ESG

Investment firms are making progress weaving sustainability into investment decision-making, but many still aren’t connecting the dots between what clients want and what they actually end up holding. That’s the latest from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), which says firms need to improve how they align investor sustainability preferences with the true characteristics of investment products.

Malaysia’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability Reporting (ACSR) has mapped out how it plans to address non-compliance with the country’s emerging sustainability disclosure rules, signaling a balanced approach that supports corporate readiness while keeping formal enforcement tools within reach.

Brussels has taken a noticeable step back from some of its most far-reaching sustainability ambitions. After a marathon round of negotiations, EU lawmakers reached a provisional deal to trim down the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), a course correction shaped by delays, industry pressure, and a shifting political mood.

Climate has dominated ESG discourse for years. Carbon pathways, transition plans, emissions reporting have all become standard boardroom topics. Yet the most fundamental risk is one that companies often only notice once it’s too late, which is the natural systems that businesses depends on every single day.

The EU’s deforestation law, already the subject of years of political wrangling and industry pushback, is heading for yet another delayed start and a more streamlined design, after Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional agreement to postpone and simplify its core requirements.

Dutch financial institutions are beginning to show how they plan to align their business with a climate-safe future, and regulators say the early progress is encouraging, even if the road ahead is long. In a new review, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets finds that eight of the country’s largest banks and insurers are reporting on their climate transition plans and financed-emissions data in a more structured and transparent way than ever before.

The UK is stepping deeper into the sustainable finance arena. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has put forward plans to regulate ESG ratings (the scores that influence trillions in investment decisions) in an effort to make them far more transparent, reliable and comparable than they are today.