating factors we examine to determine our sovereign ratings, as described in "The Role Of Environmental, Social, And Governance Credit Factors In Our Ratings Analysis," published Sept 12, 2019.
One of the key takeaways from the report is that governance is a strength for about 50% of rated sovereigns, and a weakness for about 7%, mostly in emerging and frontier markets. We base our view on the GDP-weighted distribution of our institutional assessments, which we use as a proxy for governance. Yet social factors remain at the heart of our sovereign risk analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed varying degrees of resilience and responsiveness to health and safety risks.
Environmental risks are also gaining prominence.
"The energy transition could widen gaps between sovereign borrowers, while natural disasters and other risks linked to the environment are becoming increasingly important," said Patrice Cochelin, S&P Global Ratings Head of Analytical Governance for Sustainable Finance.
"Resilience is a reflection of E, S, and G. Countries showing high resilience to natural disasters and advanced management of transition risk also tend to have strong social outcomes, both typically made possible and sustainable by strong governance," Mr. Cochelin added.
The report describes the analytical approach, as well as risks and opportunities that can affect sovereign creditworthiness, and provides an ESG overview of sovereigns by region.
Related Research
- Too Late For Net-Zero Emissions By 2050? The Potential Of Forests And Soils, June 4, 2020
- The EU's Drive For Carbon Neutrality By 2050 Is Undeterred By COVID-19, April 29, 2020
- The Energy Transition: How It Could Affect GCC Banks, Feb. 16, 2020
- Environmental, Social, And Governance: ESG Industry Report Card: Supranationals, Feb. 11, 2020
- The Energy Transition: Nuclear Dead And Alive, Nov. 11, 2019
- The Role Of Environmental, Social, And Governance Credit Factors In Our Ratings Analysis, Sept. 12, 2019
- The Heat Is On: How Climate Change Can Impact Sovereign Rating, Nov. 25, 2015
This report does not constitute a rating action.
The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect at www.capitaliq.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber, you may purchase a copy of the report by calling (1) 212-438-7280 or sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Ratings information can also be found on S&P Global Ratings' public website by using the Ratings search box located in the left column at www.standardandpoors.com. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided.
Media Contact:
Miriam Hespanhol, New York (1) 407-793-0452
[email protected]
Analyst Contacts:
Patrice Cochelin, Paris + 33144207325
Roberto H Sifon-arevalo, New York + 1 (212) 438 7358
Joydeep Mukherji, New York + 1 (212) 438 7351
Frank Gill, Madrid + 34 91 788 7213
KimEng Tan, Singapore + 65 6239 6350
Key Contacts:
Americas Media Relations: (1) 212-438-6667
[email protected]
Americas Customer Service: (1) 212-438-7280
[email protected]
About S&P Global Ratings
S&P Global Ratings is the world's leading provider of independent credit ratings. Our ratings are essential to driving growth, providing transparency and helping educate market participants so they can make decisions with confidence. We have more than 1 million credit ratings outstanding on government, corporate, financial sector and structured finance entities and securities. We offer an independent view of the market built on a unique combination of broad perspective and local insight. We provide our opinions and research about relative credit risk; market participants gain independent information to help support the growth of transparent, liquid debt markets worldwide.
S&P Global Ratings is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies and governments to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com/ratings.
Update Profile:
If you would like to update your information (telephone number, email address, company, etc.) or change the sectors you receive press releases on, please click here.
Visit SPRatings.com, a free, interactive, and informative portal to access highlights from our credit research offerings. Consider this your portal to perspective: www.spratings.com.
Regulatory Affairs and Disclaimers | Privacy and Cookie Notice | Terms of Use
Copyright © 2020 by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. All rights reserved.
No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, valuations, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC or its affiliates (collectively, S&P). The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, for the results obtained from the use of the Content, or for the security or maintenance of any data input by the user. The Content is provided on an "as is" basis. S&P PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE CONTENT'S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION. In no event shall S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence) in connection with any use of the Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
Credit-related and other analyses, including ratings, and statements in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact. S&P's opinions, analyses and rating acknowledgment decisions (described below) are not recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security. S&P assumes no obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The Content should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions. S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor except where registered as such. While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. Rating-related publications may be published for a variety of reasons that are not necessarily dependent on action by rating committees, including, but not limited to, the publication of a periodic update on a credit rating and related analyses.
To the extent that regulatory authorities allow a rating agency to acknowledge in one jurisdiction a rating issued in another jurisdiction for certain regulatory purposes, S&P reserves the right to assign, withdraw or suspend such acknowledgment at any time and in its sole discretion. S&P Parties disclaim any duty whatsoever arising out of the assignment, withdrawal or suspension of an acknowledgment as well as any liability for any damage alleged to have been suffered on account thereof.
S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.
S&P may receive compensation for its ratings and certain analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P's public ratings and analyses are made available on its Web sites, www.standardandpoors.com (free of charge), and http://www.ratingsdirect.com and www.globalcreditportal.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P publications and third-party redistributors. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees.
Australia
Ratings are statements of opinion, not statements of fact or recommendations to buy, hold, or sell any securities or make any other investment decisions. S&P Global Ratings Australia Pty Ltd holds Australian financial services license number 337565 under the Corporations Act 2001. S&P credit ratings and related research are not intended for and must not be distributed to any person in Australia other than a wholesale client (as defined in Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act). Australian users should only access information about S&P's products and services from www.standardandpoors.com.au. Other S&P Websites are not intended for Australian users.
STANDARD & POOR'S, S&P and RATINGSDIRECT are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC.
To manage your S&P Global Ratings subscription preferences, please click here.
S&P Global Ratings, 55 Water Street, New York, NY 10041
SOURCE S&P Global
![](https://rt.prnewswire.com/rt.gif?NewsItemId=NY69339&Transmission_Id=202102031444PR_NEWS_USPR_____NY69339&DateId=20210203)
Share this article