Economy and Sustainability

Emerging countries and sustainability, Chile tops the list

In the Sustainability ranking of the manager Dpam, Chile is in first place followed by the Czech Republic and Poland

by Niccolò Gramigni

6 February 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The Sustainability Ranking: who rises and who cannot be ranked
Excluded countries
The Case of India

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Sustainability is increasingly becoming one of the central indicators for establishing the long-term soundness of a country. In this sense, the Dpam report, a Belgian asset manager part of the Indosuez Wealth Management group specialising in sustainability, publishes an updated study every six months with a ranking of the most sustainable emerging countries.

The report refers to the fact that "emerging economies are generally considered to have high potential, mainly due to population growth and a younger average population than in developed countries. At the same time, however, these markets are often perceived as less robust in terms of environmental and social sustainability and the quality of democratic institutions'.

The Sustainability Ranking: Who Ranks and Who Can't Rank

Dpam's 'Sustainability ranking' is a semi-annual country ranking built on a reference universe of 84 emerging markets, selected on the basis of the existence of a sovereign debt market in local or hard currency.

The ranking is based on a set of more than fifty quantitative indicators. Data are exclusively from recognised international sources, including agencies of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Freedom House and Transparency International. In the ranking, the top three emerging countries show different trends compared to the previous survey: Chile strengthens its leadership by improving its overall score from 74/100 to 76/100, the Czech Republic confirms a stable profile by keeping its score unchanged at 75/100, while Poland shows a more pronounced improvement, rising from 72/100 to 75/100.

It should be noted that Costa Rica improved its overall score from 70/100 to 74/100 while Albania went from 66/100 to 71/100.

Excluded countries

It should be noted that countries classified both as 'not free' by Freedom House and as 'authoritarian' by the Economist Intelligence Unit are excluded. These include, for example, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Belarus, Vietnam and Egypt. Julie Gossen, investment specialist Dpam, explained that 'respect for democratic values is not an ancillary factor, but the starting point for assessing the financial sustainability and credibility of a state'.

The Case of India

In the latest report, reference is made to the case of India, whose overall ESG score increased from 49/100 in 2023 to 57/100 in the latest published ranking. India is considered a 'significant test case for assessing the effectiveness of an ESG analysis applied to sovereign risk in the medium to long term'.

The country 'shows progressive improvement but is still marked by strong elements of complexity. While not yet positioned at the top end of the ranking, India's overall score advancement reflects tangible achievements especially on the socio-economic front, thanks to a combination of sustained growth, poverty reduction and improvement in some demographic and employment indicators. At the same time, the path towards greater sustainability remains uneven, with marked differences between the different ESG dimensions and structural tensions that continue to affect the sovereign risk profile in the long run'.

Finally, according to the report, 'the governance dimension remains one of the most delicate areas. In the face of a formally consolidated democratic system, critical issues emerge in relation to the protection of civil liberties, freedom of the press and alignment with international standards on rights and institutions'.

It is precisely this combination of economic progress, social advances and persistent institutional vulnerabilities that makes the Indian case particularly representative of the challenges that ESG analysis applied to emerging markets is called upon to intercept.