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TheCorporateCounsel

TheCorporateCounsel.net

A basis for research and practical guidance focusing on federal securities laws, compliance & corporate governance.

DealLawyers

DealLawyers.com

An educational service that provides practical guidance on legal issues involving public and private mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity – and much more.

CompensationStandards

CompensationStandards.com

The “one stop” resource for information about responsible executive compensation practices & disclosure.

Section16.net

Section16.net

Widely recognized as the premier online research platform providing practical guidance on issues involving Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and all of its related rules.

PracticalESG

PracticalESG.com

Keeping you in-the-know on environmental, social and governance developments

On Wednesday, I blogged that S&P Global announced it will no longer issue numerical scores as ESG ratings for corporate borrowers. I certainly wasn’t the only one who wrote about this development – it was all over financial and sustainability/ESG headlines. I read many of those myself and noticed something: most of them are either wrong or very unclear about what S&P is actually doing. Some reports indicate that the firm is completely eliminating any aspect of ESG review/analysis in their corporate credit reviews. That is incorrect. According to the firm’s announcement itself:

“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. 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 have determined that the dedicated analytical narrative paragraphs in our credit rating reports are most effective at providing detail and transparency on ESG credit factors material to our rating analysis, and these will remain integral to our reports.”

It is clear that companies aren’t off the hook as some reports seemed to imply. As a matter of fact, it could be somewhat more difficult for companies since underwriters may now pay more attention to the detailed and telling narrative ESG risk analysis than in the past. Pressure for meeting ESG performance criteria remains, so don’t take your foot off the pedal.

Photo credit: piter2121 – stock.adobe.com.

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The Editor

Lawrence Heim has been practicing in the field of ESG management for almost 40 years. He began his career as a legal assistant in the Environmental Practice of Vinson & Elkins working for a partner who is nationally recognized and an adjunct professor of environmental law at the University of Texas Law School. He moved into technical environmental consulting with ENSR Consulting & Engineering at the height of environmental regulatory development, working across a range of disciplines. He was one… View Profile