Daily FNArena News - ESG Focus

Green geopolitics are heating up; analysts check out electric vehicles, lithium and critical minerals; and the AI push persists despite climate implications of data centres, which in turn bode well for power generators, transmission companies, and copper

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