Sovereign ESG Insights July 2021

What You Need to Know

We still see a big gap between talk and action in the global war on climate change. But a closer look at emissions trends can identify the worst culprits, and perhaps which countries will lead future reductions. This ties directly to climate-change policies and pledges—key factors in our proprietary ESG framework.

Key Developments

• A Landmark Year in Global Climate Policy—2021 will mark an important phase in the global battle against climate change. More countries are talking up plans to meet emission reduction targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, including the US, which has returned to the table under the Biden administration.
• Identifying the Largest Polluters—Policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should logically target the biggest culprits, many of them financially strapped. To help fund the costs associated with GHG reductions, the United Nations advocates a “fair share” concept. But there are more calls for developed market countries—historically the biggest polluters—to shoulder a larger portion.
• What Will Governments Do?—So far just 86 countries have submitted updates to their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) plans, a small share of the 191 Paris Agreement signatories. The good news, however, is the world’s largest individual GHG emitters—China, the US and the UK—made ambitious upward revisions to their NDC and Net Zero Emissions (NZE) pledges in 2020 and 2021.
• Leveraging Policies to Make ESG Assessments—As climate policies lead to action, they help us form our sustainability and ESG assessments of each country. For example, our sustainability score captures biodiversity and renewable energy policies to help us rank commodities exporters across Emerging Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

At A Glance – EM Countries Now Lead In Emissions, But Not Climate Policies