This year, Moody's Ratings won three award titles spanning analytics, transparency, and fixed income research, reflecting the breadth of its work across sustainable debt markets and climate risk analysis.

Central to Moody's Ratings' success was the expansion of its Net Zero Assessment (NZA) framework, which judges described as a differentiated tool for assessing whether companies can realistically achieve their decarbonisation targets. Unlike many climate-alignment assessments that focus primarily on the ambition of stated targets, Moody's Ratings NZAs evaluate both the credibility of those targets and companies' ability to deliver them within the context of their business models, competitive positioning and regional regulatory environments.

During the year, Moody's Ratings assigned NZA's at issuers' requests across a range of sectors and geographies, including utilities, steelmaking, water infrastructure and data centres.

The firm was also recognised for transparency in its broader sustainable finance work. Moody's Ratings maintains environmental and social heatmaps covering roughly $84 trillion of rated debt across 90 sectors, as well as issuer profile and credit impact scores for more than 16,500 issuers and structured finance transactions. In 2025, the agency published more than 180 sustainable finance research reports and hosted 22 sustainable finance-focused events globally.

Lastly, Moody's Ratings received a fixed income research award recognising its contributions to a Moody's interactive data story, In the race to resilience, adaptation finance is a stumbling block. 

Ahead of last year's COP30 in Brazil, Moody's published an interactive analysis examining how severe weather events and underinvestment in resilience could affect sovereign and sub-sovereign credit quality, particularly in emerging markets.

The report estimated that physical climate risks could reduce global GDP by around 17% by 2050 under current policy pathways, with emerging markets facing disproportionately severe economic impacts.

The report also explored the role of resilience bonds, catastrophe insurance and blended finance structures in helping governments and investors manage climate-related fiscal risks, highlighting the growing connection between adaptation and credit analysis.