Scientific Climate Ratings: From Exposure to Financial Impact – A New Standard in Climate Risk Ratings

Our Scientific Climate Ratings offer an in-depth assessment of climate risk exposure for infrastructure companies worldwide, using probabilistic scenarios up to 2050. These ratings evaluate the financial materiality of both physical and transition risks.

The Potential Climate Exposure Rating (PCER)

The PCER evaluates the potential exposure to climate risks under the most likely climate scenario for two time horizons
1.
Using actual or estimated Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emission intensities, we calculate companies’ exposure to transition risks.
2.
Using geolocation and detailed asset boundaries, we compute assets’ exposure to physical risks.
3.
If a company provides decarbonisation and resilience measures, our team validates the data and adjusts the climate exposure in line with our ClimaTech database.
4.
The final climate exposure score is translated into the PCER to facilitate comparison with peers and the infrastructure universe.
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Underlying Key Inputs

Company-level emissions intensity

National carbon tax
Company-specific location
Location-specific hazard maps
Quantified climate damages
Climate adaptation measures

What is my exposure to climate risks?
How do I rank versus peers?

  • Easy-to-use climate exposure ratings for corporates and investors
  • Transparent and robust science-based models, capturing assets’ specificities
  • Decarbonisation and resilience measures factored in
  • Using forward-looking climate scenarios
  • Useful and comprehensive benchmarking tool

Methodology Documents

PCER
methodology

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Probabilisation of scenarios
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Resilience and decarbonisation adjustments
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Data Quality
Score

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Discover more about our physical and transition risk methodologies

Decoding Climate Exposure: Find the Answers You Need (FAQ section)

Climate change poses a growing risk to global economic stability. As our planet warms, companies face increasing exposure to transition and physical risks. Beyond being a regulatory obligation, climate risk management is essential for building a sustainable and resilient business. Accordingly, it is crucial to understand and measure climate exposure accurately.

We provide you with scientific, granular, and precise information to understand climate risks and make well-informed decisions for a sustainable future of your business. Specifically, we offer:

  • Long-term asset protection: Infrastructure investments are long-term, capital-intensive commitments, but climate hazards and natural disasters can threaten the security and lifespan of assets. Identifying and mitigating climate exposure is vital to ensure asset longevity, reduce service disruptions, and safeguard investment value. Our solution offers in-depth, asset-specific evaluations of potential climate exposure, ensuring accuracy and relevance.

  • Risk management: Extreme weather events such as floods can cause significant damage to infrastructure, driving up repair costs, increasing maintenance, and possibly reducing asset value. Assessing and managing these risks is crucial for investors aiming for stable financial returns. Using scientific methods and validated principles, we ensure reliability and consistency in our assessments.

  • Insurance: As climate change intensifies, certain regions are becoming uninsurable. By understanding climate hazards' severity and likelihood, investors can tailor coverage, negotiate premiums, and take measures to protect their assets.

  • Regulatory compliance: With stricter regulations on infrastructure safety and climate resilience, investors must ensure their assets comply with these evolving standards to minimise legal and regulatory risks. Investors and asset owners can use our data for reporting purposes and to assess their regulatory compliance.

  • Consistent benchmarking: With over 6,483 rated infrastructure assets across 8 TICCS® industrial superclasses, Scientific Climate Ratings provides a common language for investors to compare their climate exposure against industry peers.
    Our ratings include full transparency on data inputs and outputs and the methodologies applied. We also provide a Data Quality Score (DQS) that highlights the reliability and precision of the underlying data. By ensuring top-quality data, we help companies improve the credibility of their ratings, providing a true reflection of their climate risk profile. The DQS are aligned with the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), offering a clear benchmark to evaluate data completeness, consistency, and relevance.
    We leverage a wide range of datasets, prioritising high-quality data sources and the most granular information at company, sector, and country levels. While we use models and estimates to fill data gaps, we are committed to providing thorough and reliable assessments. For a complete list of data sources, please refer to our methodology documents.
    The PCER evaluates the potential transition and physical exposure until two time horizons – 2035 and 2050 – under the most likely climate scenario. We assessed the likelihood of climate scenarios based on the probability distribution of the aggressiveness of abatement speed. For more details on the methodology and calculations, please refer to our document on scenario probabilisation.

    Yes! PCER considers resilience and decarbonisation measures. For this, we require detailed company information that can be provided through a questionnaire. We assess this company-specific data using ClimaTech, the world’s largest database of climate resilience and decarbonisation strategies, developed by EDHEC Climate Institute. This resource provides detailed information on the effectiveness of strategies to mitigate risks, adapt to climate change, and enhance resilience. After the data assessment, we adjust companies’ ratings accordingly.

    We evaluate companies’ measures on :
    • Decarbonisation: based on adopted technologies and their ability to reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
    • Resilience: based on technologies that protect assets from climate hazards and reduce expected damage
    Curious about future climate risks until 2050?
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    Potential Climate Exposure Ratings Library

    Curious about your future climate risk until 2050?
    Discover our Effective Climate Risk Ratings.
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