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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Planetary solvency: Tipping into the wild unknown: Global nature risk management

Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA)
This report outlines how the degradation of global ecosystems threatens societal and economic resilience. It highlights immediate risks to food systems and health, long-term ecosystem tipping points, and the necessity of integrating biodiversity into financial models. Actuaries and policymakers are urged to adopt systemic, narrative-based risk management strategies.
Research
1 April 2026

RIAA Conference Australia 2026 - Companion Resources

Responsible investment has moved well beyond principles and pledges. Today’s challenges require practical capability and informed judgement. The RIAA Conference is a must-attend event for finance, sustainability and industry practitioners who want to focus on the key themes for responsible investment in 2026 and what implementation really looks like. Designed as an immersive, hands-on experience, the program focuses on the systems that underpin strong financial performance, and will help you understand how climate, nature, technology, governance and regulation intersect. 

These specially curated companion resources have been recommended by the conference speakers and Altiorem team.
Article
14 May 2026

SAIL: Systems Aware Investing Launchpad

The Investment Integrated Project (TIIP)
SAIL (Systems Aware Investing Launchpad) is an AI-enhanced platform developed by TIIP to support institutional investors in implementing system-level investing strategies. It provides tools for strategy development, benchmarking, reporting and collaboration, helping users assess and manage systemic environmental, social and financial risks.
Online tool/database

Discussion paper on the state of nature measurement

Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
Discussion paper outlines integrating state of nature metrics into TNFD, GRI and SBTN frameworks. It proposes embedding consensus metrics from the Nature Positive Initiative across assessment, disclosure, transition planning and target-setting, highlighting ecosystem extent and condition as central to evaluating nature-related dependencies, risks and opportunities.
Research
10 April 2026

A systems approach to sustainable finance: Actors, influence mechanisms, and potentially virtuous cycles of sustainability

This review applies systems thinking to sustainable finance, analysing key actors, influence mechanisms and feedback loops. It identifies barriers such as weak ESG metrics and poor risk integration, and highlights opportunities for collaboration to align capital flows with sustainability and ecological resilience.
Research
18 July 2025

Tipping points: Decision making under deep uncertainty

J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.
Examines climate tipping points and their implications for financial decision-making under deep uncertainty. It outlines risks of abrupt, nonlinear climate shifts, limitations of traditional valuation models, and emerging approaches including scenario analysis, resilience planning and climate intervention, emphasising challenges in pricing, timing and managing long-term systemic risks.
Research
13 April 2026

Guidance for applying absolute environmental sustainability assessment on activities at different scales (BETA version)

Joint Research Centre
Provides beta guidance for applying Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment, comparing activities’ environmental burdens against planetary boundaries. It outlines a three-phase, nine-step framework, supported by case studies (buildings, cement, EU consumption), and aligns with existing accounting standards while addressing methodological gaps in allocating environmental limits.
Research
12 May 2025

Sustainable Finance Roundup March 2026: Markets, Climate Risk, and the Transition in Practice

This month’s sustainability roundup captures a shift from framework development to real-world application, where climate and nature risks are increasingly embedded across financial systems, legal accountability, and decision-making. It highlights how intensifying physical climate signals, evolving disclosures, and maturing litigation are converging with insights on sovereign risk, energy systems, and corporate strategy. Together, these developments show how sustainability is moving beyond principle—being tested, priced, and enforced across markets, regulation, and the real economy.
Article
31 March 2026

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.
Research
9 March 2026

The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems

The Lancet
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.
Research
11 October 2025

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.
Article
11 March 2026

Kicking away the green ladder: The asymmetric sovereign risk from nature degradation

Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
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.
Research
6 March 2026

Ecosystem tipping points: Understanding the risks to the economy and the financial system

UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
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.
Research
1 April 2024

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

Government Sponsored / Multilateral Organisations
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.
Organisation
3 research items

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance series

Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)
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.
Benchmark/series
1 October 2025

Doughnut Economics Action Lab

Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)
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.
Online tool/database
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