Homeowners in Washington have filed a class action lawsuit against several major oil and gas companies and their industry association, alleging that their actions led to extreme weather events and rising home insurance costs.
The European Commission publishes transition pathways to guide company climate plans – just as parliament moves to delete CSDDD transition plan duties, putting greater weight on CSRD reporting.
Twenty-one airlines have agreed to modify their terminology around sustainability claims following an investigation by the EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Network – but Constantin Eikel, partner at Bird & Bird, says this will provide the industry with much more certainty than other sectors.
Spanning 15 countries and five continents, the Forward 40 highlights outstanding lawyers working at partner and counsel level who are shaping the future of legal practice in this fast-changing field.
“Poland's failure to submit its national strategy highlights the urgent necessity for all Member States to ensure coordinated and ambitious action and avoid any delay in the collective progress towards 2030 objectives,” the European Commission says.
The Ontario Securities Commission has filed an application for enforcement proceedings against asset manager Purpose Investments and its CEO Som Seif for allegedly misleading ESG-related sales communications.
The Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth has written to 28 large corporations asking them to submit their climate transition plans for assessment. Milieudefensie says it aims to “recognise frontrunners, encourage those in the middle tier to strengthen their climate policies, and hold laggards accountable”.
The SEC “has no intention of allowing the Climate-Related Disclosure Rules to go into effect,” says commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, after the US regulator tells the Eighth Circuit it will not clarify its position on the rules.
African businesses are likely to be widely affected by new EU corporate disclosure rules on human rights and sustainability, write partner Kate Paterson and associate Sibongile Sibeko at Bowmans in Johannesburg – and may face serious consequences if they fail to act.
The European Parliament has given the go-ahead to delay CSRD reporting by two years to 2028 and to push back the application of CSDDD by one year to July 2028. The proposal passed by 531 to 69, with 17 abstentions.
Companies that integrated ESG teams into complaint responses often engaged more constructively – emphasising long-term reputational and operational benefits over short-term legal risk mitigation, writes Sheri Meyerhoffer, Canada’s former Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise.
As defence budgets expand, financial institutions and fund managers will need to clarify their approach to defence alongside their ESG commitments, writes Rachel Lowe, special regulatory counsel at Proskauer in London.
Paul Weiss is the third law firm to be targeted by President Trump, who accuses it of hiring an “unethical attorney” and discriminating against its own employees through its DEI policies. Trump’s executive order implied more firms may be sanctioned.
“Given the First Amendment’s protection of a university’s freedom to determine its own curriculum, and how to deliver it, the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear,” says the dean of Georgetown Law in response to a letter demanding the elimination of all DEI from the school and its curriculum.
An 11th hour accord was reached in the United Nations-led COP 16 meeting in Rome to set up a fund to protect biodiversity, after negotiations failed to reach a conclusion in Cali, Colombia, in October 2024. But more needs to be done, say NGOs.
Germany joins France, Denmark and Spain in publishing position papers on the forthcoming Omnibus – but the scale of their recommendations varies significantly.
Olof Gill, Commission spokesperson for transparency, said on 3 January in response to ClientEarth’s complaint about amendments to its document transparency laws:
“Transparency is of...
Over the last five years, the incidence of environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related litigation involving retirement funds globally has grown about 100% per year, writes David Geral, partner at Bowmans in Johannesburg. In South Africa, it is no longer a question of if, but when, the first retirement fund will face litigation.
The US government has released regulatory guidance on its clean fuels production credit – as the EU’s rules on sustainable aviation fuel come into effect.
The project assesses the climate policies of 30 jurisdictions with the help of pro bono contributions from 48 law firms and aims to address the “implementation gap” between climate targets and results. The team behind the initiative and lawyers on its advisory board talk to Forward Law Review.
The European Commission has approved the plan and says competition will not be distorted in supporting the steel producer’s transition from coal-based production to a low emission system.
The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that Aloha Petroleum’s insurance policy does not cover for damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions as they are pollutants under the policy wording.
The World Economic Forum has published an open letter signed by over 100 corporate leaders from companies such as AstraZeneca, BBVA, Deloitte, Enel and Siemens AG.
Consultancy urges boards to take a more proactive role in making net zero central to the way their businesses operate – before policymakers and resource scarcity force them to do so.
Court criticises “absurd” legal arguments made by West Cumbria Mining and applies Supreme Court ruling that long term or ‘downstream’ contributions to fossil fuel emissions must be taken into account in environmental impact assessments.
A group of five NGOs has initiated legal proceedings against the European Commission after it rejected their request to review its decision to classify some types of aviation and shipping as eligible for inclusion in the EU sustainable finance taxonomy.
A landmark greenwashing fine against investment company Mercer Superannuation heralds a tighter regulatory framework for ESG financial products in Australia.
A second round of negotiations with member states has succeeded where the first failed: the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive will finally come into force on 26 July 2024.
