Finance
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The SEC has requested to delay climate rule arguments. What’s next?
Sustainable investing experts are not surprised by the delay and say it is expected to have minimal immediate impact.
By Lamar Johnson • Feb. 13, 2025 -
New York loans Revel $60M to expand NYC public EV charging
NY Green Bank's president said the financial arrangement is “an important and replicable precedent” to accelerate electric vehicle charging.
By Robert Walton • Feb. 13, 2025 -
Explore the Trendline➔
TarikVision via Getty ImagesTrendlineTop 5 stories from ESG Dive
This year has shaped up to be a formative one for ESG, both on the regulatory and financial front, with the SEC’s climate disclosure rule and the battle over shareholder rights and proposal approvals.
By ESG Dive staff -
Retrieved from OCC.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency latest to exit central bank climate coalition
The OCC’s acting comptroller said participation in the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System does not fall within the agency’s “statutory mandate.”
By Zoya Mirza • Feb. 12, 2025 -
Acting SEC chair asks court not to schedule climate rule arguments
“The Commission’s briefs previously submitted in the cases consolidated in the Eighth Circuit do not reflect my views,” Acting Chair Mark Uyeda said.
By Lamar Johnson • Feb. 11, 2025 -
HSBC taps global banking executive for chief sustainability officer role
Julian Wentzel — previously HSBC’s head of global banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey — becomes sustainability chief after serving as interim CSO.
By Zoya Mirza • Feb. 11, 2025 -
EPA funding freeze endangers $7B Solar For All program
“We don't know how much money got out the door, we don't know how much money the administration can seek to claw back,” said Vote Solar’s executive director, Sachu Constantine.
By Diana DiGangi • Feb. 11, 2025 -
Google contracts over $100M in carbon removal credits in 2024
“We’re encouraged by our progress, but the journey to catalyze carbon removal is just beginning,” Google Carbon Credits and Removals Lead Randy Spock said.
By Lamar Johnson • Feb. 7, 2025 -
Clean energy stakeholders descend on Capitol to lobby for IRA tax credits
Groups participating in the lobbying blitz in Washington, D.C. represent over 2,000 companies and hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
By Diana DiGangi • Feb. 6, 2025 -
New York reintroduces bills seeking climate risk, emissions disclosures
Senate Bills 3456 and 3697, if approved, would mandate climate-related disclosures from large companies operating in the Empire State as early as 2027.
By Zoya Mirza • Feb. 6, 2025 -
ESG encountering widening ‘gulf’ between US and European investors: Morningstar
“We are definitely seeing a widening gap … between asset manager support for environmental and social-related voting initiatives," Morningstar Sustainalytics’ director of investment stewardship research said.
By Lamar Johnson • Feb. 5, 2025 -
Companies reduce philanthropy aimed at boosting racial, gender equality
Change in “corporate citizenship” initiatives coincide with a federal backlash against efforts to promote sustainability in the private and public sectors.
By Jim Tyson • Feb. 5, 2025 -
Vanguard dilutes diversity guidelines for US board proxy voting
The updated policies exclude a recommendation that boards “at a minimum, represent diversity of personal characteristics, inclusive of at least diversity in gender, race and ethnicity.”
By Lamar Johnson • Feb. 4, 2025 -
Republican officials urge SEC, DOL to adopt anti-ESG, DEI rules
The letter signed by 22 Republican state finance officials cited American Airlines’ recent legal loss as evidence that fiduciaries are breaching their duty to loyalty with regards to ESG and DEI.
By Lamar Johnson • Feb. 3, 2025 -
Treasury Department exits global regulatory climate coalition
The Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office withdrew from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System last week to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
By Zoya Mirza • Feb. 3, 2025 -
Banks improving clean energy finance ratios, still well-short of net-zero pace: report
“The ratio isn’t evolving at the pace needed to hit the 4:1 level required this decade under commonly referenced scenarios to limit climate change to 1.5 [degrees Celsius],” according to BloombergNEF.
By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 31, 2025 -
Developments driving the ESG, sustainability industry in 2025
The change in U.S. presidential leadership has triggered drawbacks of ESG and DEI commitments, as the private sector braces for a change in political direction.
By Zoya Mirza , Lamar Johnson • Jan. 31, 2025 -
Deep Dive
Why climate alliance memberships are no longer ‘en vogue’ for Wall Street
Financial institutions have increasingly departed groups like the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and Climate Action 100+, but experts say banks are still committed to sustainability.
By Zoya Mirza • Jan. 30, 2025 -
Rockefeller grant strengthens push for nature-related disclosures
The Rockefeller Foundation announced it will give the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures $500,000 to scale its voluntary adoption efforts, as the organization rolls out additional sector guidelines.
By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 30, 2025 -
PPA prices continue to rise amid Trump policy uncertainty: LevelTen Energy
But energy buyers and sellers have grown more adaptable in the face of an unstable policy landscape, LevelTen Energy said.
By Emma Penrod • Jan. 30, 2025 -
Trump pauses renewable projects leasing on federal lands, waters
The Department of the Interior issued the order on Donald Trump’s first day in office, though just a small portion of the nation’s renewable energy capacity is located on government land.
By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 29, 2025 -
Triumvirate Environmental confirms private equity investment
Berkshire Partners’ investment values the Massachusetts-based environmental services company at $1.8 billion and marks the latest example of growing interest in the sector.
By Cole Rosengren • Updated Feb. 4, 2025 -
BlackRock launches brown to green material fund to back low-carbon transition
The materials sector-focused fund will be the first the firm launches under the United Kingdom’s “Sustainability Improvers” label.
By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 28, 2025 -
State AGs threaten financial institutions over ESG, DEI policies
Bank of America, BlackRock, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were all asked about how they plan to implement or have implemented hiring or supplier diversity goals.
By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 27, 2025 -
Northern Trust AM exits Climate Action 100+, Net-Zero Asset Managers initiative
The departure is the latest in Wall Street’s continued exodus from climate-focused alliances and groups as sector scrutiny heats up under the new Trump administration.
By Zoya Mirza • Jan. 24, 2025 -
Trump freezes Inflation Reduction Act funding
The White House later issued a memo to clarify the funding pause, specifying that it pertains only to aspects of the law mentioned in Section 2 of the executive order.
By Kate Magill • Jan. 24, 2025