ESG

European banks entered the final months of 2025 with much the same climate-risk exposure they had six months earlier. What changed was their ability to measure it. The European Banking Authority said last Thursday that climate-related risk indicators across banks in the European Union and European Economic Area remained broadly stable during the second half of last year, with little movement in either transition or physical risk exposures. At the same time, banks made gradual progress filling some of the data gaps that have complicated efforts to assess those risks, particularly in mortgage portfolios.

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) has opened a public consultation on draft Singapore Sustainability Disclosure Standards that would require companies to explain how they identify, assess, and manage climate-related risks and opportunities. The consultation runs from July 27 through Oct. 25, giving businesses, investors, assurance providers, and professional bodies a chance to shape the rules before they are finalized.

Thirty ESG evaluation and data providers had endorsed Japan's Code of Conduct for ESG Evaluation and Data Providers as of June 30, 2026, according to an updated list published by the country's Financial Services Agency (FSA).

There is an understated honesty in the way the Monetary Authority of Singapore begins its latest sustainability report. Before it speaks of new guidance, larger investment pools or cleaner buildings, it acknowledges something that has become increasingly difficult for policymakers to ignore: the climate transition has become harder, not easier. Geopolitical tensions have reordered priorities. Funding is less certain. Energy security has reclaimed a place near the top of government agendas. Yet the physical risks associated with a warming planet have shown little interest in waiting for political consensus to return.

South Korea will require its largest publicly traded companies to begin mandatory sustainability reporting in 2028, moving forward a long-debated disclosure regime while introducing temporary legal protections intended to ease the transition and encourage broader corporate participation.

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.