ASCOR consultation to assess sovereign debt issuers on climate change

Written by Adam Cadle

09/02/2023

A coalition of asset managers and asset owners representing $5trn in assets is launching a framework to assess sovereign bond issuers on climate change.

Assessing Sovereign Climate-Related Opportunities and Risks (ASCOR), once finalised, will result in an independent, freely, and publicly available assessment tool intended to support investors achieve their net-zero goals, and help them engage with issuers to find a common understanding of the transition at a national level. It will also give the opportunity to sovereigns to showcase their progress in addressing climate change.

The framework has been developed in collaboration with the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) Global Climate Transition Centre. Relevant stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the public consultation by 31 March 2023.

Carmen Nuzzo, head of fixed income, PRI and co-chair of ASCOR’s climate policy and funding working groups said: “ASCOR is the first tool allowing investors and sovereign issuers to sing from the same hymn sheet on climate change. It is the fruit of a major collaborative effort which, if now sustained by broad adoption, can turn ASCOR into ‘the’ industry reference framework for sovereign debt investors and issuers. It is a unique opportunity for both audiences to coalesce around a final unified tool, thereby delivering increased consistency across sector practices.”

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