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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GRI Standards
The GRI Standards are globally recognised sustainability reporting guidelines enabling organisations to disclose economic, environmental and social impacts in a consistent and comparable way. They support transparency, accountability and informed decision-making by helping organisations identify, measure and communicate material ESG impacts and contributions to sustainable development.
IFC's performance standards on environmental and social sustainability
The IFC Performance Standards (2012) form part of the Sustainability Framework, setting requirements for clients to identify, manage, and mitigate environmental and social risks in financed projects. They comprise eight standards covering areas such as labour, resource efficiency, biodiversity, and community impacts, and are widely used as a global benchmark for responsible investment.
2025 Southeast Asia fossil fuel divestment scorecard
Assesses 35 banks’ fossil fuel financing and climate policies in Southeast Asia, finding continued coal and gas funding despite commitments. International banks dominate financing, with policy gaps and loopholes persisting. The scorecard highlights misalignment with 1.5°C goals and calls for stricter divestment and increased renewable investment.
Good practices for handling whistleblower disclosures
ASIC report outlines good practices for whistleblower programmes, based on a review of selected firms. It highlights governance, culture, training, monitoring, and use of disclosures to improve performance, alongside executive accountability and board oversight to ensure compliance with Corporations Act requirements.
The Climateworks guide to credibility for corporate climate transition plans
Provides an Australian-focused framework for assessing the credibility of corporate climate transition plans, outlining principles, criteria and disclosure expectations. It supports companies, investors and regulators in evaluating emissions targets, governance, strategy alignment and risk management within mandatory climate reporting and net zero transition planning.
Governing for net zero: The board's role in organisational transition planning
This report guides Australian boards on integrating net zero transition planning into strategy, governance, disclosure and stakeholder engagement. It outlines directors’ legal duties, mandatory climate reporting requirements, and practical oversight questions to help organisations manage climate-related risks, opportunities and implementation.
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.
Private doubts, collective conformity: the Power and fragility of climate narratives
This article examines why current climate frameworks persist despite widespread professional skepticism, highlighting institutional incentives and “preference falsification” as key drivers. It calls for more open, cross-sector dialogue focused on diagnosing real problems and unlocking practical, system-level solutions.
Incentivising climate action with executive remuneration in Australia
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.
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.
Mandatory Climate Reporting in Australia: A Practical Guide for 2026
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.
Net zero roadmap for copper and nickel
This report outlines a roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions in copper and nickel mining by 2050. It analyses demand growth from the energy transition and proposes emissions reductions of ~50% by 2030 and ~90% by 2050 through renewable energy, electrification, efficiency improvements, and limited carbon removal offsets.
The Three Horizons of Decarbonisation
This article presents the Three Horizons of Decarbonisation framework, helping companies distinguish between short-term efficiency measures, operational transformation, and fundamental business model shifts. It explains how clear horizon identification improves capital allocation, stakeholder engagement, and the likelihood that net zero plans translate into meaningful action.
Hong Kong taxonomy for sustainable finance (phase 2A)
Phase 2A of the Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance sets out detailed criteria for classifying environmentally sustainable activities, aligned with international taxonomies. It covers additional sectors, technical screening thresholds, and transition activities, aiming to enhance transparency, comparability and capital allocation towards climate mitigation and adaptation in Hong Kong.
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.