RBC BlueBay Emerging Market Debt Fund has an average Morningstar Sustainability Rating of 3 globes, indicating that the ESG risk of holdings in its portfolio is similar to that of its peers in the Emerging Markets Fixed Income category. Funds with 4 or 5 globes tend to hold securities that are less exposed to ESG risk. ESG risk measures the degree to which material environmental, social, and governance issues, such as climate change, biodiversity, human capital, as well as bribery and corruption, could affect valuations. ESG risk differs from impact, which is about driving positive environmental and social outcomes for society’s benefit.
The fund aims to avoid or minimize holdings in companies breaching international norms, including the UN Global Compact or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
One potential issue for a sustainability-focused investor is that RBC BlueBay Emerging Market Debt Fund doesn’t have an ESG-focused mandate. Funds with an ESG-focused mandate are more likely to align with the expectations of an investor who cares about sustainability issues. One area to watch is the fund’s carbon risk exposure. Its Carbon Risk Score of 31.41 is situated at the higher end of the medium carbon risk band, indicating the fund's investee companies are in a vulnerable position in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The score represented the asset-weighted Carbon Risk Score of the portfolio's equity or corporate bond holdings, averaged over the trailing 12 months.These funds invest in companies that tend to operate in sectors less exposed to the transition (such as healthcare and IT) and/or companies in more carbon-intensive sectors (such as industrials and utilities) but that consider climate change in their business strategy and products, and therefore are positively aligned with the transition. Currently, the fund has 53.2% involvement in fossil fuels, which is high in both absolute and relative terms. The average peer in the same Emerging Markets Bond category has 39.8% exposure to fossil fuel-related businesses. Companies are considered involved in fossil fuels if they derive at least 5% of their revenue from thermal coal, oil, and gas. The fund has extremely high exposure (21.73%) to companies with high or severe controversies. From bribery and corruption to workplace discrimination and environmental incidents, controversies are incidents that have a negative impact on stakeholders or the environment, which create some degree of financial risk for the company. Severe and high controversies can have significant financial repercussions, ranging from legal penalties to consumer boycotts. In addition, they can damage the reputation of both companies themselves and their shareholders.
By prospectus, the fund aims to avoid, or limit its exposure to, companies associated with controversial weapons, tobacco, and and thermal coal. The fund mostly fulfills this goal; however, it does exhibit 0.59% exposure to companies involved in thermal coal. This compares with 1.26% for its average peer in the Emerging Markets Fixed Income category.