Companies With Good ESG Scores Pollute Just As Much As Those With Low Ones, New Analysis Finds

 As if there wasn't exhaustive enough evidence that "ESG" is nothing but a scam, the Financial Times was out this week with a piece detailing how many companies with good ESG scores pollute just as much as their lower-rated rivals.

The FT added to our skepticism by revealing this week that Scientific Beta, an index provider and consultancy, found that companies rated highly on ESG metrics - and even just the 'Environmental' variable alone - often pollute just as much as other companies.

Researchers look at ESG scores from Moody's, MSCI and Refinitiv when performing the analysis.

Vice-president for ESG outreach and research at Moody's, Keeran Beeharee, added: "[There is a] perception that ESG assessments do something that they do not.

ESG assessments are an aggregate product, their nature is that they are looking at a range of material factors, so drawing a correlation to one factor is always going to be difficult.

"In 2015-16, post the SDGs and COP21 , when people began to really focus on the issue of climate, they quickly realised that an ESG assessment is not going to be much use there and that they need the right tool for the right task. There are now more targeted tools available that look at just carbon intensity, for example," he added.

MSCI ESG Research told the Financial Times its ratings "Are fundamentally designed to measure a company's resilience to financially material environmental, societal and governance risks. They are not designed to measure a company's impact on climate change."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/companies-good-esg-scores-pollute-just-much-those-low-scores