On September 5, 2019 Barron’s reported that “(f)ixed-income investors are increasingly looking at environmental, social and governance o,r ESG, data. A new sustainability ranking puts Norway and Uruguay in the top spots for developed and developing countries.
After Norway, the remaining developed countries in the top five are Sweden, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand, according to the new ranking from the ratings and analytics firm Sustainalytics. For developing countries, Poland, Croatia, Chile, and Barbados round out the top five. The firm is releasing its Country Risk Ratings for 170 countries this week, and shared some of its data with Barron’s.
Sustainalytics ranks a country’s sustainability by how well it manages its assets of natural capital, such as natural resources, human capital, and institutional capital, which includes factors like peace and the rule of law. The firm looked at 31 items for each country, pulled from organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations.”
You may read the article on the Barron’s internet site.