Ninety One launches biodiversity index

Ninety One has launched a new sovereign biodiversity index providing a tool for investors to assess country biodiversity risk.

The index incorporates the Yale’s Ecosystem Vitality index and the Biodiversity Intactness Index developed by the Natural History Museum. It comprises quality of nature, deforestation
and policy pillars and the three pillars provide an overall score for each country. The top and bottom 10 sovereign debt issuers ranked by Ninety One’s Sovereign Biodiversity Index are shown below.

1 Slovakia 0.84
2 Venezuela 0.81
3 Austria 0.80
4 Slovenia 0.79
5 Belarus 0.75
6 Romania
7 Democratic Republic of Congo 0.73
8 Estonia 0.73
9 Mongolia 0.73
10 Poland 0.72
107 South Korea 0.24
108 Egypt 0.24
109 Sri Lanka 0.23
110 Uruguay 0.23
111 Azerbaijan 0.22
112 Iraq 0.19
113 Saudi Arabia 0.18
114 Kuwait 0.15
115 Philippines 0.14
116 Singapore 0.06

Peter Eerdmans, Co-Portfolio Manager, EM Sustainable Blended Debt, said, “As sovereign debt investors, we therefore need a practical way to assess how governments impact nature and the risks stemming from biodiversity loss, as they can significantly influence economic performance and consequently a nation’s ability to service its debt. This is particularly key for investors in emerging markets, where economies often rely heavily on nature, partly because of the relative importance of the agricultural sector.”

Seven of the top 10 are European countries. This reflects stable and even improving trends in biodiversity intactness in some countries, which is counter to the global trend. Rewilding efforts and improved legal protections across the European Union have been relatively successful, as highlighted in a report co-authored by ZSL and BirdLife International in 2022.”

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