On April 22, 2024, the federal government issued a rule “amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)” to “implement a requirement for agencies to procure sustainable products and services to the maximum extent...more
It has been reported that the European Central Bank will be imposing fines on as many as four lenders due to “not meeting deadlines set by the ECB for assessing their exposure to climate risks.” Specifically, ECB regulations...more
A coalition of Republican state attorneys-general representing nineteen states (Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South...more
Today, the Treasury Department and other federal agencies (including the Agriculture Department and Energy Department) issued a joint statement identifying seven principles that should be applied in the voluntary carbon...more
On May 22, 2024, Judge O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) ordered that the plaintiffs claiming that investment managers breached their fiduciary duty due to their ESG-focused investing be certified as a class for purposes of the...more
5/28/2024
/ Breach of Duty ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fund Managers ,
Investment ,
Investment Management ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Retirement Plan
On Monday, May 21, 2024, Congressman Nadler (D-NY) and Congressman Correa (D-CA), the ranking Democratic members on the House Judiciary Committee and relevant subcommittee, sent a letter to the Attorney General and Chief...more
Last week, the Attorney General of Michigan announced that her office “will begin seeking proposals from attorneys and law firms . . . to pursue litigation related to the climate change impacts caused by the fossil fuel...more
The UK government, having originally announced that it would decide whether to impose mandatory climate disclosures on companies by July 2024, has now postponed that decision until the first quarter of 2025....more
With environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles garnering increased attention in corporate circles in recent years, there has been an accompanying rise in demand for analytical products that evaluate companies’...more
5/21/2024
/ Asset Management ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investors ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Retail Investors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
Stakeholder Engagement
This week, “BNP Paribas SA, the European Union's biggest bank” stated that it “is no longer participating in conventional bond issuance for” “oil and gas producers.” In essence, BNP Paribas has announced that it will cease...more
This week, Governor DeSantis of Florida signed into law certain legislation that expressly seeks to minimize ongoing efforts to combat climate change, and indeed erects various roadblocks to actions designed to promote...more
On May 10, 2024, the Fifth Circuit rejected an attempt by the States of Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Utah to invalidate an SEC rule “requiring funds to disclose their votes on environmental, social, and governance...more
On May 13, 2024, a group of 21 Democratic Congressmen--4 Senators and 16 Representatives, as well as the D.C. Delegate--submitted a letter to SEC Chairman Gensler, urging him “to finalize an anti-greenwashing rule you...more
On April 22, 2024, the federal government issued a rule “amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)” to “implement a requirement for agencies to procure sustainable products and services to the maximum extent...more
Earlier this week, a state court judge in Oklahoma issued a temporary restraining order that blocks--for now--enforcement of an Oklahoma law that deprives companies deemed to boycott the fossil fuel industry of the ability to...more
The Oklahoma State Treasurer added yet another bank to its blacklist of companies that are barred from doing business with the State of Oklahoma due to a “boycott [of] the oil-and-gas industry.” According to a 2022 law,...more
As recently reported by Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, “the number of climate-related cases filed globally each year has increased from a handful in the early 2000s to a few hundred annually since...more
Earlier this week, the Eighth Circuit issued an order enabling 19 Democratic Attorneys-General--representing the District of Columbia and eighteen states (AZ, CO, CT, DE, HA, IL, MD, MA, MI, MN, NV, NM, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA,...more
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit issued an order dismissing the Juliana litigation. In this case, the plaintiffs had asserted that the government had knowingly violated their due process rights by encouraging and permitting the...more
Yesterday, the Second Circuit upheld the district court's award of summary judgment in favor of the defendant concerning certain class actions claims that “the phrase ‘All Natural’ that appeared on the labels of [Defendant's]...more
The European Commission and EU consumer authorities have sent letters to 20 airlines “identifying several types of potentially misleading green claims,” focusing on “claims made by airlines that the CO2 emissions caused by a...more
On March 6, 2024, the SEC issued its long-awaited climate disclosure rule, which mandates the disclosure of climate-related risks and Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, among other things. The rule was immediately...more
Last week, the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority issued guidance on its proposed anti-greenwashing rule, which will come into effect at the end of May 2024. (Greenwashing is when a product, service, or firm is...more
The European Parliament has now approved the “Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive,” which will apply to both EU companies and to non-EU companies doing business in the European Union. (There is a phased...more
Recently, the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the American subsidiaries of JBS Group, the Brazilian-based beef producer, asserting that JBS had “violat[ed] New York's consumer protection statutes” through...more