An Austrian regional court found Austrian Airlines AG (AUA), a subsidiary of German airline Lufthansa, liable for greenwashing for advertisements offering carbon-neutral flights that used 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF),...more
11/28/2023
/ Airlines ,
Austria ,
Aviation Industry ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
False Advertising ,
Greenwashing ,
Marketing ,
Misrepresentation ,
Net Zero ,
Sustainable Business Practices
At a September legal conference convened by the European Central Bank (ECB), Frank Elderson, a member of the ECB’s executive board and vice-chair of its supervisory board, observed the increasing risk of climate lawsuits and...more
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Hong Kong’s de facto central banking institution, issued a directive for banks setting out high-level principles on planning for a transition to a net-zero economy. In a “Dear CEO”...more
10/17/2023
/ Banks ,
Business Strategies ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Hong Kong ,
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) ,
Net Zero ,
Transparency
An investor coalition with more than $1 trillion in assets under management, led by UK-based NGO ShareAction, published a letter to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) urging it to create new and...more
In late July 2023, House Republicans on the Financial Services Committee introduced four bills targeting various business and market activities that implicate environmental, social, and governance issues. In a statement...more
9/7/2023
/ Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proxy Voting ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Proposals
In May 2023, the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) published a new guide setting out how to use ESG-related metrics effectively in private markets (the ESG Metrics Guide), and how measuring and monitoring these metrics can...more
In May 2023, the shareholder advocacy group Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited and Amundi Asset Management filed shareholder resolutions pressing Japanese power...more
A working paper from the London School of Economics and Political Science that looked at over 100 climate-related lawsuits between 2005 and 2021 found that the filing of a climate-based litigation claim or corresponding...more
On May 15, 2023, twenty-three Republican state attorneys general (AGs) sent a letter to members of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) expressing “serious concerns” about whether the NZIA’s requirements comply with federal...more
A recent study by Bain & Company and sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis “examined how various aspects of sustainability and ESG activities—things like setting ESG targets, tracking results, embedding sustainability into...more
The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), a European membership body for investor collaboration on climate change, announced the launch of its Net Zero Engagement Initiative (NZEI). A primary goal of the...more
5/5/2023
/ Capital Investments ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investment ,
Investment Portfolios ,
Net Zero ,
Paris Agreement ,
Popular
A recent academic study covering the period 2010-2021 has found that many companies in the S&P500 currently are providing disclosure on ESG issues, and in the absence of mandated disclosure rules, do so on a voluntary basis....more
The Royal Bank of Canada announced that this year it will begin incorporating ESG considerations into incentive compensation plans for the bank’s CEO and other top executives. In particular, the bank plans to take ESG...more
Last month, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that, after conducting a “preliminary review” of ESG benchmarks, “the overall quality of ESG-related disclosures made by benchmark administrators was poor” and...more
According to a new survey, most large companies are preparing to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposed climate disclosure rule even though it is not final, but many business leaders are concerned...more
4/7/2023
/ Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Registration Statement ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
According to a recent report published by global non-profit environmental disclosure platform CDP, approximately 41% of responding companies are reporting on one or more categories of supply chain emissions, even though such...more
Over the last three years, PwC and the Leadership Institute at the London Business School have studied the prevalence and efficacy of linking executive pay to ESG-related goals or targets. Their first two reports—Paying well...more
On February 14, 2023, Georgeson LLC, the shareholder proxy solicitation firm, published an analysis of investor voting decisions in 2022 on certain types of shareholder proposals. In preparing its report, it looked at public...more
In its annual letter to company board chairs, Aviva Chief Executive Mark Versey set out stewardship priorities for the coming year. The global asset manager, which has £232 billion ($279 billion) under management, states that...more
According to a report published by global environmental disclosure platform operator CDP on February 7, 2023, only 81 companies “demonstrated best practice by disclosing against all [of CDP’s] 21 key indicators” denoting a...more
On January 2, the New York City (NYC) Comptroller, Brad Lander, the NYC Employees’ Retirement System, the NYC Teachers’ Retirement System, and the NYC Board of Education Retirement System, announced that they had submitted...more
1/31/2023
/ Business Strategies ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Comptroller ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Pension Funds ,
Popular ,
Underwriting
Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have published their updated U.S. voting guidelines for 2023, with Glass Lewis additionally releasing its 2023 policy guidelines for ESG...more
Summary -
In an important development, on April 28, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commenced an action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in which it asserted that...more
5/3/2022
/ Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
False Statements ,
Intent to Defraud ,
Investment Fraud ,
Mining ,
Misleading Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On March 30, 2022, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) requested comment on draft principles “that would provide a high-level framework for the safe and sound management of exposures to climate-related...more
On March 21, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed far-reaching amendments to Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X that would mandate significant additional climate-related disclosures. If...more
3/24/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Public Comment ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulation S-X ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation