Teneo reports that the percentage of large companies obtaining external assurance of at least one ESG data point held steady at 62% for this year, as well as last year. KPMG’s survey went a step further, finding that 79% of FTSE 100 companies obtained some sort of external ESG assurance. Cooley’s Michael Mencher notes that for many of these larger companies, this is likely related …
Impacts for US Companies of the Proposed EU Omnibus Package
You’ll want to read the key takeaways in this Cooley Alert by Emma Bichet and Jack Eastwood that follow this intro: “On February 26, 2025, the European Commission (Commission) published a proposed ‘Omnibus package’ to streamline some of the recently adopted European Union (EU) sustainability laws. The laws in scope of the proposed Omnibus package are the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Taxonomy …
CEOs Increasingly Care About Disclosure as They Become More Accountable for Sustainability Strategies
For larger companies, Teneo notes that CEOs are named in sustainability reports to be ultimately responsible for their corporate climate strategies a third of the time – almost double the amount disclosed in 2023 (18%). CEOs signed a supermajority of sustainability report cover letters this year, while other executives (such as chief sustainability officers) signed cover letters about a quarter of the time. Cooley’s Beth …
Climate Disclosure: SEC’s Acting Chair Requests That Eighth Circuit Hold Off on Scheduling Argument
The SEC’s Acting Chair Mark Uyeda released this statement yesterday indicating that the agency has requested that the Eighth Circuit – where the cases challenging the SEC’s 2024 climate disclosure rules are consolidated – not schedule the case for argument until the SEC figures out its position under a new Commission composition. In other words, once incoming SEC Chair Paul Atkins is confirmed by the …
Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules Officially Gone
As Cooley’s Cydney Posner notes in this blog, the SEC recently issued this order to approve a Nasdaq proposal “operative upon filing” rather than wait the traditional 30 days. The Nasdaq proposal removes the relevant board diversity provisions from its rules to reflect “a Federal court’s vacatur of the Commission’s order of August 6, 2021, approving rules related to Board diversity disclosures.” As we wrote …
Sustainability Reports Are Getting Longer – Is That a Good Thing?
As I get older, my motto has been “less is more.” That certainly works for a mindful lifestyle. And it also works for pickleball, as one learns to hit the ball softly and place it cleanly rather than banging away at it to earn points. Although there is a broad range of length for sustainability reports, Teneo reports that, among larger companies, the length of …
Climate and Sustainability Regulations: End-of-Year Review
Penned by Cooley’s Beth Sasfai, Emma Bichet, Michael Mencher and Jack Eastwood, here’s a comprehensive Cooley alert that offers a snapshot of where sustainability-related regulations stand here and abroad at this point in time. Here’s an excerpt about sustainability-focused legislation at the US state level: “As discussed in this September 2024 client alert, climate reporting continues to be a focus of state-level legislation, primarily led …
The ‘ESG’ Acronym Is Less Popular – Does It Matter?
It’s clear that over the past few years, investors have tweaked their voting policies to tone down use of the term “ESG.” And it’s also clear that more and more companies are changing the title of their reports relating to ESG issues to another term, with the most popular one being “Sustainability.” Other notable titles are “Growth and Impact” and “Corporate Social Responsibility.” Not to …
Large Companies Are Now Living in a Double Materiality World: What About Smaller Companies?
With most S&P 500 companies well underway on their CSRD materiality assessments, it’s not surprising that there is a fast-growing number of them that have completed – or are in the process of completing – “double” materiality assessments. Cooley’s Michael Mencher notes that smaller companies are less likely to be on this path if they’re not subject to the CSRD, and their references to a …
Here Come the EU CSRD and IFRS Disclosures
Just as I was starting this job, Cooley put out an awesome alert – with a set of great graphics – noting how the initial disclosures made voluntarily under the CSRD look. The top takeaways include: