Verisk Maplecroft launches Sovereign ESG Ratings

Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk analytics business of Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK), has launched new Sovereign ESG Ratings to provide investors with the most comprehensive picture available of ESG risks and opportunities across the entire current and potential sovereign issuer universe.

The Ratings, which extend Verisk Maplecroft’s growing presence as a geospatial ESG data provider, have been developed to offer a powerful set of signals for tracking the sustainability factors that matter most for sovereign debt markets – from both ethical and material perspectives. Crucially, research into the data’s relationship with bond spreads shows that human rights are, in reality, highly material, and that risks relating to the energy transition have now become a key factor affecting countries’ borrowing costs.

Setting a new global standard for sovereign ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) analysis, the Ratings will enable more widespread incorporation of ESG in government debt markets, helping investors to price in sustainability factors more effectively and create portfolios that tightly align with their values.