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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ShareAction policy paper: Defending and strengthening the AGM as a forum for corporate accountability
This ShareAction report advocates for mandatory hybrid AGMs to ensure corporate accountability. It argues that online-only formats diminish shareholder scrutiny and enable management to stage-manage proceedings. The document recommends amending the 2006 Companies Act and provides case studies of poor virtual AGM practices across several major companies.
Tracking methane action in the dairy and coffee sector
This benchmark series evaluates the progress of leading dairy and coffee companies in addressing methane emissions. It assesses corporate targets, disclosure practices, and reduction strategies within the food sector. The research provides a comparative analysis of industry performance against global climate commitments to encourage transparency and accountability.
ICMA's guidance handbooks series
This guidance series provides a comprehensive set of questions and answers regarding the application of the Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles, Sustainability Bond Guidelines, and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles. It serves as a benchmark series for the sustainable bond market, promoting transparency and standardisation across various financial debt instruments.
FCLT Gold Standard: Information and resources
FCLTGlobal’s Gold Standard provides criteria for asset owners, asset managers and companies to support long-term value creation. It outlines recommended practices across governance, incentives, engagement, metrics and future success, including long-term performance measurement, aligned remuneration, sustainability reporting, carbon pricing, diverse decision-making and investment in innovation.
Regenerative agriculture: Moving from ambition to credibility
This report evaluates regenerative agriculture commitments across 78 global agri-food companies. While disclosures have increased, quantified targets have declined to 28%. Significant gaps remain in financial support for farmers and pesticide reduction targets, with the pork and poultry sectors largely overlooked in transition planning.
Assessing climate finance quality in practice: Lessons from six cases
This research report analyses six case studies to determine what constitutes high-quality public climate finance. It introduces a two-pronged framework assessing design, delivery, and results. Findings emphasise context-specific calibration, the importance of building enabling environments, and identifying data gaps that hinder systematic reporting across public climate finance providers.
Responsible investing maturity matrix: Emerging markets
A maturity framework for VC funds and LPs to assess ESG and responsible investment integration across emerging market fund operations.
Fair Finance Ghana ESG policy assessment report
This report assesses ESG policies across five Ghanaian banks using international benchmarks. Results show low sustainability integration, particularly regarding climate change and transparency. It recommends adopting global frameworks, extending ESG accountability to lending portfolios, and improving standardised reporting to align the sector with international best practice.
The silence of the loans: Banks should adopt methane policies that cover financing and facilitating emissions
Planet Tracker examines twenty-five banks' policies regarding agricultural methane emissions. Despite methane's high potency, no banks have specific reduction targets for this sector. Most policies focus solely on direct financing, ignoring facilitated debt which constitutes 96% of corporate funding, creating significant financial and regulatory risks for lenders.
Just transition metrics benchmark
Just Transition Metrics is a benchmark series developed by Shift in collaboration with multiple organisations. It provides a foundational, sector-agnostic set of quantitative metrics designed to assess the 'justness' of companies' climate-related transition plans, covering workforce, communities, and value chain impacts.
Global report on food crises series
The Global Report on Food Crises is an annual benchmark series tracking acute food insecurity, malnutrition and forced displacement in countries facing food crises. Produced by FAO, WFP and the Global Network Against Food Crises, it delivers consensus-based, multi-agency analysis to guide humanitarian and development decision-making globally.
Plastic footprint guidelines
The Plastic Footprint Network's guidance document presents a science-based methodology for assessing corporate plastic footprints. Developed by over 100 professionals from 35 organisations, the framework comprises 11 modules covering macroplastics and microplastics, providing practitioners with a step-by-step process for measuring plastic leakage and reporting results.
Guidance on integrating deforestation into net zero strategies
This IIGCC guidance supports institutional investors in integrating deforestation, land conversion, and associated human rights risks into net zero strategies. Aligned with the Net Zero Investment Framework 2.0, it provides practical, asset class-specific action points across listed equity, sovereign bonds, real estate, and private equity and debt.
The ICJ's advisory opinion on climate change
This edited volume analyses the ICJ's July 2025 advisory opinion on climate change obligations, examining its legal framework, due diligence standards, human rights implications, and statehood findings. Contributing authors also assess the opinion's notable silences on historical responsibility, military emissions, and differentiated obligations.
Potential business cases in measuring biodiversity state and impact in agriculture
A joint Mistra FinBio and Svensk Kolinlagring report identifying three business cases linking biodiversity data to agricultural finance: baseline databanks for bank and insurance risk assessment, and an MRV system for biodiversity claims. It highlights the financing gap in regenerative agriculture and outlines potential biodiversity-linked financial products.
Credible climate financing and fossil fuel phase-out commitments are possible but remain marginal amongst major financial institutions
WBA's analysis of 400 major financial institutions finds that transition planning is emerging but capital allocation to low-carbon solutions and fossil fuel phase-out commitments remain marginal. Only two institutions demonstrate robust fossil-fuel restrictions, and low-carbon activities account for an average of just 2.7% of total financed activities globally.
