Library | ESG issues

Oversight, Assurance & Audit

Effective oversight, assurance, and audit are essential for organisations to manage risks and ensure the integrity of both financial and sustainability reporting. Boards and senior executives are responsible for overseeing risk management processes, obtaining assurance that principal risks are identified, managed, and monitored, and ensuring the effectiveness of internal controls. Audits, whether financial or sustainability-focused, involve independent evaluations of an organisation’s reports and controls to provide stakeholders with confidence in the accuracy and reliability of disclosed information.

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Building trust in sustainability reporting and preparing for assurance: Governance and controls for sustainability information

International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)
This guide outlines governance, internal controls and assurance readiness for sustainability reporting. It explains board, management and audit roles, extending financial reporting controls to sustainability data, and an annual cycle covering materiality, misstatement risk, control design, monitoring and external assurance under emerging standards
Research
18 December 2024

Corporate climate governance

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)
Examines how mandatory climate disclosure regimes reshape corporate governance by integrating climate risk into decision-making. Develops a spectrum from “thin” to “thick” governance, showing a shift towards stakeholder-oriented models, enhanced risk management, and long-term value optimisation, with implications for fiduciary duties and corporate strategy.
Research
29 August 2025

Incentivising climate action with executive remuneration in Australia

Investor Group on Climate Change
Provides a framework for linking climate goals to executive remuneration in Australia, emphasising alignment with credible transition strategies, measurable and sector-specific metrics, appropriate weighting, and transparent disclosure. Highlights growing adoption, implementation challenges, and guiding principles to improve investor engagement and incentive effectiveness.
Research
5 November 2024

ASRS first year has landed: Here's what we’re seeing in the market

This article examines how Australian organisations are approaching the first year of mandatory ASRS climate disclosures. It highlights common implementation patterns, areas of misallocated effort, and emerging practices that prioritise financially material, decision-useful climate reporting.
Article
16 March 2026

Production and externalities: How corporate governance shapes social costs

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)
This working paper examines how corporate governance structures influence firms’ production decisions and associated negative externalities. Using a principal–agent model and empirical analysis, the authors show that costly managerial monitoring encourages performance-based pay, which can incentivise practices that increase socially costly production and broader social costs.
Research
20 January 2026

Mandatory Climate Reporting in Australia: A Practical Guide for 2026

Altiorem
Australia’s mandatory climate reporting regime began implementation from 2025, aligned with ISSB IFRS S2 standards. This guide explains regulatory expectations, governance responsibilities, emissions data requirements and practical steps organisations should take in 2026 to establish compliant climate disclosures, integrate climate risks into financial reporting, and prepare for assurance and regulatory scrutiny.
Research
11 March 2026

Disentangling materiality and climate reporting

This article explains how the concept of materiality applies in AASB S2 climate disclosures and why it is often misunderstood. It distinguishes between material information, climate risks, emissions reporting, and ESG double materiality assessments, offering practical guidance for preparing compliant climate reports.
Article
10 March 2026

Sustainable Finance Roundup February 2026: Disclosure, Carbon Trade, and Transition Economics

This month’s sustainability roundup traces a rapidly evolving landscape in climate governance and industrial transition, highlighting the convergence of ISSB-aligned disclosure standards and emerging carbon trade measures alongside shifting cost curves in transport and critical minerals. It underscores how tighter emissions accounting and border policies are embedding carbon competitiveness into capital allocation, while advances in electrification, AI-driven power demand and expanding legal accountability are integrating climate and nature risk into mainstream financial decision-making.
Article
3 March 2026

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Government Organisations & Departments
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is Hong Kong’s central banking institution and de facto central bank, established in 1993. It maintains currency stability under the Linked Exchange Rate System, supervises banking and financial institutions, promotes financial system integrity, manages the Exchange Fund and supports Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is Hong Kong’s central banking institution and de facto central bank, established in 1993. It maintains currency stability under the Linked Exchange Rate System, supervises banking regulation and financial infrastructure, manages the Exchange Fund and supports Hong Kong’s role as a leading international financial centre.
Organisation
1 research item

Global cybersecurity outlook 2026: Insight report

World Economic Forum
Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 examines AI-driven threats, geopolitical volatility and supply chain vulnerabilities shaping cyber risk. Drawing on a global survey, it highlights rising AI-related risks, escalating cyber-enabled fraud, regulatory fragmentation and persistent skills shortages, emphasising resilience, ecosystem collaboration and economic impacts as strategic priorities.
Research
14 January 2026

Systems-informed stewardship part III: Reimagining stewardship for a sustainable future

This article presents systems-informed stewardship as a new approach to advancing sustainability across the finance sector. It outlines two interdependent lenses and three practical shifts, embedding responsibility, designing for complexity, and managing adaptively to improve stewardship effectiveness.
Article
18 February 2026

Systems-informed stewardship part II: Bringing a systems perspective to stewardship

This article applies a systems lens to stewardship, arguing that fragmented intermediation and entrenched short-term time horizons undermine sustainability outcomes. It calls for recognising these structural barriers as a critical step toward more effective, systems-informed stewardship.
Article
11 February 2026

Indicators of global climate change 2024: Annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence series

This series provides annual, peer-reviewed updates on key indicators of the global climate system and human influence. It tracks developments between IPCC assessment cycles, using consistent methods to support comparability, transparency, and evidence-based decision-making for policy and finance audiences.
Benchmark/series
16 June 2025

Climate fiduciaries: part III – mind the model gap

The article explores how pension funds rely on imperfect climate models to assess financial risk and whether fiduciary duty requires deeper scrutiny of their assumptions. It highlights emerging legal challenges, model limitations, and the shift toward richer scenarios and climate narratives in investment decision-making.
Article
6 February 2026

National ecological footprint and biocapacity accounts series

Footprint data foundation
This series provides consistent national and global accounts of ecological footprint and biocapacity, tracking resource demand and regenerative capacity over time. It supports comparative analysis across countries and years, using harmonised methods and internationally sourced data to inform sustainability assessment and policy analysis.
Benchmark/series
22 April 2025

The British Standards Institution (BSI)

Other
British Standards Institution (BSI) Group is a global standards organisation supporting quality, safety and sustainability. It develops British and standards, certification, training and solutions across sectors, helping organisations manage risk, improve performance and meet regulatory and ESG requirements worldwide for supply chains, compliance and resilience in regulated and emerging markets.
Organisation
1 research item
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