On April 7, 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released two staff reports on climate-related risks for financial institutions. While the staff reports do not suggest or impose legal requirements, they provide financial institutions with insights on banking regulators’ positions on climate-related risk management requirements and current industry practices. In this Legal Update,
On 25 April 2023, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted in favour of a revised version of the EU draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“the Draft Directive”).
The revised version differs from the versions that we have previously commented on here, here and here in the following key respects:
The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEX) recently published a consultation paper proposing to mandate all listed companies in Hong Kong to provide climate-related disclosure in their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reports. The proposal is formulated with reference to the Climate Standard exposure draft published by the International Sustainability Standards Board and will be introduced
At the Spring 2023 National Meeting of the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”), a number of sessions were held focused on environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) initiatives, led by the Special (EX) Committee on Race and Insurance (the “R&I Committee”) and the Climate and Resiliency (EX) Task Force (“C&R Task Force”), both of
In this report, Mayer Brown and Sedgwick Richardson share the results of our recent survey about sustainable asset management in Asia.
As interest in sustainability continues to grow worldwide, much of the focus has been on Europe and the United States. From the explosive growth of flows into funds classified as Article 8 or 9
This report provides crucial insights into the evolving landscape of ESG and sustainability-related regulations, practices and challenges facing the private equity industry in Asia, and tracks the ESG and sustainability journeys of private equity (PE) fund managers.
The European Commission has finally published its eagerly awaited Proposal for a Directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (‘the Green Claims Proposal’). As its name suggests, the Proposal was crafted with a view to putting an end to non-mandatory consumer-facing claims of environmental benefit that bear no relation to reality (so-called ‘greenwashing’).
On 30 March 2023, the UK Government published an updated Green Finance Strategy (the “Strategy”). The Strategy, which updates the UK’s 2019 Green Finance Strategy, outlines how “continued UK leadership on green finance will cement the UK’s place at the forefront of this growing global market, and how we will mobilise the investment needed
On January 1, 2023, the European Commission’s Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of April 6, 2022 (“Delegated Regulation”), which introduces “Level 2” of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“SFDR”), entered into force. Level 2 of the SFDR complements and clarifies Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 27, 2019 on
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) recently published its Discussion Paper (DP23/1) on ‘Finance for positive sustainable change’ (“DP23/1”) as part of its ongoing effort to promote sustainable finance and align the financial sector with the UK’s environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) goals. DP23/1 draws on the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures