China are among the worst performers in terms of responsible ethical investment policy, according to EIRIS, the London based investment research specialists.

Research published by EIRIS shows that amongst leading emerging market economies, China along with Egypt and Vietnam, are struggling to achieve a good rating for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) indicators.

The 2010 version of the EIRIS Country Sustainability Profiles for investors in sovereign wealth bonds includes a comparison of the most important of the emerging market economies. The countries analysed for the comparison were: Brazil, China, Philippines, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, South Korea and Vietnam.

EIRIS Co-Head of Research Carlota Garcia-Manas says: “The poor performance of China, particularly in the area of governance but also scoring low on environmental indicators should be of particular concern to investors given that its economy is due to overtake the USA as the world’s largest over the next 20 years.”

The three best performing emerging market countries were South Korea, Brazil and Mexico. Both Mexico and Brazil scored higher on environmental indicators than Canada and the USA. Of all 68 countries surveyed on the 49 environmental, social and governance indicators the best three performers were Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

The EIRIS Country Sustainability data can be used to create views and weightings for particular issues, giving the investor a bespoke rating and profile for each country.