Library | ESG issues

Public Policy

Public policy refers to the actions and decisions taken by governments to address societal issues through laws, regulations, and funding priorities. It shapes the business environment by influencing regulatory requirements, market conditions, and corporate responsibilities. Policies related to taxation, labour laws, environmental regulations, and trade agreements can impact business operations, costs, and investment strategies.

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Climate finance for low carbon transport: Developing effective transport financing mechanisms for Asia and the Pacific

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
This ESCAP policy brief examines climate finance options for scaling low-carbon transport in Asia–Pacific. It assesses funding gaps, barriers, and mechanisms—including subsidies, carbon pricing, green bonds, PPPs, and international finance—and recommends policy alignment, capacity building, investor matching, and diversified financing to accelerate investment.
Research
12 March 2024

Theorising unconventional climate advocates and their relationship to the environmental movement

This study theorises “unconventional climate advocates” and analyses their position within Australia’s environmental movement using social network analysis. It finds these advocates are peripheral yet potentially effective in engaging climate-hesitant constituencies by operating independently from conventional environmentalists.
Research
6 February 2025

Globally representative evidence on the actual and perceived support for climate action

Using a survey of 130,000 people across 125 countries, the study finds strong global support for climate action, but widespread underestimation of others’ willingness to act. This perception gap may hinder cooperation; correcting it could materially strengthen climate action.
Research
9 February 2024

Private capital, public good: Building shared prosperity to create a resilient and inclusive economy

US Impact Investing Alliance
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.
Research
12 October 2024

International round table: Financing climate action at city level

Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations
This report synthesises discussions from an international round table on financing city-level climate action, highlighting how local governments overcome fiscal constraints through tailored funding scales, partnerships, innovative revenue mechanisms, and long-term approaches to deliver major decarbonisation programmes across Europe and North America.
Research
10 October 2024

Escalation: The destructive force of Australia's fossil fuel exports on our climate

Australian Human Rights Institute
The report finds Australia’s fossil fuel exports significantly escalate global warming and domestic climate risks. It highlights missing policy restrictions, growing harms to people and systems, and urges an orderly, cooperative and just phase-out with regulatory reforms and international engagement.
Research
9 August 2024

Competing in the age of disruption: A business briefing by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership

Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
The report argues that global industrial transition is inevitable and accelerating, creating material risks and opportunities. It urges businesses to pursue innovation, reshape market rules and influence policy to secure competitiveness, manage systemic threats and drive sustainable market transformation.
Research
19 May 2025

The Other Half of the Transition: Why Livestock Deserves as Much Attention as Energy

This article highlights the major climate impact of livestock and explains why the absence of clear roadmaps, metrics, and financing strategies has left the sector far behind the energy transition. It proposes policy reforms, mitigation hierarchies, and justice-centered pathways to unlock effective and equitable change.
Article
8 December 2025

Leakage in the common ground: How misalignment in sustainable finance taxonomies impacts cross-border capital flows

The paper models how misaligned sustainable finance taxonomies can cause cross-border capital leakage, reducing alignment with developed-market standards. It identifies four ratios determining whether endorsing common ground improves outcomes and shows leakage can be significant without regulatory measures to differentiate and prioritise higher-quality green bonds.
Research
3 July 2025

Agriculture sector climate change scenarios and adaptation roadmap

The Aotearoa Circle
The report outlines climate change risks and opportunities for New Zealand’s agriculture sector, presenting shared scenarios and an adaptation roadmap. It identifies key challenges, drivers of change and priority actions to strengthen resilience, guide investment, support innovation and enable a coordinated, sector-wide response.
Research
1 June 2023

Sustainable Finance Roundup November 2025: Transition Turning Points and Rising Accountability

This month’s sustainable-finance roundup highlights faster transition momentum, rising physical risks and a tightening focus on accountability. COP30 reinforced expectations for stronger 2035 targets, while national actions underscored diverging paths toward decarbonisation. Markets continued shifting toward clean energy and resilience, and new science made climate harms more visible. With regulatory scrutiny and litigation increasing, transition credibility and real-economy resilience are becoming core drivers of financial risk and investment decisions.
Article
1 December 2025

The investor climate policy engagement paradox

The article explores the paradox in which institutional investors focus heavily on climate-risk disclosure, an area of comfort and perceived legitimacy, while underinvesting in real-economy climate policy that could meaningfully reduce systemic risk. It argues that meaningful climate action requires shifting from technocratic “managing tons” approaches toward politically challenging asset revaluation and more robust policy engagement.
Article
21 November 2025

Making our way: Adaptive capacity and climate transition in Australia’s regional economies

Centre for Policy Development (CPD)
Australia’s fossil-fuel-exposed regions are assessed across seven dimensions of adaptive capacity, showing common weaknesses in economic diversity, social capital and service access. The report outlines region-specific strengths and proposes tailored, place-based transition planning to support diversification and community resilience through the net zero shift.
Research
4 July 2023

On YouTube, a Shift from Denying Science to Dismissing Solutions

This article dives into an analysis of over 12,000 YouTube videos and finds that while outright climate-change denial is dropping, content undermining climate solutions and trust in scientists is rising sharply. It also highlights concerns over YouTube’s ad policies, which still allow monetisation alongside videos that downplay impacts or spread misleading claims about climate policy.
Article
18 November 2025

Redefining progress: Global lessons for an Australian approach to wellbeing

CDP
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.
Research
27 August 2022

Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA)

Government Sponsored / Multilateral Organisations
Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) is a global multi-stakeholder coalition mobilising finance for urban low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure. It supports sub-national governments in developing bankable projects, strengthening enabling environments and closing investment gaps especially in emerging markets and developing economies.
Organisation
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