The new sovereign ESG data portal

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In the year In November 2022, more than 45,000 world leaders and climate activists will gather in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the largest international climate conference, COP27. Indeed, climate action – and the myriad issues affected by climate change, such as health and immigration – have gained more prominence from policymakers and financial markets in recent years. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, in its various guises, has long been a way for the financial sector to measure, value and address these issues. The World Bank has followed these discussions closely and contributed data, tools and analysis to help market participants understand ESG investing from different perspectives.

The World Bank recently launched a tool to address these issues Sovereign ESG data portal. The portal has become an influential resource for the financial sector and is used by asset managers, investment banks, rating agencies, debt management bureaus and ESG data providers to inform their ESG approach to investing in the sovereign debt asset class. A recent ESG investor survey by the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance highlights the portal as the most used source for sovereign ESG information, while Barclays Research lists the portal behind ESG score providers (Barclays Research 2022 ESG Investor Survey). In addition, the portal often provides the underlying data for even the many spoke sovereign ESG products produced by the industry.

Through this experience, the Data Portal team saw an opportunity to build on past successes, incorporate user feedback, and take it a step further. When we interacted with data users, the feedback was not on the framework itself. Instead, we identified two main areas for improvement: (i) closing data gaps and (ii) providing more guidance on how to use the data. Some of these are discussed in this reset; Others will be established soon. The new portal fills important data gaps, adds new indicators to the framework and helps users better leverage the full potential of the World Bank’s sovereign ESG data.

What’s new in the new portal?

The portal now includes 71 ESG indicators Water stress, Coast Guard, Loss of forest cover, Heating And Freezing degree days, Irregularity of rainand new information on Economic and social rights. It also includes additional indicators that give context to ESG metrics, such as human capital index, inflation or land area. The portal shows how each country is Land cover has been transferred over time Using satellite data from the European Space Agency. In addition, the portal allows users to include a country Profile of wealth accountIt reflects the perspective of each country’s “balance sheet”. Long-term natural, manufactured and human capital.

Country profile pages Bringing together all relevant ESG data and key statistics – including new land cover profiles and asset accounting statements – in one place. of Income adjustment tool It helps users understand how entrenched income bias affects various indicators and how one can adjust for it. Interactive Indicator graphs Compare countries’ ESG performances with the same income group, geographic region or climate classification. A Result builder The tool provides customized ESG results in a 3-step process where users determine countries, indicators and aggregation method.

Data is only part of the story.

The continued increase in investment is probably only related to the desire for more and better information. However, the availability of information has not grown at the same rate. This is not surprising as sovereign ESG and development are closely linked – and the latter is certainly not a new topic. World BankWorld Development Indicators (WDI) It started in April 1989 and has grown to more than 1,400 indicators over the past three decades.

That is why, although the new portal adds many new indicators, the focus of the relaunched version is to provide users with a wide range of tools, images and data stories to better use and analyze the data. How has internet access evolved over time? Which countries are the leaders and laggards in reducing fossil energy consumption? How do countries perform in literacy compared to their peers? Read our Data history on reset To understand how the new website answers these questions.

What’s next?

In the three years since we first launched, the sovereign ESG landscape has grown exponentially. The new portal responds to this rapid growth by expanding the data framework and adding tools to better understand the data. However, we still have a long way to go. Closing remaining data gaps, filling recent values ​​and delving into practical implementation are some of the group’s agendas. Follow our eyes Data stories And Sign up for our newsletterTo get the latest information about the current situation.