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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Sovereign risk ceilings: Rethinking methodology through risk disaggregation
This report critiques sovereign ceiling practices in credit ratings for emerging market infrastructure. It proposes a disaggregated framework to assess eight specific transmission channels and mitigants, arguing that empirical data shows high survival rates for well-structured projects during sovereign crises, contrary to current blanket rating caps.
Government announced increases in carbon pricing and their implications for corporate valuations
This report explores global corporate environmental costs, finding that unpriced carbon emissions represent a material risk to valuations. Analysing approximately 20,000 companies, it illustrates how projected carbon price increases in jurisdictions like Norway and Canada could significantly erode enterprise values, especially within the aviation and maritime sectors.
Ready-to-Fund Resilience Toolkit
A framework and diagnostic tool developed by the American Society of Adaptation Professionals to help climate projects move from planning to investment-ready status. It provides criteria for assessing project maturity, equity, and financial feasibility.
CLIMATEFIT
CLIMATEFIT is an EU-funded initiative that provides public authorities and investors with tools, databases, and methodologies to develop bankable climate adaptation projects and bridge the resilience finance gap.
Workforce heat resilience: An actionable framework to close the execution gap
This report provides a framework for businesses to address workforce heat risks. It details a seven-step roadmap to assess climate impacts, design tailored interventions, and scale resilience. With heat-driven productivity losses projected to reach $2.4 trillion by 2030, the document highlights the strategic necessity of protecting workers.
The age of interconnected risks: How interdependencies are shaping the next generation of systemic crises
This report examines rising systemic vulnerabilities driven by interconnected financial, digital, natural, and socio-economic risks. It highlights the gap between market pricing and actual risk, noting how AI, climate change, and geopolitical fragmentation amplify potential crises. It proposes collaborative monitoring and expanded risk-transfer capacity to strengthen global resilience.
Successful corporate approaches to climate policy engagement
This research examines how leading companies maintain climate policy engagement despite geopolitical challenges. It identifies three core approaches—direct engagement, trade association influence, and coalition forming—driven by business motivations such as competitive advantage and transition plan delivery. Success depends on timing, transparency, and alignment with corporate decarbonisation goals.
Governing climate credibility: Reviewing the governance of climate and sustainability standards
An independent review of governance across five leading climate standard-setters: GHGP, GRI, ISO, ISSB, and SBTi. The report evaluates structures, finance, and independence, identifying strengths and transparency gaps. It offers recommendations to enhance accountability, resource governance effectively, and ensure long-term credibility for net zero objectives.
Sowing the seeds of change through private sector partnerships: Lessons from two seasons of pilots and system-building
This ILO report evaluates the BOUZOUR project's efforts to strengthen Lebanon’s cherry sector through private sector partnerships. By establishing a national phytosanitary framework and improving exporter-farmer linkages, the initiative increased farmer incomes by USD 688,564 in 2025, enhanced worker conditions, and expanded access to high-value international markets.
Beyond energy infrastructure: A flexibility-first approach cuts costs and boosts security
This report argues that power system flexibility is core infrastructure essential for energy security and affordability. It demonstrates how quantifying flexibility can reduce costs, citing potential annual savings of £9.6–£16.7 billion in Great Britain by 2050. Policymakers are encouraged to prioritise flexibility-first design over traditional infrastructure-heavy build-out.
Stewarding a just transition: Frontiers of practice in listed equities
This report analyses just transition practices among 25 investment managers in listed equities. While policy recognition is high, active engagement remains a low priority concentrated in energy and mining. The research identifies barriers such as geopolitical headwinds and provides recommendations for investors, governments, and regulators to mainstream practice.
Natura Future P&L Tool
The Natura Future P&L Tool is a free digital platform that enables businesses to measure and monetise their environmental, social, and human impacts. It helps finance professionals integrate ESG externalities into traditional financial analysis to assess a company’s total value creation.
Toward a more human pace for data center development
This research examines the environmental and social impacts of rapid data centre expansion in the United States. It highlights how generative AI infrastructure disproportionately burdens marginalised communities through pollution, increased utility costs, and resource depletion. The authors call for a "more human pace" centred on environmental justice.
AI-driven productivity gains enable more CO₂ emissions than they avoid in a global energy–economy model
Research using a global energy-economy model indicates that AI-driven productivity gains increase net annual CO2 emissions by 0.47–1.8 gigatonnes under parallel adoption. Enabled emissions from fossil sectors consistently exceed avoided emissions from renewables. Achieving net reductions requires renewable productivity gains to be four to five times greater than fossil gains.
Clean investment monitor: US update series
The Clean Investment Monitor: US Update is a benchmark series providing a comprehensive database of clean energy and transportation investment across the United States. Produced by Rhodium Group and MIT-CEEPR, it tracks the manufacture and deployment of greenhouse gas emission-reducing technologies across manufacturing, energy and industry, and retail segments.
Connecting nature, climate, and capital: From data to decisions: Natural capital accounting in practice
This research explores Natural Capital Accounting in New Zealand, focusing on the SEEA EA framework. It provides practical steps for businesses to quantify nature-related risks and dependencies. Through case studies, it demonstrates how environmental data informs investment, lending, and strategic management to enhance organisational resilience and long-term value.