Sustainable Views

Monthly News and Views Asia: The latest sustainability policy and regulatory news from Asia Including: - A draft of the Thai Climate Act - Mandatory climate disclosures introduced by Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia - And collaboration on carbon credits across the Johor-Singapore Economic Zone Read more below. #Asiasustainability #sustainability #AsiaESG https://lnkd.in/eb5xm4b5

Today's Sustainable Views newsletter where I discuss those latest leaks around the #EU #omnibus on #CSRD and #CSDDD. 🤷♀️ The European Commission's apparent myopic focus on weakening sustainability reporting as the best way of boosting competitiveness was described to me this morning as variously "odd" and "insane". 🇪🇺 The Commission insists “this first omnibus proposal is a key pillar in our mission to build a more agile and competitive EU” with the aim to "simplify our legislative framework without compromising on our core values of sustainability and social fairness, ensuring Europe remains a powerhouse of innovation and opportunity on the global stage”. 💡 Yet, as Heather Grabbe (from Bruegel - Improving economic policy) says, the Draghi competitiveness report does not single out sustainability reporting as the be-all and end-all of boosting the EU economy. Plus, investors have made clear the need for clear and coherent reporting based on double materiality to understand risk. 📣 Sustainability reporting is “a comparative advantage for EU businesses". https://lnkd.in/eAdwnwk9

This week investors are making the case for diversity programmes as a growing number of companies announces reviews or cutbacks to their DEI initiatives. Some investors are attempting to push back, with a coalition of shareholders writing to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in January asking him for the economic justification for the company slashing some of its DEI programmes. They say that the underlying economic arguments for a diverse workforce have not changed

The EU Platform on Sustainable Finance has published recommendations for how it believes the European Commission can “simplify significantly reporting processes, while maintaining the taxonomy’s ambition and ensuring that it remains a vital tool in directing capital to finance the transition to a sustainable future”. The recommendations will feed into the discussions taking place in Brussels in the coming days between the commission, business, and industry groups and non-profits. Read more below. #CSDDD #EUregulation #omnibus https://lnkd.in/ePNdM775

My latest piece in Sustainable Views on the growing attacks on the #CSRD, #CSDDD and #EU #taxonomy. 🇪🇺 The European Commission will hold a meeting on February 6 to discuss plans for its #omnibus proposal. The leaked list of attendees appears to be largely focused on industry and business groups. 💶 Sustainable finance groups, supported by more than 200 investors and other financial sector actors representing €6.6trn in assets under management, have published a statement urging the commission to “preserve the integrity and ambition” of the EU’s sustainable finance framework. ❗ Those supportive of the EU sustainability framework suggest ideology is driving the call for a reopening of the rules ❓ What are the real costs of sustainability reporting for business? “Implementing the CSRD has been challenging but needs to be put into perspective. The cost of implementation has been materially less than for the implementation of other regulations — a recent example being the GDPR — with costs for an organisation like ours coming in close to a third less,” says Signify's Mario Giordano. ❓ Will slashing EU reporting rules really help European companies? “Even if we throw ethical considerations overboard we will not win. The US will slash more; China will mobilise finance more quickly,” says MEP Lara Wolters. ❓ Where will it all end? “What was initially announced seemed like targeted surgery. It then moved into open heart surgery. But I fear it might move into butchery because some conservative stakeholders are smelling blood and they say something must be sacrificed.” WWF European Policy Office's Sebastien Godinot https://lnkd.in/e837_M8D

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer set out his vision for the UK to become an AI "superpower" last month, with the government estimating that the sector has the potential to deliver an average of £47bn to the UK each year over a decade. But "achieving this status comes with significant energy and environmental challenges that will need addressing, particularly in the realm of data centre operations," write Chris Morris and James Wood-Robertson partners at law firm Shoosmiths in Sustainable Views today. "While data centres are integral to our digital world, the vast amounts of electricity they consume, often generated from fossil fuels, lead to significant carbon dioxide emissions. Cooling systems in data centres also often use large volumes of energy and water, contributing to their environmental footprint," they write. Read more below. #AI #datacentres #UKAI https://lnkd.in/eCWS4GCJ

"The recent proposal by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to explore linking the country’s Emissions Trading Scheme with the EU’s system signals a pragmatic step towards greater co-operation on climate policy" writes Misato Sato is assistant professorial research fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment. "The EU ETS has been a cornerstone policy, providing important incentives for emissions reductions, but the increasing geopolitical fragmentation amplifies risks such as carbon leakage," she adds. Read more below. #CBAM #ETS #UKEUCBAM https://lnkd.in/ejmR3uH8

During a particularly chaotic week in US government, Democrat-led states are quietly continuing their climate work: New York senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal introduced a corporate climate reporting bill to the state senate on Monday. These state level laws, including California's, *seem* safe from the federal government's interference - but "the way we’ve been trained to read legal process and precedent has not been holding the same way it used to", an ex-SEC lawyer told me. Sustainable Views

My take on the European Commission's "competitiveness compass". 💪 "The best response to the policies implemented in the US is to beef up the EU green agenda, not to weaken it. The Green Deal should be seen as an asset, not a burden, for European industries. Rather than follow Trump’s way, we should design our own path." ☀️ "The key to competitiveness is access to cheap and abundant energy. We don’t have fossil fuels in Europe, and so we cannot ‘drill, baby, drill’. But we can produce renewables and make energy prices go down.”  What's everybody else thinking? https://lnkd.in/ezGEauKb

The Rights of Nature movement has been influential in law and civil society, and businesses putting nature on their board say it could also change the private sector. Companies 'onboarding nature', by making nature a shareholder, director or even CEO, alter the legal structure of the company. By doing so they commit to recognising our dependencies on nature and acting in a way that protects and restores nature when making business decisions. “We have to think differently and find different ways of running business," says Nina Hajikhanian, general manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at outdoor apparel brand Patagonia. This means redefining business growth, to embed nature says director of governance at the Earth Law Center, Alexandra Pimor 🌻🌍. “Growth in terms of continuous economic wealth for a particular company would be to the detriment of the planet. That is not real growth, that is more like the growth of a gangrene, rather than the growth of something naturally beneficial,” she says. Insight also from Simeon Rose at Faith In Nature, Nynke Geus - van den Broek 🌱🌈 at BLYDE BENELUX | certified B Corp™ and Kate Chan at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Florence Jones reports. https://lnkd.in/e8MupJh4