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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Food systems investing in East Africa: The roles of funds in financing food systems transformation
This report analyses 23 impact funds investing in East African food systems, assessing their design, impact alignment, and financing roles. It identifies gaps, good practices, and recommendations to strengthen agroecological and regenerative food systems investing.
New approaches and challenges regarding trade, climate action, and the WTO
The report analyses how WTO trade rules can support climate action. It assesses tools such as border carbon adjustments, standards, subsidies and technology policy, identifying legal gaps, development impacts and the need for coordinated reforms to align multilateral trade governance with climate objectives.
Scaling finance for nature: Barrier breakdown
This report analyses barriers to scaling private finance for nature, highlighting a US$700 billion annual biodiversity finance gap. It clarifies nature-positive finance, assesses risk–return challenges, regulatory gaps and data issues, and outlines instruments to redirect capital from harmful activities towards halting and reversing nature loss.
Assessing the credibility of a company’s transition plan: framework and guidance
This report presents a harmonised framework to assess the credibility of corporate climate transition plans. It defines core plan elements, assessment principles, and a four-step process to evaluate ambition, feasibility, consistency, governance, and financial alignment with Paris-aligned decarbonisation pathways.
Doing business within planetary boundaries
This report argues that corporate reporting must incorporate absolute, location-specific environmental impacts aligned with planetary boundaries. It proposes science-based disclosures and the Earth System Impact score to improve assessment of cumulative nature-related risks, support credible investment decisions, and enhance comparability beyond carbon-focused metrics.
Defining climate finance justice: Critical geographies of justice amid financialized climate action
The article defines “climate finance justice” as a framework for analysing how financialised climate action shapes equity, power, and outcomes. It critiques climate finance mechanisms, including UNFCCC processes and voluntary carbon markets, and argues for justice-centred approaches that address historical responsibility, governance, and uneven impacts.
Time to plan for a future beyond 1.5 degrees
The report argues that limiting warming to 1.5°C is no longer realistic and may hinder preparedness. It calls for acknowledging higher warming scenarios, accelerating mitigation, and adopting disruptive policy, financial, and governance approaches to manage climate and nature risks in a likely 2°C-plus world.
The 13th national risk assessment: Climate, The 6th “C” of Credit
The report analyses US climate-driven mortgage risk, showing floods as the dominant driver of post-disaster foreclosures. Rising insurance costs, coverage gaps and falling property values create hidden credit losses. It argues climate risk should be treated as a sixth core credit assessment factor.
Global investor commission on mining 2030
The report outlines an investor-led 10-year vision for a responsible, resilient mining sector. It sets goals to align capital, governance and stewardship with social and environmental standards, supporting mineral supply for the low-carbon transition while managing risk and long-term value.
Discourses of climate delay
The report identifies twelve “climate delay” discourses that accept climate change yet justify inaction. It groups them into four strategies—redirecting responsibility, promoting non-transformative solutions, emphasising policy downsides, and surrendering to inevitability—and offers a typology to recognise and counter these arguments.
Who do we trust on climate change, and why?
Based on survey data from 6,479 respondents across 13 countries, the study finds trust in climate communication depends on source and messenger traits. Scientists rank highest among believers, while friends and family dominate overall trust. Clarity, shared values and sincerity strongly predict trust, with marked differences between believers and sceptics.
China coal action plan offers roadmap for coal phase-out
The report analyses China’s first quantitative coal power decarbonisation plan, outlining emissions-reduction targets to 2027 via co-firing and carbon capture. It finds retrofitted coal increasingly uncompetitive versus renewables with storage, raising risks for new coal investments and strengthening the case for no-new-coal commitments.
Global Carbon Project
Global Carbon Project (GCP) is an international scientific research organisation advancing understanding of the global carbon cycle and greenhouse gas emissions. It produces authoritative datasets, annual Global Carbon Budget reports, and peer-reviewed research used by governments, academics and climate policy experts worldwide to support climate science, mitigation planning and decision-making.
IQAir
IQAir is a commercial air quality technology company providing real-time air pollution data, analytics and monitoring solutions. It operates a global air quality platform, publishes World Air Quality Reports, and supplies air monitoring hardware. IQAir data supports public health, environmental research, urban planning and policy decision-making worldwide across multiple regions.
EuroGeoSurveys
EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) is a not-for-profit association representing national geological surveys across Europe.EGS provides geoscience data, research and policy-relevant expertise on raw materials, groundwater, energy transition and geohazards, supporting European decision-making through EU-funded projects, shared data infrastructure and coordinated scientific collaboration across member organisations.
Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS)
Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a European research infrastructure providing long-term, high-precision observations of greenhouse gases. ICOS delivers open, standardised climate and carbon cycle data through its Carbon Portal, supporting climate science, modelling, and evidence-based policy across Europe and neighbouring regions.