The paper, cattle and timber industries face up to $80 billion in supply chain risk from changes in forest-related ecosystems. Deforestation is driving destruction in the key areas from which globally traded goods and raw materials are sourced.
In March 2022 one of the world’s largest global banks, HSBC (HSBA), announced new commitments on climate change action for net zero transition but NGOs have questions. Can the bank have a credible plan if its portfolio still contains fossil fuels?
Issues such as racial and gender discrimination, inequality and pay parity have joined topics such as worker safety, training and education in the social element of corporate action.
As the backlash against ESG continues, corporate and investor coalitions are beginning to recognise that commitments are meaningless without measurable action. As research highlights corporate failures in this area, driving accusations of greenwash, coalitions including the UN-backed Race to Zero (RtZ) and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) are moving to narrow the credibility gap.
The shift towards a better understanding of how to account for nature, both in its consumption and in terms of our impact, has taken a step forward with the release of a biodiversity impact standard by the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF).
Alignment of UK investment towards net zero has been given a boost by the government, with news that pension funds must report their alignment with net zero goals by October 2022.
The first systematic review of the impact of green government spending, showing improved performance over business as usual, has been released by the Economic Recovery Project at the Smith School, University of Oxford.
The last few months have seen a growing backlash against ESG, driven by concerns about greenwash, confusion about metrics and performance and even pushback on the grounds that responsible or sustainable investment is ‘woke’ and a politicisation of market forces.
The global standard setter for banking regulation, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), has published guidance on how banks and supervisors should address climate risk.
The systems underpinning society and the economy are deeply interconnected, and sustainability approaches are going to be central to addressing the interconnected challenges of the 21st century.
