Library | ESG issues
Inequality
Inequality refers to disparities in income, wealth, and access to essential services such as healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. While some progress has been made, inequalities persist and deepen for vulnerable populations, including refugees, migrants, Indigenous peoples, older persons, people with disabilities, and children. These disparities hinder sustainable development, threaten social stability, and limit economic growth. Addressing inequality requires inclusive policies, equitable access to resources, and protections against discrimination and social exclusion.
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Green finance was supposed to contribute solutions to climate change. So far, it’s fallen well short
The article argues that while climate disclosure and green finance initiatives have expanded since Mark Carney’s “tragedy of the horizon” speech, they have failed to shift capital at the scale required to address climate and nature risks. It contends that deeper structural reforms to financial valuation, incentives and capital allocation are needed to move beyond managing symptoms toward financing real-world solutions.
The spirit level at 15: The enduring impact of inequality
The report evidences how income inequality drives environmental, social and health harms, worsening trust, mobility, wellbeing and climate impacts. It shows cross-country correlations and calls for structural reforms, including redistribution, public investment and participatory governance, to reduce disparities and improve population outcomes.
One-earth fashion: 33 transformation targets for a just fashion system within planetary boundaries
The report outlines fashion’s environmental and social impacts and proposes 33 time-bound transformation targets across materials, labour, value distribution and governance. It calls for reduced virgin inputs, fair working conditions and paradigm shifts to align the global fashion system with planetary boundaries and social justice.
Investor influence in private markets: How investors activities can result in changes in outcomes for people and or the natural environment
This report examines how private market investors influence social and environmental outcomes through investment decisions and firm-level actions. It proposes a framework to assess pathways, outcomes and causality, supporting impact management beyond portfolio company effects.
Moving forward imagining a sustainable transport system
The report outlines a universal basic services approach to UK transport, highlighting inequitable access, high emissions, and car dependence. It assesses current government reforms and recommends long-term, publicly oriented investment to expand affordable, integrated, low-carbon mobility, prioritising public transport and active travel within environmental limits.
Blueprint to close the women’s health gap: How to improve lives and economies for all
The report outlines a global framework to reduce the women’s health gap by improving data, research, care delivery, inclusion and investment. Focusing on nine high-impact conditions, it quantifies health and economic gains achievable by 2040 and proposes measurable actions to enhance outcomes for women and strengthen economies.
The Equality Trust
The Equality Trust is a UK charity focused on reducing economic and social inequality. It produces research, policy analysis and advocacy on income, wealth and power distribution, informing public debate and decision-making. Work supports evidence-based policy, social justice and improved wellbeing across the UK.
Our predicament: The fundamental flaws of predominant economic systems - and the cultures scaffolding them
This report synthesises interviews with global thinkers to diagnose structural flaws in dominant economic systems. It argues that extractive capitalism, growth imperatives, inequality and ecological overshoot underpin a planetary predicament, and frames the challenge as navigation towards regenerative, responsibility-based economies rather than problem-solving.
Corporate sustainability reporting
This conceptual paper examines corporate sustainability reporting, distinguishing investor-focused sustainability-related financial disclosure from broader impact reporting. It argues investor interests are imperfectly aligned with societal goals and concludes that complementary financial and impact reporting standards are needed to support accountability, capital allocation and sustainability transition.
Private capital, public good: Building shared prosperity to create a resilient and inclusive economy
The report outlines bipartisan US federal policy recommendations to mobilise private capital for shared prosperity. It focuses on strengthening economic competitiveness, scaling community investing, and improving impact transparency to support inclusive growth, underinvested communities, and long-term economic resilience.
Harmonised framework for impact reporting for social bonds handbook
The handbook provides a harmonised framework for issuers to report social bond impacts, outlining core reporting principles, target population disclosure, and preferred quantitative indicators. It introduces sector guidance—initially affordable housing—and offers templates to support consistent, transparent, and comparable impact reporting across social project categories.
A just world on a safe planet: A Lancet Planetary Health–Earth Commission report on Earth-system boundaries, translations, and transformations
The Lancet Planetary Health Earth Commission report quantifies eight safe and just ESBs for biosphere, climate, nutrients, freshwater, and aerosols. Seven ESBs transgressed globally. Defines safe and just corridor for minimum resource access amid transformations to avert harm to health and planet.
From ‘conflict minerals’ to peace? reviewing mining reforms, gender, and state performance in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
The review assesses how 3T mining reforms in eastern DRC affected state governance and gender inclusion. Findings show mixed results: limited improvements in demarcation, revenue collection and oversight, persistent armed interference, weak accountability, elite-captured cooperatives, and ongoing marginalisation of women.
Briefing paper: The fiduciary duty case for climate justice
The report argues that climate justice is integral to fiduciary duty, as climate and inequality risks threaten long-term value. It outlines definitions, system-level investment frameworks, and practical tools that help investors manage systemic risks and support a just low-carbon transition.
Climate change impacts increase economic inequality: Evidence from a systematic literature review
This systematic review of 127 studies finds consistent evidence that climate change worsens economic inequality, disproportionately affecting poorer countries and households. Impacts arise across sectors and regions via channels such as reduced labour productivity and agricultural losses, with strong agreement that effects are regressive.
Global warming has increased global economic inequality
The report assesses historical warming’s effects on national income by combining climate model counterfactuals with temperature–growth estimates. It finds warming has likely reduced GDP in warmer, lower-income countries and moderately benefited some cooler, higher-income economies, contributing to increased between-country economic inequality since 1961.
