Articles by Lisa Pham, Frances Schwartzkopff and Saijel Kishan

An ESG Backlash Erupts in Europe on World’s Strictest Rules

For TotalEnergies SE Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne, the difference in the performance of his company’s stock and that of Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest US producer of oil and gas, is in no small part explained by an acronym: …

EU Markets Watchdog Signals a Hard Line on New ESG Disclosures

Europe’s financial markets watchdog said companies shouldn’t anticipate that the complexity of new ESG reporting requirements will excuse sloppy disclosures. The European Securities and Markets Authority acknowledged that complying with the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards creates “challenges” for companies, …

EU Regulators Call for Changes to Landmark ESG Rulebook

Europe’s ESG rulebook, which is seen as the benchmark for setting sustainability-disclosure requirements worldwide, keeps getting pushback from the regulators charged with enforcing it. In an opinion to the European Commission, regulators for the markets, banking and insurance industries called …

Banks, Asset Managers Warned of ‘Huge’ Fallout From UK’s New Greenwashing Law

Banks and asset managers in the UK woke up to a new reality on Friday, as the country enforces some of the most far-reaching anti-greenwashing rules ever seen. Due to its broad scope, the new requirement from the Financial Conduct …

EU Lawmakers ‘Outraged’ After States Block Landmark ESG Law

A European Union law designed to clean up corporate supply chains has been derailed by the bloc’s biggest member states, forcing negotiators back to the drawing board on one of the most consequential pieces of ESG legislation ever attempted. The …

EU Agreement on ESG Ratings Seen as World’s Toughest

A provisional agreement in the European Union setting guardrails around the ESG [environmental, social, and governance] ratings industry is being hailed as the world’s toughest. The plan goes “much further than any of the other regimes we have seen internationally,” …

Europe’s Toughest ESG Rule Hits Wall of German Objections

The European Union’s most stringent ESG rule to date may be scuppered due to eleventh-hour German opposition to the plan. The EU was on track to move forward with the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive after December, when lawmakers and …

Banks, Insurers Set to Lose Reprieve From EU’s Toughest ESG Rule

Financial firms in the European Union look set to be hit by a new ESG requirement that they lobbied hard to avoid. The European Parliament and the European Council are moving toward an agreement that banks, asset managers and insurers …

Banks, Insurers Temporarily Dodge Full Impact of EU’s Harshest ESG Law to Date

The finance industry will be shielded from the full scope of the European Union’s most consequential piece of ESG legislation to date, as the bloc settles on a compromise to help it get the bill over the finish line. Under …

Governments Increasingly Will Foot Bill for Climate Risks as Insurers Exit: Report

As insurers start to pull out from markets battered by the fallout of climate change, governments are increasingly at risk of having to foot the bill, according to the Bank for International Settlements. “This trend, if left unabated, may lead …