ISS ESG, the sustainable investment arm of ISS STOXX, today announced a major augmentation of its evolving suite of Climate Solutions, which includes a new Industry Average Emission Intensity data set.
The new data set supports banks and insurance companies that need to comply with mandatory climate-related disclosure frameworks, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Banking Authority (EBA) Pillar 3 ESG Disclosures. The Industry Average Emission Intensity data set has been developed in line with the EBA Pillar 3 Template 1 reporting requirements and leverages ISS ESG’s broadest and deepest coverage as well as sophisticated emissions modeling techniques.
The new data set, which is sector-based, enables users to estimate emissions for non-listed companies, small and medium enterprises, and other alternative investments. In particular, it enables banks to estimate emissions for large portfolios of companies where data is scarce in support of EBA Pillar 3 reporting. The data set provides industry emission intensity averages which follow PCAF recommendations on a global and regional basis and comprises NACE and GICS industry classifications.
“Banks continue to face tight implementation deadlines, in tandem with data scarcity, among other challenges, to meet the regulatory requirements set out by the EBA standard,” said Till Jung, Head of ESG Business at ISS STOXX. “ISS ESG has applied its wealth of experience in measuring physical and transition-related climate risks, regulatory alignment, and much more, to develop a broad and deep dataset, to help streamline banks’ EBA Pillar 3 ESG reporting.”
Other key upcoming enhancements to ISS ESG’s Climate Solutions are designed to help financial institutions respond to a broad spectrum of both mandatory and voluntary climate-related disclosure requirements. These include building on the comprehensive Scenario Alignment issuer-level data set that was released in March 2024, to offer key portfolio-level alignment metrics for up to 22 scenarios provided by leading models (IEA, the NGFS, and the UNEP OECM). These metrics include, among others, portfolio-level Implied Temperature Rise.