Daily FNArena News - ESG Focus

Governance and social themes, while generally not attracting big expenditure in the December half, still proved a strong focus for corporations

Companies are expected to ramp up their psychosocial safety strategies following a slew of legislation and legal precedents and ahead of new disclosure standards

Decarbonisation, renewables and cyber crime proved the big-ticket ESG items during the December half

The drums of war are beating and ESG is finding it harder to attract funding in a tighter capital market as big capital’s focus shifts to onshoring, restructuring of supply relationships, military investments, global elections and AI; but it’s full steam ahead for decarbonisation

Parliament passes amended Closing Loopholes Bill 2023; corporate Australia objects to the bill; Jarden identifies most vulnerable big ASX-listers to the bill’s passage; Macquarie checks out modern slavery in solar; and green laggards are likely to suffer cuts to credit scores

FNArena (net) zeroes in on green steel developments: the SBTi estimates -14% of steel producers’ value is at risk if the industry fails to innovate; much depends on the pace of the green-steel ramp-up; and much more

In FNArena’s final instalment for the FY23 ESG reporting season, we round up analysts’ observations on of psychosocial safety metrics; reconciliation action plans; modern slavery reporting and gender diversity

We’re going macro this week as some analysts tip rate cuts as early as March, before going green: capital costs are falling for green manufacturers and decarbonisers; plus lots more.

This final instalment on reporting season checks out the S in ESG in a season defined by labour shortages, fatalities, safety reporting, and same-job-same-pay developments; and psychosocial safety

In this edition we return to the green theme as green deflation kicks in on the national energy market big time; global analysts forecast a slump in global electric vehicle demand; lithium price forecasts are hammered; and for a little light relief, the world’s first flying car comes to market