Library | ESG issues
Targets & Accountability
Targets and accountability are essential for ensuring organisations and governments follow through on commitments to sustainability, climate action, and social responsibility. Setting measurable and transparent targets such as net-zero goals, emissions reductions, diversity benchmarks, and human rights protections allows for tracking progress and holding entities accountable. Clear, data-driven targets strengthen stakeholder trust and help align financial and business strategies with long-term sustainability objectives.
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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.
The MSCI sustainability institute net-zero tracker series
The MSCI Sustainability Institute Net-Zero Tracker is a periodic benchmark series that monitors how listed companies align with global climate goals. It provides a consistent framework for assessing emissions pathways, transition readiness, disclosure practices and climate-related investment context across markets and sectors.
Net zero: A practical guide for cooling businesses
This guideline provides practical guidance for cooling manufacturers to achieve Net Zero by 2050, outlining emissions hotspots, regulatory drivers and decarbonisation levers across Scopes 1–3, with emphasis on efficiency, low-GWP refrigerants, value-chain collaboration and science-based targets.
We can’t ignore the largest source of methane
This article argues the global food system is the largest source of human-caused methane and deserves far more policy and funding attention. It maps key emission “hot spots”—ruminant livestock, food waste in landfills, biomass burning, and flooded rice fields—and outlines practical mitigation options from dietary shifts to landfill capture and improved rice management.
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.
Net 0 Tracker
Net Zero Tracker is a publicly accessible database tracking net zero targets and progress of countries, regions, cities and companies. It standardises information on pledges, legal status and implementation, supporting comparison, accountability and evidence-based analysis of climate commitments.
Women’s equality in the workplace series
This research series examines workplace gender equality across publicly listed companies using a consistent assessment framework. It evaluates corporate policies, practices, and disclosures related to gender balance, pay equity, leadership representation, and inclusion to support comparative analysis and responsible investment decision-making.
Advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment: Target setting guidance for banks
This guidance outlines how banks can set and implement measurable targets to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment across leadership, portfolios, financial inclusion and ecosystems, aligned with the Principles for Responsible Banking and Women’s Empowerment Principles.
Limited accountability and awareness of corporate emissions target outcomes
The study analyses 1,041 corporate emissions targets ending in 2020, finding limited accountability. Thirty-one per cent of targets disappeared and 9% failed, with minimal disclosure, media attention or market penalties. By contrast, target announcements improved media sentiment and ESG scores, raising concerns for future climate targets.
The visionary CEO’s guide to sustainability series
The Visionary CEO’s Guide to Sustainability is a series of annual research reports examining how senior executives integrate sustainability into core strategy, operations, and decision-making. The series explores leadership responses to evolving environmental, regulatory, technological, and market pressures, with a focus on practical execution and long-term business resilience.
Net Zero Asset Managers' target disclosures series
The Net Zero Asset Managers Target Disclosures is a reporting series that tracks how participating asset managers set, disclose, and update net zero targets over time. It provides a consistent, initiative-wide view of commitments, disclosure practices, governance arrangements, and methodological approaches across reporting years.
Plastic promises scorecard series
The Corporate Plastic Pollution Scorecard is a benchmark series that assesses how large consumer-facing companies address plastic packaging responsibility. It reviews corporate policies, commitments, disclosures, and practices across key areas of packaging design, reuse, recycled content, transparency, recycling support, and producer responsibility, enabling consistent comparison over time.
Corporate climate responsibility monitor series
The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor is a recurring research series that independently assesses the transparency, integrity and credibility of corporate climate strategies. It evaluates how major global companies set, disclose and implement emission reduction targets, using a consistent methodology to enable year-on-year comparison across sectors.
Canadian pension climate report card series
The Canadian Pension Climate Report Card is an annual benchmark series assessing how major Canadian pension funds manage climate-related risks and align investment and stewardship practices with climate science. It applies a consistent, comparative framework using publicly disclosed information to evaluate governance, targets, engagement and integration over time.
Banking on climate chaos series
The Banking on Climate Chaos is a multi-year research series assessing how major global banks finance fossil fuel activities. It provides a consistent framework to review lending and underwriting linked to fossil fuels and expansion, supporting year-on-year comparison and broader analysis of banking practices.
Net zero atlas series
The COP Net Zero Atlas is an annual research series examining transition and physical climate risks across major economies. It provides a structured framework to assess national climate commitments, policy pathways and exposure to climate hazards, supporting comparative analysis for investors and policymakers.
