The European Commission has adopted revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), delivering the most substantial simplification of the European Union's sustainability reporting framework since the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) began reshaping corporate disclosure obligations.
For years, the complaint was that boards did not understand sustainability. KPMG's latest research suggests that argument has largely expired. The problem now lies somewhere less visible and, perhaps because of that, more difficult to solve. Executives understand the risks, and they understand the opportunities. What many still cannot do is express either in financial terms that withstand scrutiny inside the investment committee or the finance function.
The California Air Resources Board announced this week that it will postpone the state's first deadline for reporting Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions from August 10, 2026, to November 10, 2026. The extension is tied directly to the regulation itself, which remains unfinished. Rather than continue the approval process, CARB has withdrawn the package it submitted to the Office of Administrative Law, choosing instead to make what it describes as limited revisions that clarify certain requirements before asking regulators for final approval.
For more than a decade, federal regulators say, PFAS left Chemours facilities in West Virginia, North Carolina, and New Jersey and entered three of the country's major rivers. On Wednesday, that alleged history of contamination produced one of the most consequential enforcement actions yet against a manufacturer of the so-called "forever chemicals."
The British government is moving forward with plans to require companies importing commodities such as cocoa, palm oil, soy and rubber to demonstrate that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation, marking one of the most significant expansions of the country's environmental due diligence regime since the passage of the Environment Act.
The EBA published final draft technical standards revising the European banking sector's Pillar 3 disclosure requirements on environmental, social and governance risks. The package also introduces new disclosure requirements covering equity exposures and aggregate exposures to shadow banking entities, completing a major portion of the implementation work required under the Capital Requirements Regulation 3 (CRR3).
The Financial Markets Authority said it will adopt a "no action" approach for insurers expected to be removed from New Zealand's climate-related disclosures regime, allowing them to forgo climate statement lodgements while Parliament considers amendments to the law. The decision follows a recent government announcement that health and life insurers will be excluded from the regime and will no longer be required to produce annual climate statements once the legislation is enacted.