MSCI has published its 11th annual ESG & Climate Trends to Watch report.

The report includes an analysis of more than 30 emerging risks set to impact corporations and investors worldwide in 2023. Key themes covered in the 2023 list of 32 ESG and climate investing trends include:

Innovations in the supply chain, including the prospects of tracking goods through blockchain technology and the mining of e-waste that could reshape the dynamics of controversial raw material sourcing;

Changing governance, with exploration of how new corporate board demographics could play a role in say-on-climate and other proxy voting trends;

Responses to regulation, including tangible impacts of new rules on asset managers, institutional investors, and corporations;

Work life changes, such as the proliferation of railroad strikes and labor rights movements globally;

New frontiers in measurement and transparency, with insurers and banks set to expand scope of emissions tracking;

Emergence of new investments, ranging from lab-grown commodities to carbon as an asset class;

Meggin Thwing Eastman, Managing Director and Global ESG Editorial Director at MSCI, says, “Just as the world started to recover from the global pandemic at the start of 2022, it was hit with a series of climate disasters, a major war in Europe, spiraling inflation globally, and a cost-of-living crisis. Our annual ESG & Climate Trends to Watch report examines how these significant geopolitical and macro risks will transform the ways in which investors evaluate the impact that companies in their portfolios have on society and their bottom line. ESG risk is financial risk, and the ESG and climate research showcased in today’s report was conducted to support investor needs to synthesize previously unseen risks and incentivize companies to better manage both emerging issues and the longstanding, expansive threat of the climate crisis.”