Library | ESG issues

Environmental

The environmental pillar in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) assesses an organisation’s impact on the planet. It includes issues such as climate change, biodiversity, waste management and water management. Strong environmental practices help businesses reduce risks, comply with regulations, and drive long-term sustainability.

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Climate finance for low carbon transport: Developing effective transport financing mechanisms for Asia and the Pacific

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
This ESCAP policy brief examines climate finance options for scaling low-carbon transport in Asia–Pacific. It assesses funding gaps, barriers, and mechanisms—including subsidies, carbon pricing, green bonds, PPPs, and international finance—and recommends policy alignment, capacity building, investor matching, and diversified financing to accelerate investment.
Research
12 March 2024

Investing in tomorrow: A guide to building climate-resilient investment portfolios

Investment Leaders Group
This guide outlines how investors can integrate physical climate risks into listed equity and debt portfolios, strengthen portfolio resilience, and mobilise capital for adaptation through asset allocation, due diligence, engagement, and collaboration across policy, finance and the real economy.
Research
15 January 2025

Making money talk nicely: Biodiversity impact assessment for investors

This study compares eight biodiversity impact assessment tools used by investors. It finds low consistency in company rankings due to non-standardised methods, weak transparency and limited validation, concluding that reliance on single tools risks mispricing nature-related financial risk and calling for improved disclosures and spatially explicit approaches.
Research
26 June 2025

Our predicament: The fundamental flaws of predominant economic systems - and the cultures scaffolding them

This report synthesises interviews with global thinkers to diagnose structural flaws in dominant economic systems. It argues that extractive capitalism, growth imperatives, inequality and ecological overshoot underpin a planetary predicament, and frames the challenge as navigation towards regenerative, responsibility-based economies rather than problem-solving.
Research
30 April 2025

Theorising unconventional climate advocates and their relationship to the environmental movement

This study theorises “unconventional climate advocates” and analyses their position within Australia’s environmental movement using social network analysis. It finds these advocates are peripheral yet potentially effective in engaging climate-hesitant constituencies by operating independently from conventional environmentalists.
Research
6 February 2025

Community estimate of global glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023

This report analyses global glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023. It identifies an annual loss of 273 gigatonnes, which accelerated by 36% in the period's latter half. Globally, glaciers shed approximately 5% of their volume, significantly exceeding losses from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Research
19 February 2025

Combined climate stress testing of supply-chain networks and the financial system with nation-wide firm-level emission estimates

This study utilises comprehensive Hungarian firm-level data to stress-test the economy and banking system against carbon pricing shocks. While direct impacts at €45/t appear minimal, supply chain contagion significantly amplifies losses, potentially by 4000% if essential inputs cannot be substituted. This highlights critical risks in systemic supply network dependencies.
Research
30 January 2025

Tackling the transformation: The challenges of operationalizing corporate sustainability goals and how to overcome them

ERM SustainAbility Institute
ERM’s Transformation Survey analyses global corporate progress in operationalising sustainability goals. It finds stronger performance on social issues than climate or nature, identifies weak sustainability-linked incentives as the main barrier, and highlights underinvestment in training, incentives, and ESG data systems.
Research
13 February 2024

Corporate sustainability reporting

This conceptual paper examines corporate sustainability reporting, distinguishing investor-focused sustainability-related financial disclosure from broader impact reporting. It argues investor interests are imperfectly aligned with societal goals and concludes that complementary financial and impact reporting standards are needed to support accountability, capital allocation and sustainability transition.
Research
23 January 2025

Corporate manual: For setting science-based targets for nature

Science Based Targets Network (SBTN)
This manual provides practical guidance for companies to set science-based targets for nature, outlining a structured, science-led process to assess impacts, prioritise actions, and set targets across land, freshwater, climate, and biodiversity, supporting credible, transparent corporate sustainability action.
Research
7 August 2024

Globally representative evidence on the actual and perceived support for climate action

Using a survey of 130,000 people across 125 countries, the study finds strong global support for climate action, but widespread underestimation of others’ willingness to act. This perception gap may hinder cooperation; correcting it could materially strengthen climate action.
Research
9 February 2024

Leveraging physical climate risk data

Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System
The report outlines data requirements for assessing physical climate risks, highlighting gaps in hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and adaptation information. It reviews emerging tools, stresses limitations in insurance and asset-level data, and recommends capacity building, collaboration, and improved data systems to enhance financial sector climate-risk analysis.
Research
29 September 2025

International round table: Financing climate action at city level

Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations
This report synthesises discussions from an international round table on financing city-level climate action, highlighting how local governments overcome fiscal constraints through tailored funding scales, partnerships, innovative revenue mechanisms, and long-term approaches to deliver major decarbonisation programmes across Europe and North America.
Research
10 October 2024

Good practice case studies in scope 3 data collection

United Nations Global Compact
The report presents practical case studies on Scope 3 data collection, covering supplier, upstream, downstream and employee engagement. It outlines hybrid methodologies, use of primary and spend-based data, and emphasises collaboration, pragmatism and incremental improvement to support credible emissions measurement and reduction.
Research
13 August 2024

Escalation: The destructive force of Australia's fossil fuel exports on our climate

Australian Human Rights Institute
The report finds Australia’s fossil fuel exports significantly escalate global warming and domestic climate risks. It highlights missing policy restrictions, growing harms to people and systems, and urges an orderly, cooperative and just phase-out with regulatory reforms and international engagement.
Research
9 August 2024

Long-term impact and biological recovery in a deep-sea mining track

The study finds that deep-sea mining disturbance leaves long-lasting physical impacts, with partial biological recovery after 44 years. Some mobile and sessile fauna have re-established, but communities remain altered. Plume effects are limited, yet track disturbance persists, indicating slow ecosystem recovery and informing future management.
Research
26 March 2025
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