Policy & Disclosure: archive
Every Policy & Disclosure story in Sustainable Investing, newest first. 102 stories
4 stories
Europe's green-claim ban is cheap; the supply-chain data mandate is not
Enforcement starts 27 September 2026. The brands that keep making green claims will already be measuring their suppliers.
The G7 wants more blended finance; the cheap disclosure fix is aimed at the wrong buyer
ImpactAlpha's case for disclosure reform is a claim about price, and the buyers forming in African private markets may not be the ones the reform is priced for.
ISO’s net-zero draft stalls, and the delay is the point
A near-miss ballot sends ISO’s corporate net-zero standard back to committee, postponing the assurance layer that greenwashing claims will eventually be argued against.
45Z pays for documented output, not for new construction
With a final rule targeted for November 2026 and a credit that sunsets for fuel produced after 2029, 45Z leaves a short underwriting window that rewards producers already in production.
3 stories
Brussels finalizes the ESRS and moves supply-chain data out of statute
Companies still inside the CSRD file a shorter statement from 2027; the 90% the Omnibus cut loose answer a capped voluntary standard instead.
Macron's methane delay would stack two EU disclosure deadlines into 2028
Slipping the import verification date a year buys importers political cover and costs them a year of ramp toward a 2030 intensity standard that has not moved.
Australia's climate regime cleared the compliance bar, not the analytical one
ASIC's review of the first 40 statutory sustainability reports finds governance progress and thin assumptions in the sections investors actually read, just as Treasury begins work on making the disclosures cheaper to produce.
2 stories
Europe will label efficiency and still not measure what data centres consume
The Commission's 500 kW labelling proposal hands investors a comparable dataset for Europe's AI build-out and leaves the resource question for someone else to answer.
Narrower CSRD scope strips double materiality of its mandate
Without a filing deadline to force it, the companies that keep the assessment will be the ones whose findings already reach a risk register.
3 stories
Brussels adds 121 million free permits for heavy industry
Member states have bought covered industry five more years of softer carbon costs, and the bill lands in the same carbon-market plumbing the 2027 reform is meant to tighten.
SEC proposes rescinding Rule 14a-8, sending proxy fights to the states
The 1942 mechanism that puts climate and pay resolutions on US ballots would go, and with it the only federal requirement that a company explain why a proposal never reached a vote.
SEC moves shareholder resolution fights to the states
A second proposal three weeks after the first deletes a federal filing rather than relocating a decision, and no state has yet written the rules that would take its place.
2 stories
Repealing power-plant rules moves carbon costs to the states
The $310 billion in avoided compliance costs is an estimate the EPA controls; what a kilowatt-hour costs is decided by other people.
Parliament widens CBAM and strips the credit offset
The 464-50 mandate takes the border levy into finished goods and makes verifiable emissions data the thing importers actually have to buy.
2 stories
Parliament widens carbon border tax to solar panels and heat pumps
Both co-legislators enter trilogue from a broader list than the Commission proposed, making a 450-product CBAM the starting point rather than the outer limit.
Voluntary UK sustainability standards are already biting in procurement
The FCA's autumn Policy Statement will settle the rules, but the demand for traceable sustainability numbers is already moving through supply chains.
5 stories
Truckmakers ask Brussels to make the carbon price build the chargers
A 43% cut by 2030 now depends on charger buildout and grid queues the manufacturers don't control — and the industry wants ETS revenue to pay for them.
The EPA repeal has two halves, and the quiet one lasts longer
Killing the power-plant standards is a rulemaking another administration can redo; killing the finding beneath them changes what a future administration must first prove.
France trims renovation aid before naming its replacement volume
The 2026 finance bill pulls about $580 million from ANAH, leaving MaPrimeRénov' to lean on energy-supplier certificates whose 2026 volume the state has not set.
Brussels puts a quality floor under $2.9 trillion of public buying
A minimum quality weighting of 30% turns climate plans, labour practices and supply-chain data into bid documents, with national authorities holding the discretion that decides how hard it bites.
Brussels writes a quality floor into €2.5 trillion of buying
A 30% minimum quality weighting puts public demand behind the EU's climate goals and hands every contracting authority the discretion to decide what quality means.
1 story
Europe trades a slower carbon cap for a bigger industrial rebate
The Parliament's lead ETS negotiator wants three-quarters of auction revenue returned to covered industry, and the cap profile he pairs with it will decide a decade of European industrial capex.
1 story
EU lawmakers hard-wire a capital test into the transition label
The ECON committee wants companies in SFDR's new Transition category to spend more on sustainable activities than on new fossil fuel projects, setting up a fight with member states over who qualifies.
1 story
Net-zero standard's fate hinges on transition-plan clause
ISO's net-zero standard has cleared its first comment window; its transition-plan clause now faces a ratification path expected to run into 2027.
1 story
Hong Kong taxonomy draft moves beyond green-only sectors
The draft adds transition pathways for air transport and iron and steel, growing the framework from 25 to 39 activities.
3 stories
Hong Kong taxonomy bids for the messy middle of transition
Phase 2B adds steel, aviation and battery supply chains to Hong Kong's sustainable-finance definitions, and makes verification the test of Asia's transition loan market.
UK consultation trades ESG checklists for board judgment
London would strip topic prompts from the strategic report, keep climate rules apart, and make directors' materiality views the gate for what gets disclosed.
UK proposes stripping mandatory ESG topics from annual reports
A consultation would trade a statutory list of environmental and human-rights reporting requirements for a materiality test, shifting the disclosure fight into each company's judgment.
3 stories
EUDR's reach runs through traders moving 80% of global coffee
Trase finds EU-serving traders handle most of the world's coffee, making one traceability standard cheaper than fencing off Europe.
California gives first-year climate filers an on-ramp
CARB confirms it will accept prior-year data, letterhead non-reporting statements and no-assurance filings for the 2026 cycle.
Singapore delays cargo SAF surcharge to 2028
Passenger surcharges start in January 2027; freight gets a year to watch how the city-state prices its 1% SAF mandate
3 stories
Judge Blocks New York's $75 Billion Climate Superfund Law
A federal preemption ruling removes New York's producer-pays climate adaptation scheme from the balance sheet and maps the legal boundary every successor statute must cross.
SEC proposal would hand shareholder resolution fights to states
A proposed rewrite of Rule 14a-8 would replace SEC no-action review with state-by-state appeals, fragmenting the process asset owners use to press votes.
Simpler EU rules don't mean easier ESG work
A guest essay argues the ESRS and CSDDD reset is changing where sustainability work happens, even as research shows disclosure quality erodes with volume.
2 stories
Carbon reporting's new test: accuracy, not disclosure
Carbon-accounting firm Normative argues the credibility of the inventory now matters more than disclosure itself.
A materiality-first bar for transition plans
Australia's voluntary guidance anchors net-zero plans in business models and financial materiality, shifting the credibility battle from targets to execution.
1 story
UK carbon border levy is designed, but not yet tested
Importers know who pays and how; the default values will decide whether the levy is a carbon price or a tariff.
1 story
NRDC projects 540 GW of clean energy blocked, and almost no gas to replace it
Trump policies could block up to 540 GW of clean energy, but gas bottlenecks cap replacement at 9 GW.
1 story
ESG ratings get a scoreboard, not a floor
The 2 November filing deadline starts a regime that removes the conflict everyone could see; the green bond model says competition won't hold the floor on standards.
1 story
Australia weighs a lighter hand on climate assurance
The Treasury's consultation offers three paths for assurance; the metric-by-metric route is the one that protects the regime's credibility.