Environmental, Social & Governance - ESG

As the risks and stakeholder expectations around environmental and social issues become more complex, organisations are placing a greater emphasis on their ESG accountabilities.

However, increasingly the complexity of these problems requires a more thorough and transparent analysis than can be delivered through standard practices. The application of economic analysis and modelling to ESG problems can help to deliver practical, evidenced and sustainable solutions that stand up to scrutiny.

Our economic analysis has been supporting climate change, sustainability and social issues across our various industry specialisations for 25+ years. Our ESG economic analysis supports:

• Market settings and participation – analysing market settings to support the better functioning of environmental markets and identifying commercial opportunities for private sector participation.
• Impacts and resilience – Identifying climate and nature impacts, risks and opportunities that can affect your business operations, reputation and financial performance.
• Evaluation of socio–economic impacts – analysing and valuing the distributional impacts of an investment or policy change in the community using a range of quantitative and qualitative tools.
• Sustainable finance and access to capital – advising on how to best meet investor expectations for ESG performance and the opportunities this provides for the costs and access to finance, including advice on the implementation of TCFD/ISSB, TNFD, and GRI standards and frameworks.

Economics advisory for the “Environmental” in ESG

Our economic advisory and modelling capabilities have supported environmental priorities such as the WWF–Australia’s Trees Scorecard, emissions modelling for NSW Government and advising on the outlook for nature-based carbon offsets for an investment fund.

Service	Nature positive	Net zero
Market design	Designing and participating in voluntary and compulsory biodiversity markets. Advise on the economic foundations of established or nascent biodiversity markets to ensure they provide incentives to operate and deliver environmental outcomes.	Utilising carbon markets and internal carbon prices to accelerate net zero commitments. Design decarbonisation plans based on emissions modelling and forecasting, internal carbon price, and offsetting strategies to support a cost-effective transition.
Evaluation	Incorporate the value of natural capital into corporate and government decision making. Value ecosystem services using market and non-market based valuation methods and quantify nature-related risks and opportunities across a range of industries.	Incorporate climate change-related risks and opportunities into corporate and government decision making. Quantify economic and financial climate change-related exposures to inform mitigation and adaptation decision making across a range of industries.
Investment and delivery	Investment in the protection and restoration of nature, based on a robust business case. Advise clients on their nature-related risks and opportunities, and deliver strategies to benefit from emerging environmental markets.	Deliberate steps to mitigate and adapt to climate-change related risks. Deliver accessible economic analysis focusing on the most important issues to support practical and effective decision making.

Economics advisory for the “Social” in ESG

Our expertise in social responsibility and governance spans across our industries including urban planning and development, the transport sectors and across disciplines including behavioural economics.

Our economists have supported the economic analysis of projects such as evaluating the socio-economic impact of the Minimum Unit Price (MUP) of alcohol for the Northern Territory Department of Health, the role of water in facilitating the liveability of cities for the Water Services Association of Australia, and the economic impact of child undernutrition in Papua New Guinea for Save the Children.