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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Forging a global clean steel economy: Leveraging trade to reduce the green premium
This report examines how decarbonising the global steel industry requires separating ironmaking from steelmaking. By leveraging international trade, countries can co-locate energy-intensive processes in resource-rich regions like Brazil, Australia, and India. This strategic approach reduces production costs and helps lower the green premium for clean steel.
Making your city investable: A practical guide to green finance
This guide outlines how local governments can access green finance by shifting from ad hoc initiatives to embedded institutional strategies. Highlighting successful international examples, it emphasises the importance of transparent governance, predictable project pipelines, and standardised reporting to build investor confidence and secure long-term climate capital.
Viability of standalone battery energy storage tariffs discovered in 2025
This report examines the viability of standalone battery energy storage tariffs in India during 2025. It highlights a significant divergence between aggressive tariff reductions and actual project costs, evaluating associated execution risks, supply chain dependencies, and the need for procurement framework reforms to ensure sector resilience.
Update on China's climate policy from the 2026 two sessions: How Chinese companies and industry are shaping the energy transition agenda
This report analyses corporate engagement in China's climate and energy policy during the 2026 Two Sessions. It outlines the 15th Five-Year Plan's carbon intensity reduction target and examines how the oil, gas, new energy, and automotive sectors are influencing the nation's decarbonisation and energy transition agenda.
Beyond the illusion of innovative climate finance at scale in Africa: A market-informed blueprint for Kenya's just and resilient climate transition
This report examines why Kenya's climate finance gap persists despite strong institutions, renewable energy leadership and financial inclusion gains. It identifies seven flawed assumptions and recommends a nationally co-ordinated country investment platform to mobilise domestic capital, align incentives and deliver a just and resilient climate transition.
The battle over energy security: Challenging the fossil fuel playbook
This report by InfluenceMap analyses how the fossil fuel industry uses geopolitical instability to promote energy security narratives. It highlights the industry's historical playbook of delaying the renewable transition and outlines current counter-arguments from renewable sectors advocating for electrification to ensure genuine energy independence and affordability.
Built to adapt: Inclusive financial institutions in a changing climate
This report explores how inclusive financial institutions can build climate resilience for themselves and their clients. It outlines strategies for risk assessment, innovative risk financing, and adapting product offerings. By adopting a mutually beneficial approach, providers can maintain their social mission while navigating intensifying climate impacts.
Establishing risk-based resilience indicators for hard-to-abate industries
This report develops a Resilience Indicator for hard-to-abate sectors, evaluating transition and physical climate risks. It offers a transparent, risk-based tool for investment decisions, focusing on cash-flow stability and adaptive capacity, to provide more actionable insights than generic ESG scores.
Study on national climate litigation
This report analyses strategic climate litigation trends across Europe, examining cases against states and corporations. It highlights key legal strategies, including human rights claims and polluter-pays mechanisms, while assessing the challenges of enforcing damages and the evolving obligations of governments and high-emitting businesses.
The European chemical sector's influence on biodiversity policy
This report analyses how major European chemical companies and industry associations influence biodiversity policy in the EU and US. It reveals that no assessed company aligns fully with science-based biodiversity goals, highlighting oppositional lobbying against critical regulations concerning pesticides, PFAS, and harmful chemicals.
2025 Water sector engagement report
Royal London Asset Management's 2025 report presents findings from a two-year engagement programme with 11 UK water utility companies across four pillars: climate change adaptation, biodiversity, affordability, and antimicrobial resistance. Nearly all companies showed improvement from baseline scores, with biodiversity recording the most notable progress.
Business models and investments for nature: Full report, 2nd edition
This report by the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform presents ten existing finance practices for investing in nature across sectors including forestry, regenerative agriculture, green infrastructure, and urban ecosystems. It explores how financial instruments such as green bonds, blended finance, and sustainability-linked loans can be structured, scaled, and replicated to help close the biodiversity finance gap.
Cracking the code: Using nature data to understand the impact of the ASX200
This report analyses the nature-related impacts of Australia's ASX200 companies. It finds that utilities, energy, and materials sectors exert the highest direct environmental pressures, whereas financials and retail sectors possess significant supply chain impacts. The report advocates for TNFD-aligned disclosures and proactive investor stewardship to mitigate systemic risks.
DBSA: Financial instrument design for an effective carbon market in South Africa
The Development Bank of Southern Africa details two proposed financial instruments to support the domestic voluntary carbon market: a carbon credit-backed bond and a repurchase facility. These tools aim to mobilise private capital, address early-stage funding shortages, and improve liquidity for carbon reduction projects.
Sustainable asset valuation of mining closures in artisanal and small-scale gold mines in Marmato, Colombia: Nature-based infrastructure’s role in mining closure plans
This report assesses mine-closure strategies for artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Marmato, Colombia. Applying a systems-based valuation methodology, it highlights the economic and environmental benefits of progressive formalisation and closure, emphasising early risk reduction, physical stabilisation, and ecosystem rehabilitation to improve territorial safety.
Sheltering from oil shocks: Measures to reduce impacts on households and businesses
This International Energy Agency report outlines measures to reduce the impact of oil supply disruptions on households and businesses. It details short-term and structural strategies across road and air transport, industry, and cooking fuels to lower demand and shield vulnerable consumers from rising energy costs.