Second Party Opinions

An S&P Global Ratings Second Party Opinion (SPO) is an independent, point-in-time analysis of a sustainable finance instrument, program, or framework. Our SPOs, backed by the award-winning Shades of Green approach, provide additional transparency to investors that seek to understand and act upon potential contribution to a sustainable future.

Second Party Opinion options include:

• SPOs for Use of Proceeds Financing: Assesses types of sustainable financing where proceeds are allocated to specific environmental or social projects. We offer three types of Use of Proceeds SPOs: green, social, and sustainability. For green projects, we apply our award-winning Shades of Green assessment which is our qualitative opinion of how consistent environmental activities eligible for financing are with a low-carbon climate resilient future.
• SPOs for Sustainability-Linked Financing: Assesses a sustainable finance framework or transaction - where the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes but incorporate measurable, forward-looking key performance indicators which are linked to sustainability objectives targets into the financial and/or structural characteristics of the instrument - for alignment with: ICMA’s Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles, and/or LMA’s Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles.