Sustainability Insights

Sustainable finance is about more than funding activities and investments that already foster a greener, low-carbon, and more climate-resilient future in alignment with the Paris Agreement. It's also about financing those that aren't yet compatible to the same degree but do contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

In our inaugural Sustainability FAQ, we answer market participants’ questions on how we view green and transition financing through our coverage and capabilities.

Our analysis is based on trends over 2016-2023, using data from S&P Global Sustainable1 on a representative cohort of over 11,000 companies that have annual data available for each year. This analysis aims to provide insights into the industry groups that are most exposed to climate transition risks such as policy, technology, and market changes in relation to potential shifts toward a low-carbon economy. At the same time, the financial impact of environmental risks on the sector and our ratings has so far been negligible, reflecting a lack of stringent environmental regulations and little change in consumers' buying behavior.

Full results of our analysis and details on our methodology are presented in "Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Deep Dive Into Trends For Global Industries," Sept. 18, 2025.

Aging populations, like other global megatrends such as increasing digitalization, are gradually reshaping our world, and often in unpredictable ways, as we describe in our White Paper: Assessing How Megatrends May Influence Credit Ratings, published April 18, 2024. Global aging, typically stemming from declining birth rates and longer life expectancies, is a measurable trend in most geographies. Yet it's difficult to predict the likely credit impacts, how material they may be, and when they might unfold. Some credit impacts have already emerged while others may take several years.