In October 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the Climate Corporate Accountability Act (SB 253) and the Climate‐Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261), jointly referred to as the Climate Accountability...more
The Biden-Harris Administration recently issued a suite of new rules aimed at addressing water and air quality, reducing methane emissions, protecting environmental justice communities, and accelerating the nation’s...more
6/12/2024
/ Air Pollution ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Coal Ash ,
Department of the Interior ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
MATS ,
Methane ,
New Rules ,
Offshore Wind ,
Power Plants ,
RCRA ,
Renewable Energy ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Wastewater ,
Water Quality
On April 4, 2024, the SEC issued a stay of its final climate-related disclosure rules. The SEC adopted the long-awaited final rules in March after receiving more than 24,000 comment letters....more
On March 6, 2024, in a 3-2 vote along party lines, the SEC adopted the long-awaited final rules on climate-related disclosures. The proposed rules faced intense public scrutiny over the last two years, with the SEC receiving...more
3/12/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Reporting ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Smaller Reporting Companies ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
On October 7, 2023, Governor Newsom signed into law California Senate Bill 253 (SB 253), the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act. With the passage of SB 253, California takes the lead in implementing greenhouse gas...more
What a difference a year makes.
A highlight of the 2022 proxy season was the increased shareholder focus on a number of ESG topics, including more than 100 “E”-related shareholder proposals related to climate change,...more
The Biden Administration’s Executive Order 14096, “Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All,” launched significant new policies to further integrate environmental justice throughout the federal...more
The Biden-Harris Administration continues to build on early efforts to integrate environmental justice with federal agency actions through a new executive order, Executive Order 14091, Further Advancing Racial Equity and...more
Companies considered to be “major” or “significant” US federal government contractors soon may be required to provide climate disclosures as part of the Biden Administration’s suite of policies designed to achieve net-zero...more
12/13/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Comment Period ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Net Zero ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Disclosure ,
System For Award Management (SAM) ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
Election Day is rapidly approaching, and control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate is on the line. The Democrats have a razor-thin majority that could quickly shift as a result of the midterms....more
California lawmakers ushered in a robust suite of climate legislation at the end of the term in August, dedicating $54 billion to climate programs over the next five years. The state’s demonstrated dedication to climate...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Biden Administration’s signature legislative achievement, includes several provisions aimed at fighting climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The law represents the...more
9/2/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Federal Funding ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Investment Tax Credits ,
Mineral Leases ,
Oil & Gas ,
Popular ,
Production Tax Credit
In one of the most significant environmental opinions of our time, the Supreme Court held in West Virginia v. EPA that Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to...more
7/11/2022
/ Clean Air Act ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Power Plants ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory History ,
SCOTUS ,
West Virginia v EPA
On May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow the Biden administration to continue using the social cost of carbon estimates in its regulatory analyses, developed pursuant to an executive order from President Joe Biden....more
6/14/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
NHTSA ,
Obama Administration ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Trump Administration
On May 26, 2022, the United States Supreme Court ruled to allow the Biden Administration to continue using the social cost of carbon estimates in its regulatory analyses, developed pursuant to President Biden’s Executive...more
The Biden Administration will propose a rule “in the very near future” requiring major vendors supplying products and services to the federal government to report their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related...more
The path to advancing environmental justice (EJ) just got a lot clearer, thanks to a new digital mapping tool created by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). CEQ released a “beta” version of the Climate and...more
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan recently announced a series of significant actions to advance environmental justice. The U.S. Department of Justice...more
5/12/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Public Comment ,
Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) Policy ,
Tribal Lands
Today marks the 52nd Earth Day celebration, initially commenced in 1970 as citizens around the nation, and the world, gathered to demand stronger protection for the environment: cleaner water, air and land. As in 1970, the...more
4/25/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Risk Factors ,
Risk Management ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Yesterday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) proposed groundbreaking rules intended to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosure requirements for public companies. The SEC’s climate...more
3/23/2022
/ Annual Reports ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulation S-X ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Upon taking office in January, the Biden Administration immediately prioritized climate change and environmental justice, fulfilling President Biden’s campaign promise. In the past two weeks, President Biden reiterated those...more
11/16/2021
/ Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
IFRS ,
Infrastructure ,
International Standards ,
Methane ,
Paris Agreement
In its first six months, the Biden Administration has taken tangible steps to advance environmental justice (EJ) across the federal government. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have...more
From June 2 to June 4, leading central bankers, policymakers, regulators, private sector CEOs, civil society members and academics gathered for the Green Swan 2021 Global Virtual Conference.
The conference was co-hosted...more
6/8/2021
/ Banking Sector ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
European Central Bank ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Crisis ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Reporting ,
Insurance Industry ,
International Financial Reporting Standards ,
International Monetary Fund ,
Paris Agreement ,
Professional Conferences ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Sustainability ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) ,
Transparency ,
United Nations
On May 20, President Biden issued his Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk (“Order”) which requires federal agencies to assess the potential impacts of climate change on public and private financial institutions...more
As President Biden’s first executive orders demonstrate, climate change is now at the heart of the federal environmental policy agenda. Outside of government, there’s a growing momentum among private companies to focus on and...more