Our knowledge resources reflect the breadth and depth of our expertise, our insight into the issues which matter to your business, and our understanding of the markets in which you operate.
In late 2024, the UK Government announced its intention to "crack down on late payments" and outlined a number of measures intended to support this. We look at what the changes mean and why it's more important than ever to take late payment seriously as an issue.
Our New Year briefing, which discusses key developments for financial services firms in 2025, is available as a pdf below.
In this edition, we focus on the infrastructure implications of the new Labour Government's first Budget, including for energy, vehicles, telecoms, housing and major projects. We also look at new initiatives affecting the UK water industry and UK infrastructure investment more generally. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any of the issues discussed below.
In this edition, we look at what a Labour Government could mean for investors in and operators of UK infrastructure. We also provide an update on disclosure rules for corporates, greenwashing rules for funds and a range of other topics, from EV charging, housing and planning through to tax and expiry of PFI/PPP deals. Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss any of the issues discussed below.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its Final Report on Greenwashing (Final Report).
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final guidelines on fund names using ESG or sustainability-related terms (Guidelines). The Guidelines are primarily motivated the ESMA's desire to combat greenwashing and are intended to specify the circumstances where the fund names using ESG or sustainability related terms are unfair, unclear or misleading.
The European Commission has published a Summary Report summarising the responses to its September 2023 consultations on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
On 23 April 2024, the FCA published FG24/3, its finalised non-handbook guidance on the new "anti-greenwashing rule" which was introduced as part of the package of measures establishing the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) regime (which we covered here). The guidance, like the rule itself, will apply from 31 May 2024 – in just over a month's time.
The SEC released the final, highly anticipated climate-related disclosure rules on 6 March 2024 (the Final Rules), following a record number of comments on its proposed rules (released in 2022) and much discussion in the market wondering how far the SEC would go in requiring companies to expand disclosure on emissions and climate-related risks, strategy and expenditure.
I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That's where the fun is.
Our ESG timeline archive sets out past UK and EU legal and regulatory developments relating to ESG and wider sustainable business topics from January 2023 onwards. As with the main timeline, the timeline archive can be filtered according to your business type or the relevant ESG theme.
Read the full PMI’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Report 2023 here.
SDR is widely seen as the UK's answer to the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which is currently under review by the European Commission (in fact, we understand that the Commission has an eye on SDR as part of that review). While narrower in scope than SFDR in some respects, it goes further in others insofar as it provides for a set of formal product labels and imposes minimum standards for labelled products and non-labelled products that have ESG-related terms in their names (although some will already be familiar with the FCA's ‘Guiding Principles’ for authorised ESG and sustainable investment funds, which sets out expectations in terms of design, delivery and disclosure in relation to such funds).
Partner Andy Lewis outlines four key steps for pension schemes on the net zero journey.
In this edition, we highlight the key regulatory and policy developments this Autumn which will impact investors in and operators of energy and infrastructure assets in the UK. Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss any of the issues discussed below.
As many companies take the first steps towards understanding the impact of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") on their organisations, a series of seemingly impactful changes to the regime, and corresponding alarming headlines, have emerged. However, while these changes and headlines might make businesses worry that they will need to pivot their plans and processes as a reaction, in practice, many of those currently preparing for CSRD reporting may find that recent developments do not move the dial significantly and they may well still be on the right path towards CSRD compliance.
On 2 October 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a trends, risks and vulnerabilities (TRV) risk analysis report on ESG names and claims in the EU fund industry (the report). While undoubtedly of interest, it should be noted that this is not the reply to ESMA's 2022 fund names consultation – we are still waiting for that (see below for details).