Library | ESG issues
Buildings & Infrastructure
Buildings and infrastructure include physical structures and systems such as commercial buildings, roads, and energy networks. Sustainable infrastructure focuses on optimising and retrofitting existing assets while developing new ones that integrate environmental stewardship, social equity, and sustainable design. Investing in infrastructure can support sustainable development and ensure that all people have access to safe, affordable, reliable, and high-quality infrastructure.
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Disaster resilience scorecard for cities: Addendum for extreme heat risk management
An addendum to the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities, this tool helps local governments assess and strengthen extreme heat risk management. It uses 18 indicators to evaluate governance, infrastructure, and financial planning to build long-term urban resilience against rising temperatures.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation: What works for data centres? Part 3
This report evaluates climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for data centres using the ClimaTech database. It assesses the effectiveness of decarbonisation across three scopes and analyses resilience measures for flood, storm, heat, and wildfire risks, providing quantitative performance metrics for various technological solutions.
ASEAN sustainable finance state of the market series
This series by the Climate Bonds Initiative examines the development of sustainable finance markets across ASEAN. It covers green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked debt instruments, alongside market structures, taxonomies, transition finance and policy developments supporting sustainable capital markets across the region.
The climate premium on commercial real estate insurance
This report analyses rising insurance costs in the United States commercial real estate sector. It finds that premiums have surged 154% since 2017, driven by climate risk and reinsurance trends. High-risk markets face significant valuation erosion, with multi-family properties particularly impacted by increased financial burdens and pricing volatility.
The price and distributional impact of flood risk disclosure: Evidence from US housing platforms
This research quantifies the impact of property-level flood risk disclosure on US housing prices and demographics. Homes labelled with 'extreme' risk saw a 3.3% price discount. Disclosure caused significant resorting, with lower-income, older, and FHA-financed buyers increasingly purchasing high-risk properties primarily due to reduced transaction prices.
Asset-level physical climate risk register template
The Asset-level physical climate risk register template, developed by the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), enables consistent documentation of climate hazard assessments. It helps investors and managers track risks such as floods and wildfires at the individual asset level to support financial reporting and resilience planning.
The role of investors in measuring and achieving lower embodied carbon in real estate and infrastructure
This guidance outlines strategies for Australian investors to manage and reduce embodied carbon in real estate and infrastructure. It details a maturity pathway from benchmarking to achieving reductions, highlighting mandatory reporting requirements and strategic benefits. The document provides specific actions for equity and debt investors to align with net-zero pathways.
Clean cooking in Africa 2026: Progress report
This report evaluates progress toward universal clean cooking access in sub-Saharan Africa. While delivery rates have tripled since 2010, population growth continues to outpace gains. The analysis covers investment trends, infrastructure development, and the impact of the 2026 energy crisis on regional fuel supply chains.
Exploring guarantees for resilient and low-carbon cities: Part 2: De-risking urban climate finance series
This report examines how guarantees can unlock private climate finance for cities. It identifies barriers to uptake in emerging markets, such as high costs and complex structures. Proposed solutions include strengthening governance, standardising products, and expanding regional facilities to mobilise the USD 4.3 trillion required annually by 2030.
Insurers' resilience toolkit: A practical taxonomy of climate adaptation and resilience measures
This research provides a practical taxonomy for the insurance sector to advance climate adaptation and resilience. Analysing over 200 measures, it highlights structural barriers and enabling conditions for scaling initiatives. The report advocates for a shift from post-event compensation towards proactive risk reduction and long-term stakeholder engagement.
Sector insights: Real estate series
Sustainable Fitch Sector Insights Report Series is a series providing analytical assessments of the sustainability profiles of different sectors. It examines sustainability impacts, ESG rating trends, sustainable finance developments, sector-specific issues, and relevant sustainability-related regulations to support finance professionals’ understanding of sector performance.
A well-adapted UK: The fourth independent assessment of UK climate risk (CCRA4-IA)
This report assesses the UK’s climate risks to 2050, identifies priority adaptation actions across key sectors, and outlines investment, policy and governance measures to strengthen resilience. It provides evidence-based recommendations to support climate adaptation planning and reduce long-term economic and societal impacts.
Scientific Climate Ratings
Scientific Climate Ratings delivers forward-looking, science-based climate risk ratings quantifying financial materiality of physical and transition risks for infrastructure assets globally.
From climate crisis to insurance crisis: Designing solidarity-based natural disaster insurance
This report examines rising climate-related insurance losses and Germany's lack of comprehensive natural disaster coverage, with only 57% of residential buildings insured against such risks. It analyses international public-private insurance models — particularly France's CatNat system — and recommends a solidarity-based approach alongside measures to hold the fossil fuel industry financially accountable.
Widening the lens: Scaling climate adaptation and resilience through sustainable finance
This report examines climate adaptation and resilience in sustainable finance, highlighting a significant financing gap in emerging markets and limited formal allocation in labelled debt markets. It argues for a broader lens that recognises resilience outcomes already embedded in policy-driven investments, using Ecuador's sovereign housing framework as a case study.
Beyond the parcel: Unlocking risk assessment of complex infrastructure assets
This First Street report applies climate risk modelling to five infrastructure asset types — airports, residential developments, rail networks, transmission lines, and toll roads — demonstrating how localised physical hazards translate into material revenue losses and operational downtime, and why traditional parcel-based risk tools are inadequate for complex infrastructure.
