S&P Global Ratings is thrilled to announce its recognition as the External Assessment Provider of the year at Environmental Finance’s Sustainable Debt Awards. These prestigious awards highlight outstanding achievements in green, social, sustainable, and sustainability-linked bonds and loans, as well as commendable innovations in the field of sustainable finance.
Selected by a panel of esteemed global investors, S&P Global Ratings was awarded the External Assessment Provider of the year accolade for its exceptional breadth and depth of assessment, deemed highly impressive by the judging panel.
This recognition follows the successful integration of Shades of Green’s scale into S&P Global Ratings’ comprehensive analytical approach for delivering Second Party Opinions (SPOs). These SPOs offer customers and the broader market the advantages of a meticulous, transparent, science-based methodology, which includes an easily understandable Shades of Green assessment.
Christa Clapp, Global Head of Sustainable Finance Markets Analytics at S&P Global Ratings, expressed gratitude for the trust placed in the company by investors, attributing it to the quality and consistency of their SPOs. She emphasized the SPOs’ ability to provide deeper transparency on climate risks, supported by the Shades of Green methodology.
In the updated analytical approach, S&P Global Ratings delineates its process for providing SPOs, defines an S&P Global Ratings Shade of Green, and elucidates how it is assigned to environmental projects. Additionally, the analysis contextualizes how a sustainable finance project contributes to addressing the issuer’s most material sustainability factors and manages additional relevant considerations. The integrated analysis yields four key analytical outputs:
Alignment assessment: Evaluates whether a financing’s documentation aligns with specific third-party published sustainable finance principles and guidelines identified by the issuer. Shade of green: For green projects, assesses the consistency of an economic activity or financial investment with a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. Issuer sustainability context: Assesses how the financing contributes to addressing the issuer’s most material sustainability factors. EU Taxonomy assessment: Provides an evaluation of a financing’s alignment with the EU taxonomy, upon request from an issuer. It is important to note that SPOs are independent assessments of a company’s financing or framework’s alignment with market standards and are provided prior to any borrowing. They are distinct from credit ratings, as they do not consider credit quality and do not factor into S&P Global Ratings’ credit ratings.
For more information on S&P Global Ratings’ SPOs, please visit spglobal.com.
About S&P Global Ratings:
S&P Global Ratings, a division of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI), is the leading provider of independent credit risk research globally. With over 1,600 credit analysts in 27 countries and more than 150 years of experience in assessing credit risk, S&P Global Ratings offers unparalleled global coverage and local insight. Their research and opinions provide market participants with valuable information to support the growth of transparent, liquid debt markets worldwide.
