(10 August 2023 – Global) S&P Global Ratings has ceased providing new ESG scores when evaluating credit.
S&P Global dropped the alphanumeric scale it launched in 2021 to score publicly rated entities in some sectors and asset classes on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when assessing their credit quality. Effective immediately, the company announced it is no longer publishing new ESG credit indicators in reports or updating outstanding ESG credit indicators. The company said after further review, they determined that “dedicated analytical narrative paragraphs in our credit rating reports are most effective at providing detail and transparency on ESG credit factors” rather than alphanumeric ESG scores.
The announcement does not affect the group’s ESG principles criteria or research material to rating analysis, or the company's ESG principles criteria.
“In 2021, S&P Global Ratings began publishing alphanumeric ESG credit indicators for publicly rated entities in some sectors and asset classes. These indicators were intended to illustrate and summarize the relevance of ESG credit factors on our rating analysis through the use of an alphanumerical scale” the company said in a statement.
“They supplemented the narrative paragraphs in our credit rating reports where we describe the impact of ESG credit factors on creditworthiness. After further review, we determined that dedicated analytical narrative paragraphs in our credit rating reports are most effective at providing detail and transparency on ESG credit factors rather than alphanumeric ESG scores.”