Bloomberg has announced the launch of its own ESG scores for the oil and gas sector.
The initial scores launched are called Environmental and Social (ES) scores and cover 252 companies in the oil & gas sector, and board composition scores for 4,350 companies across multiple industries.
Bloomberg says the ES scores will begin with the oil & gas sector as there is typically stronger disclosure data from these companies, which account for more than half of carbon dioxide emissions related to fuel combustion and generate 15% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IEA. The governance scores will start with board composition as there has been increased scrutiny on the role of corporate boards in providing proper leadership and oversight over long term strategic performance.
The board composition scores enable investors to assess how well a board is positioned to provide diverse perspectives and supervision of management, as well as to assess potential risks in the current board structure. The quantitative model is designed by Bloomberg governance specialists and utilizes Bloomberg’s management and board level data. The scores rank the relative performance of companies across four key focus areas of diversity, tenure, overboarding and independence.
The ES scores provide a data-driven measure of corporate environmental and social performance that investors can use to quickly evaluate performance across a range of financially material, business-relevant and industry-specific key issues, such as climate change and health and safety, and assess company activities relative to industry peers.