Bringing ESG and Climate Lenses to Latin America

Roman Mendoza/ Ana Harris

November 17, 2021

 

Although, on average, emerging-market (EM) companies have tended to have lower MSCI ESG Ratings than global peers, a more granular regional analysis can provide additional insights.

Among EM regions, Latin America showed a differentiated ESG profile. Although it had the lowest total ESG score, as of Sept. 30, 2021, it had the highest percentage of ESG leaders (16.8%) and the lowest percentage of companies with negatively trending ESG scores. Additionally, Latin America had the lowest carbon intensity for EM, as measured by tons of CO2 emissions per USD 1 million in sales.

These metrics provide a snapshot of ESG and climate differentiation for the MSCI EM Latin America Index when compared to other regions in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

 

ESG and Climate Differentiation for EM Latin America


Interactive Assets

ESG Ratings Distribution for EM Regions


ESG and Climate Metrics for EM Regions

MSCI EM MSCI EM Latin America MSCI EM Asia MSCI EM EMEA
ESG Profile
ESG Score 5.1 4.6 5.2 4.7
ESG Leaders (AAA-AA) (%) 15.9 16.8 16.6 11.1
ESG Laggards (B-CCC) (%) 15.4 28.3 14.4 14.4
Companies with Positive ESG Trend (%) 26.4 18.7 27.5 24.1
Companies with Negative ESG Trend (%) 11.1 2.9 12.5 7.4
Climate Footprint
Carbon Intensity (t CO2 e/$M sales) 410 342 362 744

*The universe of companies for each region is: for Latin America 100 constituents, EMEA 164 and Asia 1,154. Data as of September 2021.

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