On April 18, 2023, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) published a “Net Zero Standard for Oil & Gas.” Development of the Standard follows a two-year collaborative process led by IIGCC with support from...more
The United Nations General Assembly, the UN’s primary policy-making body, has adopted a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the obligations of its 193 member states...more
5/10/2023
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
General Assembly ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
International Court of Justice (ICJ) ,
Renewable Energy ,
United Nations
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has approved a plan that would implement a transition period for companies applying IFRS S1 (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-Related Financial...more
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
Senior finance officials from 18 states, as well as hundreds of investors, public and private companies and climate-focused nonprofits, joined together to urge policymakers to reject efforts by certain, primarily Republican...more
Munich Re, Zurich and Hannover Re, three major insurance providers, announced their exit from the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) in the span of one month between March and April 2023. The NZIA is a UN-convened group of...more
On December 9, 2022, S&P Dow Jones Indices (DJI) announced the results of its 2022 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Annual Review.
The top five worldwide additions by market capitalization added this year are:...more
A trial has been scheduled for June 12 in a case involving climate-related constitutional challenges to actions by the State of Montana, its governor, and various state agencies. In Held v. Montana, sixteen Montana...more
On March 21, 2023 the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 2547, which claims to be “designed to continue protections of state pension funds from strategies that would be harmful to the state’s energy...more
Earlier this month, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) urged legislators to reject key aspects of “anti-ESG” bills introduced in the Kansas Senate and House of Representatives. Both bills are designed, in...more
3/24/2023
/ Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Investment Management ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Kansas ,
Pension Reform ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Employees ,
Public Pension ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Retirement Plan
On March 16, 2023 the Republican governors of 19 states announced an alliance led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, to “push back against President Biden’s environmental, social, corporate governance (ESG) agenda that is...more
3/22/2023
/ Asset Management ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda
President Biden will likely issue the first veto of his presidency after Congress passed a measure that would repeal a Department of Labor rule that allows retirement plan fiduciaries to consider ESG-related factors in...more
3/14/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investment ,
Investment Management ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Presidential Veto ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Retirement Plan
California Senate Bill 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, if passed, will require all companies that do business in California and report over $1 billion in annual revenue to report on the full range of their...more
3/7/2023
/ Air Pollution ,
California ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Health and Safety ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Public Health
On February 13, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced his support for what his office described as “comprehensive legislation to protect Floridians from the woke environmental, social, and corporate governance...more
3/2/2023
/ Business Strategies ,
Capital Investments ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Florida ,
Investment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
State Legislatures ,
Sustainability
On February 3, the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry, announced the establishment of a nine-person Republican ESG Working Group to “combat the threat to our capital markets posed by those on the...more
Attacks on “ESG investing” in the U.S. continues to intensify as additional Republican lawmakers take aim at financial institutions’ alleged “ESG agenda.” Citing an effort to “promote the depoliticization of our capital...more
On January 10, Isabel Schnabel, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), gave a speech at an international symposium on central bank independence on monetary policy tightening and the green...more
2/17/2023
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
European Central Bank ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment ,
Lending ,
Paris Agreement
On January 25, Representatives Sean Casten and Juan Vargas announced the launch of the Congressional Sustainable Investment Caucus (CSIC). According to the press releases, the “CSIC will bring together Members of Congress...more
Twenty-five Republican state attorneys general, along with two energy companies, have commenced an action against the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) seeking to “hold unlawful and set aside” rules governing how retirement plan...more
On January 10, the Biden-Harris Administration released the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization: A Joint Strategy to Transform Transportation, which is designed to cut all greenhouse emissions from the...more
1/24/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Pollution Control ,
Public Health ,
Regional Transportation Planning ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Tribal Lands ,
Urban Planning & Development
On December 16, the Amsterdam headquartered bank ABN AMRO announced the publication of a climate strategy and its decision to join the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). ABN AMRO stated that it is “committed to making a...more
1/4/2023
/ Banks ,
Business Strategies ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financing ,
Net Zero ,
Netherlands ,
Popular
In early 2022, the ESG ratings industry attracted attention when electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Inc. was dropped from the S&P 500 ESG Index. Explaining its decision, S&P cited perceived deficiencies in many ESG areas,...more
It is hardly news that ESG investing is a significant aspect of the asset management industry. According to Barron’s, $400 billion was invested in U.S. mutual funds and assets that have an ESG orientation in 2021. However,...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