This article provides an overview of the International Sustainability Standards Board's inaugural sustainability disclosure standards. The standards are a significant step towards the development of a global baseline of corporate reporting standards on sustainability and climate change, integrated with financial reporting standards.
This article discusses the UK Financial Conduct Authority's guidance setting out next steps to enhance sustainability reporting by listed companies.
While issuers continue to commit to sustainability/ESG objectives, for the first time since sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) emerged, certain SLB issuers missed their sustainability targets in 2022 and early 2023. Further, market participants have recently expressed concerns about other SLB issuers in danger of not hitting their SPTs and, in general, about the credibility of SLBs in light of issuer ambitions and incentives to achieve sustainability targets. Issuers should consider the ambitiousness of their sustainability targets, any challenges in achieving the targets on schedule, and how they will prove their progress. In this resource, Latham & Watkins provides 10 takeaways relating to these developments for potential SLB issuers and their underwriters.
This article discusses the European Commission's adopting the first set of EU Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The ESRS are mandatory common standards by which in-scope companies must report comparable, consistent and detailed information across environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an indispensable tool, but with the rapid advancement in the technology has come a rise in electricity demand, drawing regulatory attention on the natural resources that AI requires.
Within this context, companies and policymakers are considering how AI may contribute both to sustainable solutions and environmental impacts. For companies that have committed to environmental targets and are simultaneously advancing AI and seeking power to do so, managing both goals can lead to a competitive advantage.