Speaking Sustainability

Key topics in Akin’s July 2024 Sustainability/ESG Policy and Regulatory Update include:

Key topics in Akin’s June 2024 Sustainability/ESG Policy and Regulatory Update include:

Key topics in Akin’s April 2024 Sustainability/ESG Policy and Regulatory Update include:

We are excited to announce the launch of Akin’s Sustainability/Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Policy and Regulatory Update, our inaugural Speaking Sustainability newsletter. This policy and regulatory update provides a summary of key ESG topics and regulatory developments.

On May 15, 2023, a district court judge sitting in the Eastern District of California ruled that California Assembly Bill No. 979 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. As enacted, Assembly Bill No. 979 (“AB 979”), California’s Board Diversity Statute, required public companies with headquarters in the state to include a minimum number of directors from “underrepresented communities” or be subject to fines for violating the statute. AB 979 defines a “director from an underrepresented community” as “an individual who self-identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.”

The High Court of England and Wales (the “High Court”) recently ruled¹ that the U.K. government’s Net Zero Strategy (NZS) breached the detail and reporting requirements of the Climate Change Act 2008 (“CCA 2008”). In this post, Akin provides readers with the background to the NZS and the judicial review process, and then turns to a discussion regarding the content and significance of the proceedings themselves.

As we noted previously, against the backdrop of the European Green Deal and related sustainable finance initiatives, environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are increasingly being incorporated into loan and high-yield documentation. As a result, the concept of a “sustainability coordinator” has emerged in the leveraged finance space, and the European Loan Market Association (LMA) recently published introductory guidance to this relatively new and evolving role (available here).

Almost a year ago, we reflected on the outcome of the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or “COP 26” (see our article on five takeaways from COP 26 here). COP 26 brought 120 world leaders together to address climate change and possible solutions to limit rising temperatures to 1.5^oC from pre-industrial levels. The result: (i) commitments from national leaders to communicate clear plans to achieve this goal the following year (at the 27th meeting of the UNFCCC (COP 27)), and (ii) a commitment by developed countries to “fully deliver” on a pledge of $100 billion annually in climate finance to developing countries most affected by the climate crisis. This pledge was originally promised by 2020; at COP 26, nations vowed to urgently deliver in order to maintain trust between countries.