This piece by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance perfectly summarizes 5 key developments with regards to legal ESG and sustainability matters that impact global businesses.
The five main Sustainability and ESG legal updates for 2024 that are discussed in the paper include:
EU and US Sustainability regulation: The continued rollout of the EU’s ambitious, progressive legislative path against the backdrop of continuing regulatory uncertainty in the U.S.;
Anti-ESG efforts: The status of both state and federal anti-ESG efforts, including important court decisions impacting those efforts;
Proxy season results: Proxy season results that demonstrate lower-than-ever support for environmental and social shareholder proposals;
Legal factors and DEI programs: The mix of legal factors impacting corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) programs and goals; and
Multi-stakeholder initiatives: How various climate-based multi-stakeholder initiatives, meant to convene actors to solve complex global issues, are faring under increased legal scrutiny.
With regards to the EU and US Sustainability regulation, it's important to keep the following in mind: while they may initially pertain to large and multinational businesses, this type of legislation tends to have a cascading effect and will trickle down to small- and medium sized companies. For example: if a large business is required to report on its scope 3 or value chain emissions, it will require its suppliers to report their carbon footprint to them. If you're only going to read one section of the paper, we suggest you read the first one!
Source: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (2024, October 6th); Picture by Wix.
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