ESG in the News: Congress all-in for anti-ESG; Corporate execs admit to greenwashing, lack of sustainability commitment

ESG news updates for the week of January 30-February 3, 2023.

America

anti-ESG movement

• Financial Times:Congress will explore the ‘ESG agenda’ of banks and asset managers.
• Barons:State AG is suing the Labor Department to block ESG rules that would allow ESG considerations in pension investments.
• hill:The House Financial Services Committee announces anti-ESG working group.

ESG in investment

• IR magazine: The majority of institutional investors take ESG information into consideration when making investment decisions, but are not ready for the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule.
• Reuters:Proxy voting advisors Glass Lewis and ISS defend positions on ESG proposals. IS statement.

Assumptions of the corporate environment

• Financial Times: Booming employment in the Texas/New Mexico oil patch.
• hill:US approves new oil and gas drilling project in Alaska.

green washing

• First Company:Management admits greenwashing and questions the credibility of companies’ commitments to sustainability.

NGO activities

• Guardian: The NGO Global Witness has filed a complaint with the SEC against Shell over its renewable energy investments.

Attracting/Retaining Employees

• insider:Generation Z is taking action to align their work with their personal environmental values.

water rights

• CBS News: A New York investor buying water rights in a western US state.

Forced labor in the supply chain

• Bloomberg:US Customs Begins Blocking Aluminum Imports From China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

sustainable finance

• Responsible Investor: CA100+ has removed Mellon Investments after the company failed to engage with at least one focus company.

England

Assumptions of the corporate environment

• Telegraph: BP cuts green investments and sharpens company focus.

lawsuit

• Bloomberg:13,500 new Nigerian plaintiffs join UK pollution lawsuit against Shell.

european union

sustainable finance

• Financial Times:The EU will allow tax credits for green investments in response to US Inflation Reduction Act subsidies.

green washing

• Energy monitor: The EU plans to publish a draft greenwashing law in March, based on a controversial lifecycle methodology.

Assumptions of the corporate environment

• Financial Times:The growth of wind power in the EU is jeopardized by bureaucracy and rising material costs.

France

green washing

• Net Zero Investors:BNP Paribas faces possible violations of French corporate vigilance law on funded carbon emissions.

Denmark

sustainable finance

• Treasury today: Danske Bank needs a credible climate transition plan before refinancing or making new long-term loans to fossil fuel companies.

International

carbon emissions

• BBC news: A new satellite to launch in 2023 will track individual CO2 emission point sources.

Corporate Net Zero Efforts

• Responsible Investor: The Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance’s latest target-setting protocol prohibits the use of carbon removal.

Assumptions of the corporate environment

• economist: Russian oil is actively traded on international markets through intermediaries.

ESG posts in the news: Congress is going all out against ESG. The executive has acknowledged greenwashing, and his lack of commitment to sustainability first appeared in his PracticalESG.