Sustainability Ratings for Governments, from sovereigns to cities.
SYNE rates the sustainability performance of federal governments, state and provincial authorities, and municipalities - giving sovereign and municipal bond investors, multilateral lenders, and citizens a consistent, independent benchmark across every level of government.
From a single city to a national government.
SYNE's Sustainability Ratings for Governments cover every level of public administration - built for investors, lenders and citizens who need a consistent standard, whichever level of government they're evaluating.
Sovereign Sustainability Ratings
National-level ratings supporting sovereign bond investors and multilateral lending decisions.
State & Provincial Ratings
Sub-sovereign ratings for state, provincial and regional governments and their fiscal instruments.
Municipal & City Ratings
City-level ratings supporting municipal bond investors and urban sustainability benchmarking.
Sovereign Bond Framework Support
Second Party Opinion-style review of green and sustainability-linked sovereign bond frameworks.
SDG Alignment Benchmarking
Benchmark progress against the UN Sustainable Development Goals across comparable jurisdictions.
Public Sector Advisory & Capacity Building
Readiness support and training for public administrations preparing for their first rating.
80 weighted criteria. Four dimensions. One score.
Every Government Sustainability Rating is built from 80 individually weighted criteria spread across Environmental Performance & Resilience, Social Development & Equity, Governance & Institutional Quality, and Fiscal & Debt Sustainability - the same weighted-average approach used across every SYNE Rating, adapted for the public sector.
Environmental Performance & Resilience
How well a government manages its natural resources and prepares for climate impacts.
- Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning
- Natural Resource Management
- Emissions & Energy Transition
- Biodiversity & Land Use
Social Development & Equity
Whether growth and services reach the population broadly, not just on average.
- Public Health & Education Outcomes
- Income & Regional Equity
- Housing & Basic Services Access
- Human Rights & Labor Standards
Governance & Institutional Quality
Whether institutions are strong, transparent and accountable enough to deliver on commitments.
- Rule of Law & Anti-Corruption
- Fiscal Transparency
- Institutional Capacity
- Political Stability & Accountability
Fiscal & Debt Sustainability
Whether current fiscal policy can sustain today's commitments over the long term.
- Debt-to-GDP Trajectory
- Revenue Diversification
- Contingent Liability Exposure
- Budget Resilience to Shocks
Six tiers, from exemplary to distressed.
The SYNE Government Rating scale runs from AAA to D - the same scale used across every SYNE rating - so a municipality, a state, and a sovereign can all be read on the same terms.
Front Runner · Strong performance and verified data across all four dimensions, with resilient institutions and fiscal capacity.
Strong across most dimensions, with only minor gaps in fiscal buffers or institutional capacity.
Material gaps identified in one or more dimensions, with a credible pathway to close them.
Significant improvement needed, particularly in fiscal sustainability or institutional quality.
Fundamental gaps across multiple dimensions, with limited near-term capacity to close them.
No material evidence of sustainable fiscal, environmental or institutional performance.
Comparable across levels of government
A municipal AA and a sovereign AA mean the same thing on the underlying scale, even though the specific criteria weightings differ by government type.
Trajectory matters as much as points
SYNE reports whether a government is improving, stable, or declining relative to its previous rating - informative across multi-year budget and election cycles.
Every rating includes a pathway
Governments rated below AA receive a prioritised improvement pathway, developed jointly with SYNE's public sector advisory team where requested.
Built for anyone with a stake in how a public institution performs.
A government rating is a shared reference point - the same score means the same thing whether you're buying a sovereign bond or evaluating a city's resilience plan.
Sovereign & Municipal Bond Investors
Screen and benchmark government debt issuers on a comparable, independently verified sustainability signal.
Multilateral Development Banks
Inform lending and guarantee decisions with a consistent, comparable rating across borrower governments.
National & Local Governments
Benchmark performance against peer jurisdictions and identify priorities for reform or investment.
Rating-Linked Lending Programmes
Tie financing terms to demonstrated sustainability performance using an independent, published rating.
Citizens & Civil Society
Access an independent, plain-language view of how a government is performing against its own commitments.
Credit Rating Agencies
Reference an independent sustainability overlay alongside traditional sovereign and municipal credit analysis.
Sovereign ESG data is still fragmented, inconsistent, and hard to compare.
Unlike corporate ESG reporting, government sustainability data is scattered across ministries, statistical agencies, and multilateral databases, published on different cycles and in different formats. Investors and lenders assessing sovereign or municipal risk are often left assembling a picture themselves, with no consistent scale to compare one jurisdiction against another.
Why sovereign ESG data is hard to use
Data scattered across ministries and multilateral sources, on inconsistent cycles, makes cross-jurisdiction comparison difficult without independent normalisation.
What it means for bond investors
A consistent rating scale lets an investor compare a municipal bond in one country against a sovereign bond in another on the same terms.
What it means for governments
A strong, independently verified rating can support access to sustainability-linked sovereign and municipal financing.
What a government rating actually tells you
A weighted judgement of environmental, social, governance and fiscal performance - built on public, verifiable data, not internal government reporting alone.
What separates a SYNE government rating from a sovereign credit score.
Four principles run through every rating, from a small municipality to a G20 sovereign.
Aligned with international frameworks
Grounded in the UN SDGs, sovereign ESG frameworks, and internationally recognised public governance indicators.
Built on public, verifiable data
Ratings draw on public statistical, budgetary and institutional data - cross-checked rather than accepted at face value.
Regulatory-grade independence
No commercial lending relationship between SYNE and a rated government influences the outcome.
Comparable via the SYNE Index
Every government rating maps onto the same SYNE Index quadrants used across corporate, carbon and supplier ratings.
Same methodology family, a different subject.
A Government Sustainability Rating shares its underlying approach with SYNE's corporate ratings, but the criteria, data sources and independence considerations differ.
Public institutions, not companies
Criteria are built for public administration - fiscal policy, institutional quality and equity - rather than corporate governance and disclosure.
Public records, not corporate disclosure
Ratings draw on public statistical, budgetary and institutional data rather than a company's self-reported filings.
No lending relationship influence
SYNE's government ratings are structurally separate from any lending or guarantee decision that might reference them.
10–16 weeks, start to publication
Government ratings typically run longer than corporate engagements, reflecting the breadth of public data involved.
Usually published
Unlike many corporate ratings, government ratings are more often published by default to support public accountability.
Referenced by lenders & bond markets
Used by multilateral lenders and sovereign/municipal bond investors across our 71 licensed markets.
Rated from federal to municipal level, across 71 countries.
SYNE's government ratings span national, state and municipal levels across every jurisdiction we're licensed in, drawing on the same public data infrastructure used across our sovereign, state and city coverage.
View the full country list →Each mark represents active coverage in one jurisdiction
The ratings and services this connects to.
Sustainability Ratings for Governments shares its methodology family with SYNE's corporate ratings, and sits alongside the rest of SYNE's advisory and research services.
Get your government rated.
Talk to our public sector team about a sovereign, state, or municipal Sustainability Rating.