ESG

There is a particular kind of language that survives long after the conditions that produced it have changed. It remains in annual reports, in strategy decks, in conference agendas and regulatory consultations, carrying forward assumptions that no longer quite fit the world it describes. Sustainability increasingly feels like one of those words. We still use it. We still build departments around it. We still publish targets beneath its banner.

More than half of Malaysian banks' lending is concentrated in sectors that depend heavily on nature. That finding sits near the beginning of a new report released Thursday by Bank Negara Malaysia, the World Bank Group, and the United Nations Development Program's Biodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDP BIOFIN). It is also the statistic most likely to linger.

The modern AI industry has become remarkably good at directing attention toward intelligence while keeping the infrastructure that makes that intelligence possible largely out of sight. Public discussion revolves around what the technology can do. We debate whether it will transform education, accelerate scientific discovery, replace jobs, or reshape entire industries. Investors discuss model performance. Governments debate regulation. Companies race to announce new capabilities.

The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) has published new guidelines aimed at helping companies pursue sustainability objectives through collaborative initiatives without running afoul of competition law. The guidance provides businesses with a framework for assessing whether sustainability-related cooperation agreements comply with competition rules and outlines circumstances under which certain arrangements may qualify for exemptions.

The European Commission has begun infringement proceedings against 20 Member States that failed to fully implement one of the European Union's most closely watched consumer protection laws, moving the bloc's campaign against greenwashing from legislation into enforcement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just proposed rescinding the climate-related disclosure requirements it adopted in March 2024, a rule package that had consumed years of debate, generated fierce opposition from business groups and Republican lawmakers, and become one of the defining regulatory initiatives of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler's tenure.

ASIC has delivered its first substantive assessment of Australia's new mandatory climate reporting regime, telling companies that while the initial wave of disclosures has established a foundation for comparability, significant work remains before reporting practices reach a mature and consistent standard.