Sustainability review 2025

In the third of four articles, we explore the catalysts that can accelerate the process by which nature markets mature, drawing on examples from renewable energy, water rights, carbon markets and forestry.

Geopolitics, technology and the energy transition are influencing where capital flows, and how investors think about risk, resilience and long-term returns.

Three years into our Climate Stewardship 2030 programme, we are seeing corporate climate strategies being tested for their ability to attract capital, withstand disruption and deliver through changing economic and political conditions. 

Climate change and nature degradation are widely recognised as a source of potentially material financial risks, which will increase in the long term. Tackling them requires international cooperation, such as at the Conferences of Parties (COPs) and effective domestic implementation.

Dr Andrés Gvirtz of King’s Business School shows how AI can help advisers meet their Consumer Duty obligations and boost their business.

In the second of four articles, we explain how environmental importance does not automatically translate into investment readiness. Investor confidence in future revenues depends on market evidence, contractual certainty and a track record of delivery.

Dr Ylva Baeckström of King’s Business School highlights how regulations can help close the advice gap in terms of clients’ sustainability preferences.

In our latest case study, we look at Glen Dye Moor, a 6,300-hectare site in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. We intend to rejuvenate the land, simultaneously removing carbon from the atmosphere, and delivering financial outcomes for investors and social benefits for local communities.

Sustainability-related regulation is becoming an increasingly material driver of real estate investment decision-making, rather than just a compliance requirement. Jeremy Ho analyses the implications.

Changes to regulations and consumer expectations are transforming the landscape for financial advisers, according to Marc Lepere.

Regulation must recognise that sustainable investing incorporates more than the provision of sustainable funds alone.

In the first of four insights, we explain why natural capital is a foundational input into economic activity. Forests, soils, rivers, wetlands, oceans and biodiversity are productive assets that generate products such as timber or food and are natural regulators of water flows.