Library | ESG issues
Law, Regulation & Compliance
The evolving legal and regulatory landscape financial organisations regarding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations comprises both voluntary frameworks and mandatory regulations. Voluntary initiatives, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), provide guidelines for companies to disclose climate-related financial risks and opportunities. In contrast, mandatory regulations like the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) require financial market participants to disclose how they integrate ESG factors into their investment decisions.
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Redefining progress: Global lessons for an Australian approach to wellbeing
A scan of global wellbeing frameworks shows how countries integrate measurement, policymaking and accountability to support long-term social, economic and environmental outcomes. The report outlines lessons for designing an Australian approach that embeds wellbeing across government systems, decision-making and reporting.
Net zero carbon buildings in cities: Interdependencies between policy and finance
This report analyses how cities can decarbonise buildings by mapping the interdependencies between policy and financial instruments and the barriers they address. It highlights priority actions for cooling, embodied carbon, adaptation and a just transition, outlining pathways that help cities sequence measures to accelerate net zero building outcomes.
Closing the Gap: The evolution of climate transition finance in China
China’s transition finance market is expanding to support the decarbonisation of high-emitting industries. The report outlines growth in green and sustainability-linked bonds, emerging transition frameworks, and ongoing debates on coal and gas inclusion, highlighting the need for clearer standards and broader financing tools to meet China’s 2060 climate goals.
Responsible Investment: Australian perspectives on Private Equity practices
This report outlines how Australian private equity firms are integrating ESG across the investment cycle in response to mandatory climate reporting, taxonomy alignment, and stakeholder expectations. It highlights evolving screening, due diligence, ownership, and exit practices, and shows how ESG integration can support value creation and strengthen competitive positioning.
The pollution premium
The report “The Pollution Premium” analyses how industrial pollution influences asset pricing. Using U.S. firms’ toxic emission data (1991–2016), it finds that companies with higher emission intensity earn around 4.4% higher annual returns than their low-emission peers, even after accounting for known risk factors. The study introduces environmental policy uncertainty as a new systematic risk, showing that firms more exposed to potential regulatory tightening demand higher expected returns as compensation.
Circular economy for investors and lenders series
This series explores how investors and lenders can integrate circular economy principles into financial decision-making. It outlines practical tools and frameworks for assessing risks and opportunities linked to circularity, helping finance professionals align portfolios with sustainability objectives while supporting Australia’s transition to a regenerative, low-waste economy.
The Silicon Six and their enduring global tax gap
This Fair Tax Foundation report analyses the decade-long tax conduct of six major technology firms—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Netflix. It finds a persistent global tax gap, with an average effective tax rate of 18.8% versus global norms of 27%. The report urges stronger transparency and fairer international tax reform.
Value chain collaboration: Unlocking circular markets in Australia
This report by Circular Australia and Arup identifies opportunities to build circular markets across five key Australian value chains—lithium batteries, PET bottles, green steel, low-carbon concrete, and textiles. It outlines current barriers, future pathways, and policy recommendations to improve resource efficiency, reduce emissions, and strengthen national economic resilience.
Cost and financing for a future free from plastic leakage: Policy highlights
The report summarises the costs and financing required to eliminate global plastic leakage by 2060. It finds that coordinated global action could nearly eradicate leakage, with modest global GDP impacts but higher costs for developing economies. Increased development finance and private-sector mobilisation are essential to achieving this goal.
What We Know About Deep-Sea Mining — and What We Don’t
This article explores the growing interest in deep-sea mining as a source of critical minerals for clean technologies, detailing how it works, its potential economic benefits, and the significant ecological and governance risks it poses. It also examines ongoing international regulatory disputes and alternative solutions such as recycling and circular mineral economies.
Activating place-based circular economy in Australia: Circular precincts
The report by Circular Australia and Aurecon outlines how place-based circular precincts can drive Australia’s transition to a circular economy by 2030. It presents frameworks, principles, and policy recommendations for governments, industry, and investors to create sustainable, resource-efficient, and collaborative precincts that support economic, environmental, and social outcomes.
The circular advantage: Unlocking innovation, environmental resilience, productivity and net zero opportunities through a uniquely Australian circular economy transition
The report the Circular Advantage outlines how Australia can harness a circular economy to drive innovation, productivity, and progress towards net zero. It recommends a National Circular Economy Policy Framework, harmonised regulations, sustainable finance integration, and collaboration with First Nations peoples, industries, and communities to build resilience and long-term economic opportunities.
Assessing the materiality of nature-related financial risks for the UK
The report, Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK (April 2024), quantifies how biodiversity loss and environmental degradation could materially affect the UK economy and finance sector. It finds nature-related risks—especially from water scarcity, soil decline, and biodiversity loss—could reduce GDP by up to 12% by the 2030s, exceeding impacts from the Global Financial Crisis or COVID-19.
Threat of mining to African great apes
The study assesses the impact of industrial mining on African great apes, revealing that up to one-third of the population about 180,000 individuals faces direct or indirect mining-related threats. West Africa is most affected, with limited habitat protection and minimal survey data, underscoring urgent needs for transparent environmental monitoring.
Nature-related risks and directors’ duties under the law of England and Wales
The report analyses how nature-related risks arising from companies’ dependencies and impacts on nature affect directors’ duties under English law. It concludes that directors must identify, assess, and manage material nature-related risks under sections 172 and 174 of the Companies Act 2006 and ensure transparent, accurate disclosure to meet statutory and governance obligations.
Sustainable Finance Roundup October 2025: Carbon Markets, Targets, and the Cost of Resilience
This month’s sustainability roundup traces a rapidly evolving landscape in climate finance and accountability, spotlighting the weaknesses exposed by Hurricane Melissa’s disaster-risk finance system alongside new policy frameworks now reshaping sustainable investment. It highlights how vulnerable nations continue to bear the costs of climate impacts, how regulatory reforms such as Australia’s 2035 emissions target and global disclosure regimes are embedding accountability, and how renewed scrutiny of carbon markets is driving the search for credible, incentive-based pathways to real decarbonisation.
