Ethical implications of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments for intergenerational resilience in natural disaster mitigation

Abstract

Global disaster losses have escalated as a share of GDP, magnifying intergenerational risks and emphasizing the urgency of ethically grounded resilience strategies. This study pioneers a six-decade, cross-national empirical analysis (1960–2020) that distinguishes between the pre-1990 “outcome-proxy” era and the post-1990 institutionalized ESG era, offering the first long-term assessment of ESG ethics in disaster mitigation. Moving beyond purely financial or technical framings, the research conceptualizes ESG investments as morally significant interventions that integrate environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and governance accountability. Using fixed-effects panel regressions with robust errors, sub-period tests, and inter-sectoral interaction terms on datasets from the World Bank and Our World in Data, the study examines how ESG indicators shape both the frequency and economic damages of natural disasters. Results indicate that institutionalized ESG frameworks significantly enhance disaster resilience, while environmental and governance capacities act as key mediators of climate adaptation. By linking ESG performance to intergenerational justice, the study extends sustainability discourse beyond finance into ethics, governance, and policy design. This research thus pioneers a long-term, cross-national analysis connecting ESG ethics to intergenerational disaster resilience, providing original insights for ethical climate governance and sustainable finance policy.