The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently released the first edition of its Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook, and the report provides an interesting glimpse into the anti-corruption and...more
On March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released final rules regarding the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (the Final Rules). We provided an overview of the...more
In this week’s edition, the European Commission contacted 20 airlines requiring them to address potentially misleading or inaccurate green claims. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) launched its digital...more
On April 24, 2024, the European Parliament approved the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). The directive, which must be formally endorsed by the Council of the European Union (EU) before officially...more
In this week’s edition, we discuss the ever-increasing focus on greenwashing by way of enforcement action taken by regulatory authorities and incoming legislation aimed at enhancing consumer protection. The EU confirmed the...more
On March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued an adopting release (Release Nos. 33-11275 and 34-99678), entitled The Enhancement and Standardization of ClimateRelated Disclosures for Investors (the...more
After nearly two years of public comments and deliberation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a Final Rule on Mandatory Climate Disclosures (Final Rule). While less sweeping than initially proposed,...more
On March 6, 2024, the SEC adopted final rules (Final Rules) requiring extensive climate-related disclosures in companies’ annual reports and registration statements. The new rules are set forth in Release No. 33-11275. The...more
The SEC has adopted the much-anticipated climate-related disclosure rules, which are more than 900 pages long, two years after they were first proposed. Although the rules will almost certainly face challenges in court that...more
Introduction - With the adoption by 196 parties of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, legally binding international climate change arrived. The Paris Agreement requires increasingly aggressive five-year cycles climate...more
On December 21, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) published guidance (the Guidance) to assist regulated institutions in assessing and managing their climate-related financial and operational risks....more
As discussed in our earlier Client Alerts, California recently passed several laws requiring certain climate-related corporate disclosures, including, for example, regarding emissions and climate-related financial risk. As...more
Introduction: Strategic Carbon Management - The corporate world is experiencing significant growth in the need for carbon management services. Within the diverse field of environmental and sustainability services, the top...more
Introduction: Navigating the Complexities of Carbon Management - Companies in all industries are faced with increasing pressure to define their corporate approach to climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction,...more
Executive Summary- Climate disclosure regulations are among the most significant and complex challenges faced by companies and boards, with a variety of requirements emanating from numerous governmental authorities and...more
On December 19, 2023, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) released its updates to its Proxy Voting Guidelines. Somewhat unusually, ISS made only one change to its voting recommendation policies for U.S. public...more
On December 21, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) finalized guidance on how the banks and mortgage institutions it regulates (“New York Institutions”) should manage climate-related financial and...more
On September 18, 2023, following a two-year development process, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) published its final recommendations (the Recommendations) to help market participants with...more
According to a survey conducted by KPMG, 75% of companies are not in a position to obtain third-party assurance on their published ESG data. This is despite the fact that two-thirds of companies must disclose such data, or...more
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
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 Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures ("TNFD") released its final framework (the "TNFD Framework") on September 18. The TNFD Framework encourages organisations to integrate nature into decision-making and...more
On October 9, 2023, the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) published the Disclosure Framework providing good practice recommendations for companies to enable them to make “high quality, consistent and comparable transition plan...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
In addition to the risk of regulatory enforcement actions and penalties, the court system continues to be used as a battleground for climate issues through litigation against oil and gas (“O&G”) companies....more