There were 13 rating actions related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in February, up from eight in January—with negative actions continuing to outpace positive ones. All 13 of February’s ESG-related rating actions came from North America. It was the first month without multiple region contributors to ESG-related rating actions since we began linking rating actions to ESG factors in April 2020. Governance factors (11) remained the primary driver. Risk management, culture, and oversight (five) was the primary governance factor. In February, U.S. public finance continued to be the sector with the most ESG-related rating actions (nine), and all but one were negative. In addition, governance factors drove all nine of those rating actions, five of which were CreditWatch negative placements.