Library | ESG issues
Planetary Boundaries
The planetary boundaries framework outlines nine critical Earth system processes that regulate global stability and resilience. Exceeding these boundaries due to human activity risks irreversible environmental change, necessitating aligned strategies to mitigate impacts and safeguard long-term ecological balance. This framework can be used as a tool for assessing the environmental risks of companies and investments, helping financial institutions evaluate exposure to ecological degradation, align with sustainability goals, and drive capital toward businesses that operate within safe environmental limits.
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Doughnut economics for regenerative business design
An edited volume applying Doughnut Economics to business design, using case studies and critical reflections to examine how purpose, networks, governance, ownership and finance can support regenerative and distributive business models. It focuses on redesigning firms to operate within ecological and social limits.
The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems
This report assesses how transforming global food systems can improve health, sustainability, and equity. It updates evidence on the planetary health diet, quantifies food systems’ pressures on planetary boundaries, and analyses justice in food access and production, recommending coordinated policy, dietary shifts, and sustainable agricultural practices to support healthy diets within environmental limits.
The slow forces behind this year’s fast crises
The article argues that today’s rapid global crises (political, ecological, and social) are the visible outcomes of long-building systemic pressures. Using complexity science and systemic risk analysis, it highlights how understanding these deep drivers can help societies both anticipate crises and accelerate positive, transformative change.
Kicking away the green ladder: The asymmetric sovereign risk from nature degradation
This working paper analyses how nature and biodiversity degradation affect sovereign borrowing costs. Using panel econometric models across 53 countries (2000–2020), it finds biodiversity loss raises bond yield spreads, with effects up to three times larger for higher-risk, often lower-income countries, indicating asymmetric sovereign risk from nature-related financial vulnerability.
Ecosystem tipping points: Understanding the risks to the economy and the financial system
This report analyses ecosystem tipping points as systemic risks to economies and financial systems, highlighting non-linear, irreversible ecosystem collapse. It finds current models underestimate impacts and urges precautionary, ecosystem-focused policy and financial regulation to protect price and financial stability.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is a global body strengthening links between science and policy on biodiversity and ecosystem services. It delivers authoritative assessments, tools and capacity-building to inform decision-making, manage nature-related risks, and support sustainable development worldwide for governments, finance, business and civil society globally.
Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance series
This series presents the Doughnut Economics framework, which assesses economic progress by balancing social foundations with ecological limits. It provides a structured approach to understanding whether human activity meets essential needs while remaining within planetary boundaries, supporting analysis, comparison and application across global, national and local contexts.
Doughnut Economics Action Lab
Doughnut Economics Action Lab tools provide practical frameworks, guides, and interactive resources to apply Doughnut Economics in policy, business, and place-based contexts, supporting decision-making that balances social foundations with ecological limits through evidence-informed, adaptable methodologies.
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.
National ecological footprint and biocapacity accounts series
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.
Nature-related risk and financial implications for investors
This investor briefing examines how nature-related physical, transition and system-level risks translate into financial risks for investors. It outlines macroeconomic and company-level impacts, and describes how institutional investors can integrate nature considerations into investment strategies, stewardship and policy engagement.
Footprint data foundation
Footprint Data Foundation (FoDaFo) is a not-for-profit organisation that governs the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. It ensures ecological footprint data are accurate, transparent and independent, supporting researchers, policymakers and sustainability practitioners with robust environmental accounting used globally.
Sustainable Finance Roundup January 2026: Geopolitics, Energy Transitions, and Systemic Risk
This month’s sustainable finance article roundup examines a landscape increasingly shaped by geopolitics and climate risk, as near-term fragmentation, energy security, and affordability pressures collide with intensifying long-term threats from climate change, biodiversity loss, and water stress. The works featured analyse how these dynamics are reshaping capital allocation, disclosure, and resilience planning, demonstrating the growing need for sustainable finance to integrate geopolitical risk with real-economy transition.
The global tipping points series
The Global Tipping Points Report is a research series examining Earth system tipping points and positive tipping dynamics. It synthesises interdisciplinary evidence on systemic risks, governance considerations and pathways for transformation, supporting decision-makers in understanding non-linear climate and environmental change across global systems.
Planetary health check series
The Planetary Health Check is an annual benchmark series providing a consistent, science-based assessment of the Earth system. It applies the Planetary Boundaries framework to monitor planetary stability, resilience, and life-support functions, supporting comparability over time and informing policy, finance, and strategic decision-making and Planetary Boundaries Science is a research lab within the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), focused on advancing scientific understanding of the planetary boundaries framework. It does not operate as an independent organisation and should be covered under PIK’s institutional profile.
The state of the climate series
This benchmark series provides concise annual assessments of the global climate, using consistent scientific indicators to monitor environmental conditions, human pressures, and system responses. It is designed to support structured analysis and comparison over time for researchers, policymakers, and finance and sustainability professionals.