This review examines how financial sector structures and actors influence sustainability outcomes through a systems lens. It identifies barriers such as inadequate metrics, poor risk integration, and limited understanding of complex dynamics, while highlighting collaboration opportunities between finance and science to align capital flows with long-term ecological resilience.

The report, Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK (April 2024), quantifies how biodiversity loss and environmental degradation could materially affect the UK economy and finance sector. It finds nature-related risks—especially from water scarcity, soil decline, and biodiversity loss—could reduce GDP by up to 12% by the 2030s, exceeding impacts from the Global Financial Crisis or COVID-19.

The report examines the expansion of place-based impact investing (PBII) in the UK since 2021. It outlines how institutional and local investors, supported by public–private partnerships, are aligning financial returns with social and environmental outcomes. The study highlights progress, barriers, and pathways to scaling PBII through collaboration and blended finance.

This month’s sustainability roundup traces a rapidly evolving landscape in climate finance and accountability, spotlighting the weaknesses exposed by Hurricane Melissa’s disaster-risk finance system alongside new policy frameworks now reshaping sustainable investment. It highlights how vulnerable nations continue to bear the costs of climate impacts, how regulatory reforms such as Australia’s 2035 emissions target and global disclosure regimes are embedding accountability, and how renewed scrutiny of carbon markets is driving the search for credible, incentive-based pathways to real decarbonisation.

This report summarises global corporate ownership networks from 2007 to 2012, introducing an Influence Index to measure shareholder power. It finds increasing concentration among major institutional investors, particularly passive funds, forming a resilient super-entity that centralises corporate control and poses implications for competition and financial stability.

This 2022 report by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia and KPMG examines how investors in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand practise stewardship. It identifies proactive, strategic, and reactive approaches, analyses barriers such as capability and structural limitations, and highlights collaboration, engagement, and policy advocacy as key tools for advancing ESG outcomes.

The Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC)’s fourth annual report surveys Asian investors managing USD 7.9 trillion to assess their progress on net-zero investment strategies. It highlights growing commitments to emissions measurement, climate solutions, and stewardship, while identifying data gaps, limited policy clarity, and inconsistent methodologies as persistent barriers.

This study investigates how diversity within corporate committees influences investment risk practices among ASX 300 firms (2018–2020). Using a composite index of gender, independence, and non-executive representation, the authors find that greater committee diversity enhances long-term strategic investment decisions and efficiency, improving governance and financial performance.

This report summarises how asset owners integrate diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) into organisational policies, investment management and stewardship. Drawing on interviews with 21 organisations, it highlights varying maturity levels, regulatory developments, data challenges and best practices shaping DE&I implementation across the pensions and investment industry.

New research on Australia’s ASX 300 companies finds that diversity within board committees, particularly in terms of gender, independence, and professional background, leads to smarter and more efficient investment decisions. The study shows that diverse committees make more disciplined and forward-looking choices, linking inclusion directly to better financial performance and long-term value creation.

This CGAP technical guide outlines how lenders can apply gender-intentional approaches to credit scoring to expand women’s access to finance without increasing portfolio risk. Using data from AB Bank Zambia and TymeBank South Africa, it demonstrates practical methods for integrating gender analysis, adjusting scorecards, and improving lending outcomes for women.

The report analyses the growth and practices of gender lens investing (GLI) across asset classes. It highlights how institutional investors and impact funds integrate gender equality goals into investment strategies, identifies challenges such as limited data and standardisation, and provides guidance to deepen GLI’s contribution to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality.

TIRESIA (Technology Innovation & REsearch for Social ImpAct) is a research centre within the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano. It focuses on impact finance, social entrepreneurship, inclusive innovation and impact measurement. Through academic research, advisory services and executive education, it supports hybrid organisations and the public sector in embedding social value across strategy and governance.

This report summarises asset managers allocating capital to sustainability and transition-focused investments. Published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and SRI-Connect, it profiles firms investing in environmental, social and economic transition strategies to help companies attract sustainability-oriented investors.

This month’s sustainability roundup covers Australia’s new 2035 emissions target, ASIC’s final climate disclosure guidance, and Fortescue’s revised transition plan. It also examines global developments, from ISSB reporting updates and TNFD nature disclosures to Woodside’s gas extension, rising physical climate risks, and evolving ESG policy debates shaping corporate and investor responses.

This report summarises recommendations from Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance to mobilise private capital for low-carbon, resilient growth: improve market clarity and standards (incl. TCFD), build national climate data (C3IA), and develop financing solutions such as green and transition instruments, infrastructure investment, and building retrofits, supported by enabling policy.