ESG

Recently enacted ESG regulations in the EU require significant due diligence and compliance by corporations relating to supply chain matters, deforestation concerns, packaging rules, labeling, and green environmental claims. Jones Day’s Jürgen Beninca, Armelle Sandrin-Deforge, Aidan Lawes, and Global ESG Chair Howard Sidman discuss the EU’s current ESG landscape and what corporations need to know now.

Jurisdictions are requiring large corporations and other entities to report on the environmental risks they face and how their business operations impact the climate. In the second in a series of JONES DAY TALKS® podcasts regarding significant climate disclosure rules, our panel discusses the SEC’s rules announced in early March, the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the State of California’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and Climate-Related Financial Risk Act.

Read the full transcript here.

On Friday, March 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted an administrative stay of the SEC’s final Climate Disclosure Rules, adopted just over a week earlier. All of the challenges to the Rules filed in various courts will be coordinated for review before one court. As written, the Rules will require publicly traded corporations to make significant, new climate-related disclosures. In the first of a series of JONES DAY TALKS® programs examining the new Rules and related topics, Amy Pandit and Olga Gidalevitz discuss key implementation considerations for affected companies.

Read the full transcript here.

Across every industry and every region of the world, corporate compliance programs have increasingly become an integral part of a company’s operations and procedures—and the trend shows no signs of slowing. In the first in a series of Jones Day Talks programs addressing topics related to corporate compliance programs, Jones Day lawyers Henry Klehm, Toni Citera, and Paloma Valor discuss the history of corporate compliance programs, the changing role of the compliance officer, challenges for multinational companies, the importance of technology, and how the compliance function can effectively partner with other parts of the organization to help mitigate risk and achieve business objectives.

The growing carbon credit and related derivatives markets continue to attract the attention of regulatory agencies and law enforcement. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has just announced that it is looking for whistleblowers on potential fraud or manipulation in the carbon credit markets, which is a major enforcement development in the ESG space. Jones Day partners Josh Sterling and Howard Sidman talk about the CFTC’s ramped-up enforcement focus and what it means for participants in the carbon markets.

A JONES DAY TALKS® Encore Presentation.

The European Central Bank’s decision to establish a Climate Change Center and invest in a green bond fund launched by the Bank for International Settlements reflects the growing importance of climate change, and ESG more broadly, in ECB policy. The ECB’s focus on climate change and sustainable finance will only grow as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan continues to advance.

Jones Day’s Linda Hesse and Dr. Michael Fischer discuss the Bank’s aim to reorient capital flows around a more sustainable economy while managing the financial risks brought by climate change.

Efforts by government agencies, companies, and investors to limit the effects of climate change continue to influence activity in the financial markets. Interest in carbon markets, where emission credits are purchased and sold─and also where derivatives on those credits are traded─is growing rapidly, and that trend is expected to continue. Some estimates predict the cost of carbon could eventually double, due to the increased focus on climate issues and the tightening of greenhouse gas standards by global regulators.

The increase in trading volume has attracted the attention of regulators and enforcement agencies. Jones Day partner Josh Sterling explains how the carbon markets work, details the risks participants face, and describes what companies using these markets should do now.

Read the full transcript on the Jones Day website.

The European Central Bank’s decision to establish a Climate Change Center and invest in a green bond fund launched by the Bank for International Settlements reflects the growing importance of climate change, and ESG more broadly, in ECB policy. The ECB’s focus on climate change and sustainable finance will only grow as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan continues to advance.

Jones Day’s Linda Hesse and Dr. Michael Fischer discuss the Bank’s aim to reorient capital flows around a more sustainable economy while managing the financial risks brought by climate change.

Read a full transcript on the Jones Day website.

Jones Day partners Lanier Saperstein and Jay Tambe talk about The New York Department of Financial Services’ recent guidance on Climate Change and Financial Risks, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s annual January letter to corporations, which addressed similar issues.

The conversation focuses on how regulators and asset managers are addressing investors’ concerns relating to climate change, including the risks of potential climate-related damage to physical property, and the economic benefits of moving toward carbon-neutral investment options.

Read the full transcript on the Jones Day website.

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