Atlanta, GA / Short Hills, NJ, October 2024 – Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), along with Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc., announced today a new climate risk data service that promises to deliver one of the richest climate and ESG data offerings in the marketplace to investors and financial markets. This new venture is expected to encompass hundreds of millions of public and private companies worldwide as it provides investors and other stakeholders with concrete data about companies’ climate risk profiles. With its expertise in geospatial and climate data and with Dun & Bradstreet’s immense database of private companies, it will provide unprecedented access to climate-related data: on the one hand, the transition risk data- data around Greenhouse Gas emissions -and on the other, the physical risk data with regard to extreme weather and climate impacts.
This is part of a comprehensive data solution in the analytics platform, ICE Climate, designed to evaluate transition and physical climate risks and their impact on investments. As the importance of climate risk and ESG metrics increasingly come to be at the core of financial decision-making, this new service will fill the gap for investors, regulators, and companies aiming to get insights into managing ESG and climate risks and establish itself as the go-to resource in the changing landscape.
Why It Matters: Meeting the Demand for Climate and ESG Data
As climate crises intensify and a regulatory environment becomes more vigilant on ESG disclosures, demand for comprehensive and reliable climate risk data has never been higher. Investors will find that access to a wide range of climate and ESG data helps measure companies’ vulnerability to climate-related risks and aligns portfolios with long-term sustainability goals. For companies, climate risk assessments therefore become key for them in meeting their regulatory requirements, and by ensuring their preparedness when there is some climate-related risk that confronts the businesses.
“This is an ideal model of how two innovators collaborate in bringing out solutions that cater to the rapidly transforming needs of our customers, regulators, and investors,” said Chris Edmonds, President of ICE’s Fixed Income & Data Services. “By combining Dun & Bradstreet’s business intelligence, supply chain, and asset location data with ICE’s geospatial and climate capabilities, and leveraging ICE’s distribution channels, this new service will offer the broader investment community a single source of climate data for virtually all business entities globally.”
A Partnership Built on Data Expertise
The new service takes the capital strengths of ICE, whose capabilities lie in the ability to apply climate data analytics with the use of spatial data in determining the climatic risk factors that give room to GHG Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. On the provision of climate data by ICE Climate, additional strength is brought forth. Transition risk tied up in carbon emissions can now be evaluated more accurately.
In the context of Dun & Bradstreet, such a venture would rely highly on its global network and privately owned company databases. Including its D-U-N-S® Number system to enable the identification of every entity in the business network using a unique number means that data on private company spend on utilities, shipping, and supply chains would thus be organized. That may simplify climate risk by bundling together points dispersed at various sources.
This strategic offering taps into each firm’s specific area of expertise as it caters to growing demands for private company ESG and climate risk data within financial markets, said Ginny Gomez, President of Dun & Bradstreet, North America. “Using the Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S Number we can now aggregate many disparate sources of data that already have such deep roots into the business and investment ecosystems while permitting easy integration within existing workflows.”.
Features of the Climate Risk Data Service
This service should provide a comprehensive view on the climate risks significant to informed financial decisions. The features are:
1. Comprehensive Transition Risk Data: It provides GHG emissions across scopes 1, 2, and 3 for insight into direct, indirect, and value chain emissions.
2. Physical Risk Analytics: This gives information about risks created through climate-related physical events such as extreme weather events that may impact the business operation.
3. Integrated Business Intelligence: Through Dun & Bradstreet proprietary datasets regarding utility spending, logistics, and supply chains, you can dig deeper into your operational data and environmental impact.
4. Broad Market Coverage: The service will be covering tens of millions of public and private companies, bringing data that spans industries and geographies, making it a robust tool for investment and risk assessment.
The new data solution delivered by ICE Climate provides metrics needed to quantify how climate risks might influence a company’s performance over time, offering insights into areas from supply chain resilience to location-specific climate vulnerabilities.
Looking Ahead: A Resource for the ESG-Conscious Investor
The collaboration between ICE and Dun & Bradstreet heralds a new level in the supply and use of climate risk data. Especially in such a market, fragmented solutions as a result of ESG data demands separate providers across different aspects of climate impact, this is particularly the value in single-source climate risk service. By bringing together these data points in a single platform, ICE and Dun & Bradstreet position themselves to become vital resources for the ESG-conscious investor and a go-to partner for companies moving through the climate disclosures gauntlet.
Climate finance experts are embracing the new data offer as a step forward in climate finance. “With climate-related risks increasingly integral to corporate reporting, a product that integrates detailed data for both public and private sectors is well timed and of high relevance,” said ESG analyst Tyler Rand.
Launch of this climate risk data service is expected to improve the way companies and investors perceive climate disclosures and decisions with a proactive approach toward resilience and management of climate-related risks. This offering combining the geospatial capabilities of ICE with Dun & Bradstreet’s infrastructure for its vast data network is going to be one of the most comprehensive tools for ESG and climate risk worldwide.
The Bottom Line
ICE and Dun & Bradstreet’s collaboration on this climate risk data service is an embodiment of innovation at the interface of finance and environmental responsibility. Its wide coverage and unique integration capabilities mark a pivotal advancement in the management of climate risk and are likely to be indispensable tools for investors, regulators, and companies working toward sustainability goals and climate resilience.