Sustainable finance: why the formal introduction of Credit Rating Agencies should serve as a warning

This short note explores the formal introduction of the leading credit rating agencies into the field of sustainable finance and all that comes with that moniker. In 2016, the leading agencies announced their plans to incorporate ‘Environmental, Social, and Governance’ concerns into their businesses, whilst in April 2017 Standard & Poor’s launched its ‘Green Evaluation Service’ which it has created to ‘assess the green impact’ of a variety of securities being offered to the marketplace. In this note we will understand this service more, and the movement to incorporate these concerns into their practices moreover, but the focus will then turn to the potential ramifications of this recent switch based upon what we already know about the agencies.