ESG Trends to Watch in 2026

With a distinguished 20-year career at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Estelle Parker brings crucial expertise in government relations, policy-making, and themes important to responsible investors, including human rights and the SDGs. As a leader driving RIAA’s research, certification, policy, standards, and working group programs, her leadership has elevated these initiatives to achieve heightened levels of professionalism, impact, and value delivery for our members, aligning seamlessly with RIAA’s strategic objectives.

Beyond her organisational impact, Estelle is a respected figure in the responsible investment landscape, serving as a strong advocate on influential global and government committees, including the Principles for Responsible Investment’s Global Policy Reference Group, the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (as a Board member) and the Australian Government’s Natural Capital Working Group. Additionally, she serves as the Convenor of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures official Consultation Group for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Steering Committee for the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute. She is also the Vice President of the Council of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (Victoria).

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Julia has over 15 years’ experience working in the ESG industry. In her role as Senior Consultant ESG Strategy at ISS ESG, Julia works with key stakeholders in the Responsible Investment industry on ESG strategy and implementation. Through working with a broad range of investors to incorporate ESG criteria into their investment processes, participation in multi‐stakeholder groups and investor collaborations, Julia has extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, company sustainability assessments, ESG data and reporting frameworks. Prior to joining ISS STOXX, Julia was CEO of the Australian ESG research house CAER (now part of ISS ESG).

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Stephanie Maier is Global Head of Sustainable and a member of the Leadership Team at FTSE Russell. She is responsible sustainable index product line globally, collaborating closely with clients to evolve our solutions in the index space.

Stephanie joined FTSE Russell in September 2024 from independent Swiss listed asset manager GAM Investments, where she was their Global Chief Sustainability Officer, responsible for leading GAM’s sustainability strategy. This included ESG integration, stewardship, product and client solutions and corporate sustainability. She brings over 21 years’ experience in sustainable investment, with previous roles as Director for Responsible Investment at HSBC Global Asset Management, Head of Responsible Investment Strategy and Research at Aviva Investors and formerly Head of Research for EIRIS, an ESG research and consultancy firm.

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Jakub Malich is the Head of APAC Sustainability & Climate Investment Solutions Research at MSCI. With a focus on fixed- income research and product development, he supports investors in integrating sustainability and climate considerations into their investment processes. Jakub is based in Singapore.

Prior to joining MSCI in 2019, Jakub was a buy-side fixed-income analyst at the UBS Wealth Management Chief Investment Office, where he covered global credit markets and supported asset allocation decisions.

He holds an MSc in Finance and Investment from the University of Edinburgh and is a CFA charterholder.

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Hortense Bioy, CFA, is Head of Sustainable Investing Research at Morningstar Sustainalytics. She leads the group’s ESG thought leadership research efforts with the objective of empowering investors with the data-driven and qualitative research they need to evaluate investments through an ESG and sustainability lens and make better informed investment decisions. Her team’s top-down insights also support the broader investment industry in understanding market trends and anticipating the fast-evolving ESG and sustainable finance landscape.

Based in London, Hortense joined Sustainalytics in May 2024 from Morningstar Manager Research, where she led sustainability research for six years, first in Europe and then globally. Previously, she led Morningstar’s European ETF research for eight years.

Hortense joined Morningstar as an ETF analyst in 2010 from Bloomberg where she was a financial journalist. She began her career as an M&A analyst at Société Générale in Hong Kong.

Hortense holds a master’s degree in finance from Paris Dauphine University and a postgraduate degree in finance from Paris Sorbonne University. She is also a CFA charter holder.