The Guidance would increase expectations for regulated financial institutions to identify, measure, monitor, and control climate-related financial risks.

By Betty M. Huber, Arthur S. Long, Pia Naib, Austin J. Pierce, and Deric Behar

For the past few years, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent has prioritized setting the pace in climate risk management for financial institutions that it supervises. On December 21, 2022, the DFS proposed Guidance for New York State-Regulated Banking and Mortgage Institutions Relating to Management of Safety & Soundness Risks from Climate Change (the Guidance). The Guidance follows on the DFS’ October 2020 letter to CEOs of its regulated financial institutions, which announced that DFS was developing a strategy for integrating climate-related risks into its supervisory mandate. The letter also announced that DFS would engage with banking organizations (and coordinate with US and international counterparts) to develop effective supervisory practices and guidance to mitigate the financial risks from climate change.

On December 15, 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Final Rule for conducting Phase I Environmental Site Assessments. The Final Rule amends its All Appropriate Inquires (AAI) Rule referencing ASTM E1527-21 (and withdrawing reference to ASTM E1527-13) as satisfying the requirements for conducting AAI under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and…

virtual-event

COVID-19, economic and logistical challenges, and a new administration have resulted in considerable changes to the regulated community. To better understand and help prepare for these challenges and changes, Greenberg Traurig has joined with industry consultants, community advocates, and government regulators to host an Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Summit on Jan. 26, 2023, in…

Following its March 2022 proposal to uplist the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) to endangered status, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS or Service) finalized the proposal on November 30, 2022. On January 25, the Service announced that these new protections for the NLEB will take effect on March 31, 2023, instead of January 30, as originally proposed. In addition, the agency proposed to list the tricolored bat as endangered on September 14, 2022. FWS has also indicated that it expects to issue a proposed listing decision regarding the little brown bat this summer.

Lightbulb is located on the soil, and plant are growing.Renewable energy generation is essential in the future.

Regulators are increasingly mandating companies to make environmental disclosures (see here, here and here).

The CDP – a not-for-profit organisation aiming to encourage the disclosure of environmental risk – has measured and scored the effectiveness of companies’ 2022 environmental disclosures in their latest ‘A List’ Report (the “CDP Report”). The CDP Report shows that a mere 12 of the 18,700 companies that responded to the CDP’s questionnaires scored a ‘triple A’ for their environmental disclosures, whilst over 29,500 companies scored an ‘F’ after failing to provide any data to the CDP.

According to the CDP, over 680 investors with combined assets of US $130 trillion, and over 280 large purchasers with US $6.4 trillion in buying power requested over 48,000 companies to disclose environmental information through the CDP in 2022.