Library | ESG issues
Fossil Fuel Industry
The fossil fuel industry includes coal, crude oil, and natural gas, which are carbon-intensive energy sources formed from ancient organic material. Their extraction and use are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, environmental destruction, and climate change. In the finance industry, fossil fuels present both risks and opportunities, as investors assess regulatory challenges, transition risks, stranded asset potential, and shifting market demand while also exploring opportunities in cleaner energy alternatives and low-carbon transition strategies.
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Coal 2025: Analysis and forecast to 2030
This report analyses global coal supply, demand, trade and prices to 2030. It assesses regional consumption trends across power and industry, production outlooks for major exporters, policy and decarbonisation impacts, and market risks. Forecasts highlight shifting Asian demand, plateauing global use, and implications for investment and energy security.
The production gap series
This benchmark series examines the gap between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and pathways consistent with international climate goals. It assesses alignment with temperature limits by reviewing national production plans and policy signals, providing a consistent framework to track progress and comparability across editions.
Too-big-to-strand? Bond versus bank financing in the transition to a low-carbon economy
The paper shows bond markets price fossil fuel stranding risk, while syndicated bank loans do not. Firms substitute bonds with bank loans as climate policy risk rises, concentrating exposure in large banks and raising “too-big-to-strand” regulatory concerns.
Frozen gas, boiling planet: How bank and investor support for LNG is fueling a climate disaster
The report analyses bank and investor financing of LNG expansion, finding US$213 billion in bank support and US$252 billion in investor exposure since 2021. It concludes this financing drives overcapacity, climate risk and misalignment with 1.5 °C pathways.
Global carbon budget series
The Global Carbon Budget is a recurring research series that synthesises global data on carbon dioxide sources and sinks. It provides a consistent framework for tracking emissions, atmospheric concentrations, and carbon uptake across land and oceans, supporting analysis of climate system dynamics and policy-relevant assessment over time.
Canadian pension climate report card series
The Canadian Pension Climate Report Card is an annual benchmark series assessing how major Canadian pension funds manage climate-related risks and align investment and stewardship practices with climate science. It applies a consistent, comparative framework using publicly disclosed information to evaluate governance, targets, engagement and integration over time.
Banking on climate chaos series
The Banking on Climate Chaos is a multi-year research series assessing how major global banks finance fossil fuel activities. It provides a consistent framework to review lending and underwriting linked to fossil fuels and expansion, supporting year-on-year comparison and broader analysis of banking practices.
Climate fiduciaries: part II – the duty of even-handedness
This article explores the fiduciary duty of even-handedness and its implications for climate-aware pension fund investing, focusing on emerging legal challenges in Australia and Canada. It argues that unmanaged climate risk may breach trustees’ obligations to act equitably across generations, particularly where younger members bear disproportionate long-term harm.
Carbon Majors
Carbon Majors is a public database that quantifies historical and current greenhouse gas emissions attributable to major fossil fuel producers. It provides company-level data, methodologies, and analysis to support climate risk assessment, policy research, and accountability across financial, regulatory, and academic contexts.
Global Energy Monitor
Global Energy Monitor is an open-access research database that compiles and analyses global energy infrastructure data, including fossil fuel and renewable projects, via interactive tools, maps and downloadable datasets to support informed analysis of energy trends and ownership structures.
Global Energy Monitor
Global Energy Monitor (GEM) is a non-profit research organisation that develops and publishes open-access data, interactive tools, and analysis on global energy infrastructure, including fossil fuels and renewable projects. GEM’s datasets and reports inform energy transition, climate policy and public understanding worldwide.
Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment
PACTA for Banks is a free, open-source climate scenario analysis toolkit that enables banks to assess how well their corporate lending portfolios align with climate scenarios, using sector and asset-level data to inform lending strategy and climate target-setting.
Climate fiduciaries: part I – the climate prisoner’s dilemma
This article explores how climate change is reshaping fiduciary duty for pension funds, through court cases, legal analysis, and the concept of systemic risk. It introduces the “climate prisoner’s dilemma,” arguing that climate-aware investment may be shifting from discretionary to obligatory for long-term fiduciaries.
Carbon Bombs
CarbonBombs.org is an open-source global database mapping large fossil fuel extraction projects (“carbon bombs”), new oil, gas and coal developments and LNG terminals, with estimated future CO₂ emissions and links to companies and banks involved. Data is consolidated from multiple research sources and regularly updated.
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.
The (mis)use of scenarios in fossil fuel and industry climate disclosures
The report analyses climate disclosures by investor-owned carbon majors, finding widespread misuse of climate scenarios to claim Paris alignment. Common issues include outdated scenarios, opaque assumptions and misleading aggregation, which obscure transition risks and may misinform investor decision-making.
