Library | ESG issues
Indigenous Rights
Indigenous rights ensure that Indigenous peoples live free from discrimination, protect their cultural identity, and participate in decisions affecting their communities and lands. These rights include self-determination, land and resource governance, and preservation of traditional knowledge. Organisations must uphold the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), ensuring Indigenous communities have the right to give or withhold consent before mining, agriculture, infrastructure, and other projects affect their lands and resources.
Refine
106 results
REFINE
SHOW: 16
The Other Half of the Transition: Why Livestock Deserves as Much Attention as Energy
This article highlights the major climate impact of livestock and explains why the absence of clear roadmaps, metrics, and financing strategies has left the sector far behind the energy transition. It proposes policy reforms, mitigation hierarchies, and justice-centered pathways to unlock effective and equitable change.
Conservation International (CI)
Conservation International (CI) is a global non-profit that champions nature conservation to benefit both biodiversity and human societies. It uses science, fieldwork, policy and finance to protect critical land and marine ecosystems. Since 1987, CI has helped safeguard 13 million km² of land and sea across more than 70 countries.
Indigenous and local communities’ initiatives have transformative potential to guide shifts toward sustainability in South America
The study examines 127 Indigenous and local community initiatives in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, identifying three clusters with strong transformative potential. These initiatives use co-designed knowledge and relational values to advance cultural and ecological stewardship, demonstrating significant capacity to influence sustainable, just development pathways.
Business frameworks and actions to support human rights defenders: A retrospective and recommendations
The report reviews how businesses can better respect and support human rights defenders by strengthening policies, due diligence, and accountability. It outlines emerging frameworks, examples of company action, implementation challenges, and recommendations for companies, investors, multistakeholder initiatives, and States to safeguard civic freedoms and address risks linked to business activities.
Risk at the source: Critical mineral supply chains and state-imposed forced labour in the Uyghur Region
The report analyses how critical minerals sourced in the Uyghur Region—titanium, lithium, beryllium and magnesium—are linked to state-imposed forced labour. It identifies companies involved, downstream exposure risks, and implications for global supply chains, underscoring the need for stronger due diligence and avoidance of forced-labour-tainted inputs.
Sustainable Finance Roundup September 2025: Policy, Markets, and Momentum
This month’s sustainability roundup covers Australia’s new 2035 emissions target, ASIC’s final climate disclosure guidance, and Fortescue’s revised transition plan. It also examines global developments, from ISSB reporting updates and TNFD nature disclosures to Woodside’s gas extension, rising physical climate risks, and evolving ESG policy debates shaping corporate and investor responses.
Responsible investment benchmark report Australia 2024
This report summarises the growth and performance of Australia’s responsible investment market in 2023, with RI assets reaching A$1.6 trillion, or 41% of total managed funds. It highlights strengthened ESG integration, transparency, and stewardship, reflecting increasing investor demand, regulatory developments, and alignment with global sustainability standards.
Integrating Nature into Finance: Laying the foundations to expand the Australian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy to drive positive environmental outcomes in the agriculture and land sectors
This report summarises how Australia’s Sustainable Finance Taxonomy could be expanded to agriculture, forestry and land management, proposing draft criteria for biodiversity protection, sustainable water use, and pollution control. It aligns with global biodiversity goals to guide investment and lending that support nature-positive outcome.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a global treaty regulating international trade in wildlife to ensure species survival in the wild. It enforces permit systems, categorises species under appendices, and supports cooperation among 185 Parties in biodiversity conservation.
Presidential address: Sustainable finance and ESG issues: Value versus values
This report examines how investor and manager motivations—driven by either financial value or personal values—shape sustainable finance and ESG practices. It highlights definitional ambiguities, performance debates, and cultural differences, calling for clearer research to distinguish pecuniary risk-return considerations from non-pecuniary preferences in ESG investing.
The greenhouse gas protocol: Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) guidance for GHG project accounting
The land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) guidance for GHG project accounting provides structured methods to quantify and report greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from reforestation and forest management projects. It supplements the GHG Protocol for Project Accounting, detailing baseline procedures, monitoring, and risk mitigation approaches specific to land-based carbon projects.
RIAA policy platform: Sustainable finance for a thriving Aotearoa New Zealand 2023 and beyond
This report outlines RIAA’s policy platform to strengthen sustainable finance in Aotearoa New Zealand. It recommends a national strategy, clearer ESG disclosures, taxonomy alignment with global standards, anti-greenwashing measures, Māori inclusion, human rights protections, and alignment with biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Corporate climate litigation in Australasia: (Re)shaping the private law-climate interface
The report examines how corporate climate litigation in Australia and New Zealand is shaping private law. It highlights legal actions involving directors’ duties, disclosure obligations, consumer protections, and tort law. The analysis shows incremental adaptations in private law to address climate change impacts, especially through anti-greenwashing and climate accountability claims.
Market Forces
Market Forces works to hold financial institutions accountable for funding environmentally harmful projects. Based in Australia, it campaigns for banks, superannuation funds and governments to align investments with climate goals. Market Forces provides research, advocacy tools and transparency on fossil fuel financing to support climate-conscious financial decision-making.
RIAA Policy Platform 2025: Harnessing sustainable finance for a thriving Australia
The RIAA Policy Platform 2025 outlines nine policy priorities and two principles to align Australia’s finance system with sustainability goals. It recommends regulatory reforms, improved data, Indigenous inclusion, and stronger accountability to mobilise capital for a net zero, nature-positive economy that supports long-term economic resilience and societal wellbeing.
The saliency-materiality nexus: Addressing systemic risks to people and portfolios in a turbulent world
This report introduces the saliency-materiality nexus, a framework linking severe human rights harms to financially material risks in conflict-affected areas. It highlights case studies totalling over $85 billion in losses and offers guidance for investors on due diligence, portfolio risk management, and alignment with legal and ethical responsibilities.
