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In what marks its latest move to tackle modern slavery, on 10 February 2023, the UK Government published its new guide for commercial and procurement professionals, entitled “Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains” (the “Guidance”). The Guidance is aimed at helping procurement and commercial practitioners at all levels who are operating in government comply with their statutory obligations in respect of modern slavery. It builds on the UK Government’s “Slavery and human trafficking in supply chains: guidance for businesses” and its modern slavery statement Progress Report.…

Continue Reading Business and Human Rights – the UK Government publishes new guidance on tackling modern slavery in Government Supply Chains

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On 24 January 2023, each of the European Parliament’s trade committee and economic affairs committee reached agreed positions on the financial aspects of the draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (the “Draft Directive”). The agreed positions mark a departure from the European Commission’s and the Council of the European Union’s previous positions on the…

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Regulators are increasingly mandating companies to make environmental disclosures (see here, here and here).

The CDP – a not-for-profit organisation aiming to encourage the disclosure of environmental risk – has measured and scored the effectiveness of companies’ 2022 environmental disclosures in their latest ‘A List’ Report (the “CDP Report”). The CDP Report shows that a mere 12 of the 18,700 companies that responded to the CDP’s questionnaires scored a ‘triple A’ for their environmental disclosures, whilst over 29,500 companies scored an ‘F’ after failing to provide any data to the CDP.

According to the CDP, over 680 investors with combined assets of US $130 trillion, and over 280 large purchasers with US $6.4 trillion in buying power requested over 48,000 companies to disclose environmental information through the CDP in 2022. …

Continue Reading Mandatory Disclosure: companies’ environmental disclosures analysed in the CDP’s 2022 ‘A List’ Report

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On December 23, 2022, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (“FAR Council”) extended its 60-day comment period an additional 30 days from January 13 to February 13, 2023, for its proposed rule on Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk. (We previously provided an in-depth analysis on the proposed rule.)

For more information…

Governance

On 30 November 2022, the Council of the European Union (the “Council”) adopted its negotiating position on the European Commission’s proposal for a corporate sustainability and due diligence directive (the “Draft Directive”). As discussed in our previous blog posts (which you can read here and here), the proposed Draft Directive set out an EU standard for human rights and environmental due diligence (“HREDD”) and required EU member states to introduce legislation making in-scope companies responsible for violations of HREDD standards across their entire value chain. This meant that companies would have to conduct HREDD on their suppliers and clients, and could be held liable for how their products and services are used and disposed of. Although the fundamental principles of the proposed Directive remain intact, the Council’s suggested amendments to the Draft Directive do include some important changes.…

Continue Reading Human Rights and the Environment – EU Council responds to the draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

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On 23 November 2022, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (“EFRAG“) submitted the first set of draft EU Sustainability Reporting Standards (“ESRS“) to the European Commission.

As discussed in our previous blog post (which you can read here), the draft ESRS – which in-scope entities will be required to report against under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD“) – were released on 29 April 2022 and made available for public consultation until 8 August 2022. Following the end of the public consultation, EFRAG amended the ESRS and approved updated versions on 16 November 2022. EFRAG subsequently submitted the updated draft ESRS to the European Commission.

The CSRD was adopted by the Council of the European Union on 28 November 2022, meaning the requirement to report against the ESRS will apply in stages from 2024, with first submissions due in 2025 (for more information on the CSRD, read our legal update here).…

Continue Reading The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group submits draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards to the European Commission

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During last year’s COP26, the UK Government announced that it would mandate the disclosure of listed companies’ and financial institutions’ net zero transition plan, and that it would form a taskforce to assist private sector actors in doing so.

Coinciding with the start of COP27, the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce (“TPT”) – a taskforce with a mandate from His Majesty’s Treasury to help enable private sector actors in the UK create robust climate transition plans to fulfil their net zero commitments – on 8 November 2022, published, for consultation, its new Disclosure Framework for companies to disclose their climate transition plans.

Importantly, the Disclosure Framework draws on existing and emerging disclosure regimes, such as the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (“TCFD”) Recommendations and the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (“ISSB”) Sustainability Disclosure Standards (for more information on the TCFD and ISSB regimes, read our previous blog posts here, here, here and here).

The TPT’s publication of its Disclosure Framework recommendations is supplemented by the TPT’s Implementation Guidance. The Implementation Guidance sets out practical steps to help private sector actors develop climate transition plans, as well as information on when, where and how to disclose such plans.…

Continue Reading Climate Disclosure: the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce launches ‘gold standard’ for climate transition plans

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The UK’s financial regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA“) – on 25 October 2022, published its “Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (“SDR“) and investments labels” Consultation Paper (CP 22/20) (the “Consultation Paper“).

This follows the FCA’s July 2021 “Dear AFM Chair” letter regarding improving the quality and clarity of authorised…

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To help companies improve their reporting on net zero commitments, the FRC Lab have published its Net zero disclosures report (“the Report”), which provides companies with practical tips and questions to consider when preparing disclosures in their financial reports on net zero and other Greenhouse Gas (“GHG“) reduction commitments.…

Continue Reading The UK’s Financial Reporting Council publishes guidance to assist companies reporting on their net zero commitments

Social

The expectation for businesses to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence (“HREDD“) is increasingly becoming mandated by legislators across the globe.  As discussed in our earlier blog post, mandatory HREDD obligations are already in-place across Europe, including in France, Germany and Norway, whilst the EU is expected to adopt the draft Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive – which sets out a proposed mandatory HREDD standard – in 2023. Although the UK Government has announced its intention to introduce a new Modern Slavery Bill (see pages 83 to 84 of the Queen’s Speech briefing, published on 10 May 2022), the UK Government has not indicated that it intends to follow Europe’s lead in introducing a UK-level mandatory HREDD law.

As a result, in September 2022, 47 companies, investors, business associations and initiatives operating in the UK published a joint statement calling on the UK Government to “introduce a new legal requirement for companies and investors to carry out human rights and environmental due diligence“. This follows calls, in August 2022, from a group of 39 investors for the UK Government to bring forward a ‘Business, Human Rights and Environment Act’ to mandate all companies operating in the UK to conduct HREDD.…

Continue Reading Business and Human rights: Investors call on the UK Government to mandate human rights and environmental due diligence