This article analyses how Canada’s Pathways Alliance representing 95 % of oil sands output frames its net-zero commitments. Reviewing 183 public communications, it finds widespread indicators of greenwashing, including selective disclosure, unverifiable claims, and poor accountability. The study urges broader scrutiny of coordinated industry communication across digital and public relations platforms.

The report analyses over 12,000 YouTube videos (2018–2023) and finds a shift from denying climate change to questioning solutions and scientific credibility. While direct denial fell sharply, claims exaggerating costs of renewable energy or undermining trust in scientists increased, reflecting a new form of climate misinformation on the platform.

This month’s sustainability roundup traces a rapidly evolving landscape in climate finance and accountability, spotlighting the weaknesses exposed by Hurricane Melissa’s disaster-risk finance system alongside new policy frameworks now reshaping sustainable investment. It highlights how vulnerable nations continue to bear the costs of climate impacts, how regulatory reforms such as Australia’s 2035 emissions target and global disclosure regimes are embedding accountability, and how renewed scrutiny of carbon markets is driving the search for credible, incentive-based pathways to real decarbonisation.

This report summarises the growth and performance of Australia’s responsible investment market in 2023, with RI assets reaching A$1.6 trillion, or 41% of total managed funds. It highlights strengthened ESG integration, transparency, and stewardship, reflecting increasing investor demand, regulatory developments, and alignment with global sustainability standards.

This report summarises the 2024 benchmarking of New Zealand’s responsible investment market, assessing 70 investment managers using RIAA’s Responsible Investment Scorecard. It finds NZ$207 billion in responsible assets, representing 56% of total funds, and highlights expanding ESG integration, transparency, stewardship, and impact investing alongside strengthened regulation and market maturity.

This report proposes using firm-level emission futures contracts to better measure and incentivise real environmental impact from ESG investing. It finds that current backward-looking ESG ratings fail to predict emission reductions and may misallocate capital to higher-polluting firms. Market-based, forward-looking emission futures could improve measurement, incentives, and investment impact.

This report summarises draft guidance from New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority on ethical investment disclosure. It sets expectations under the FMC Act, warns against greenwashing, and outlines principles of clarity, substantiation, consistency, and management of third-party involvement to improve transparency and accuracy for investors.

Financial Markets Authority (FMA) is New Zealand’s independent regulator overseeing financial markets. It promotes fair, efficient and transparent markets, ensures quality financial advice and protects investors. FMA develops regulation, supervises licenced entities, enforces compliance, supports innovation and aims to enhance trust in NZ’s financial sector.

EDHEC Climate Institute (ECI) equips finance professionals and decision-makers with climate risk research, tools and scenario analysis. It focuses on physical risks, transition risks, green assets, resilience technologies and climate policy. ECI bridges academia, industry and public stakeholders to support low-emission investment strategies.

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is a US-based nonpartisan economic research organisation producing working papers, conferences, datasets and publications on macroeconomics, labour markets, health economics and public policy. It supports scholars and policymakers with in-depth empirical research.

This report examines how investor and manager motivations—driven by either financial value or personal values—shape sustainable finance and ESG practices. It highlights definitional ambiguities, performance debates, and cultural differences, calling for clearer research to distinguish pecuniary risk-return considerations from non-pecuniary preferences in ESG investing.

Tobacco Tactics is a knowledge-exchange platform from the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group. It compiles rigorous academic research and monitoring on the global tobacco industry—its products, influences, themes and companies—in an accessible format.

Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) at the University of Bath conducts international, multidisciplinary research into the tobacco industry’s influence on health and policy. TCRG generates evidence to support effective tobacco control, informs public health policy, and provides training on industry monitoring and accountability to advance global health outcomes.

This report argues that ESG is both essential and ordinary: vital as a driver of long-term value but not unique compared to other intangibles such as culture or innovation. It cautions against over-emphasising ESG metrics, politicisation, and superficial classification, advocating instead a broader focus on overall sustainable value creation.

The CFA Institute survey (Nov 2021) captures member views on ESG integration and sustainability reporting. Respondents support flexibility in ESG integration, oppose government mandates, and favour global product disclosure standards. They also prefer mandatory, globally consistent sustainability reporting with regulatory frameworks in place before adoption.

This report reviews global ESG and responsible investing practices, focusing on definitions, regulation, climate finance, and institutional investor roles. It evaluates evidence from academic research and PRI data, highlighting investor influence, governance, and engagement strategies, while noting challenges around ratings, greenwashing, and measuring real outcomes.