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MSN: Top asset manager BlackRock said it had resumed stewardship engagements with companies after reviewing new guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Yahoo Finance: Vanguard and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) have hit pause on corporate engagement meetings as they consider the consequences of newly released guidance that redefines how investor activism is regulated, according to published reports from Semafor and Reuters citing unnamed sources.
ESG Dive: A coalition of 17 Democratic state finance officials sent a letter to the acting heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor, combating anti-ESG and anti-DEI claims from their Republican colleagues that were previously sent to the agencies, according to the letter seen by ESG Dive.
Yahoo Finance: JPMorgan Chase published the first installment of a climate-focused advisory series last week that the bank says is designed to help clients understand climate risk and how to factor its financial impacts in asset prices.
ESG Today: HSBC revealed a series of major changes to its climate goals, including a decision to push back its 2030 target to achieve net zero emissions in its operations and supply chain by 20 years, citing the “slower pace of the transition across the real economy,” in areas including climate technology, energy transition, and government policy.
Yahoo Finance: Top mutual fund manager Vanguard has paused meetings with portfolio companies while it reviews the impact of new guidance on investor activism from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Guardian: Support for shareholder proposals aimed at tackling environmental and social risks hit a record low last year, figures show, amid a “worrying retreat” by investors, particularly in the US.
ESG Dive: A federal judge ruled that the Labor Department’s regulation allowing fiduciaries to consider ESG and other collateral factors as a tiebreaker does not violate the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, according to court documents.
ESG News: CFOs are prioritizing sustainability investments that provide clear, short-term financial and environmental benefits. The corporate shift towards sustainability is not just about compliance—it’s about value creation.
Yahoo Finance/Reuters: A federal judge in Texas upheld a rule adopted during Democratic former President Joe Biden's tenure that allows socially conscious investing by employee retirement plans, saying it remains valid even after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that curbed agencies' regulatory power.
ESG Today: Investment giant BlackRock announced the appointment of Louise Kooy-Henckel as EMEA Head of Sustainable and Transition Solutions. Based in London and reporting to Global Head of STS Helen Lees-Jones, responsible for leading the firm’s efforts in sustainable and transition investing in the EMEA region.
MSN: For more than a decade, money manager Garvin Jabusch would show a chart of the planet’s rising temperatures when pitching investment ideas to clients, saying they could help save the planet and still make money. These days, he no longer uses the chart and avoids talking about climate change.
ESG Today: Corporate boards in the U.S. see significant risk to their companies in speaking out on social issues, with less than a fifth of directors believing that they should encourage C-Suite leaders to speak publicly to reinforce company values, according to a new survey released by board education provider Corporate Board Member, GRC solutions provider Diligent, and advisory firm FTI Consulting.
ESG News: The 2025 CSRD Pulse Check Survey by Datamaran reveals a transformative shift in corporate sustainability governance. With ESG oversight moving into the boardroom, companies are embedding sustainability into decision-making structures like never before.
ESG Today: Australia-based financial services group Macquarie announced that it has decided to leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), expanding what had been a primarily North America-focused series of exits from the UN-backed coalition of banks dedicated to advancing global net zero goals through their financing activities.
ETF Stream: BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNP AM) has become the latest European ETF issuer to strip the ESG moniker from its S&P 500 ESG ETF after the EU and UK updated their fund naming guidelines to prevent greenwashing.
Yahoo Finance/Reuters: The acting chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission signaled the regulator may roll back a controversial rule requiring thousands of public companies to disclose the threats their businesses face from risks related to the climate and environment.
ESG Dive: Julian Wentzel has worked at HSBC since November 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. The bank named him interim chief sustainability officer after Herweijer stepped down following a corporate reshuffle that downsized the bank’s executive committee.
ESG Today: Sustainability technology company Clarity AI announced the launch of a new tool aimed at helping fund managers to market products aligned with new sustainable investment naming rules, labels and standards across Europe.
The Guardian: Private equity investment firms have been slammed for their role in the declining healthcare quality and access, as well as the rising costs for patients, in a recently released report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
ESG News: Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) has made a strategic investment in Torch Clean Energy, a U.S.-based solar and storage developer, to expand and evolve its business model.
ESG Today: More than three quarters of Paris-based global bank BNP Paribas’ financing of energy production in 2024 was directed to low carbon energies, according to figures released with the bank’s annual results.
Yahoo Finance: Hedge funds are seizing the rising tide of opposition to European ESG rules as an opportunity to seek exemptions from some environmental, social and governance reporting requirements.
MSN: Norway's wealth fund will continue to raise environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues with the companies it is invested in, including with Big Tech, despite a backlash against ESG, a top fund official said.
BNN Bloomberg: ESG. Three letters that have inspired, confused and angered. They stand for environmental, social and governance, and refer to a strategy where banks and investors weigh factors such as climate change and labor conditions in their financing decisions.
Yahoo Finance: A group of investors representing €6.6 trillion ($6.8 trillion) of assets is calling on European officials not to cave in to mounting pressure to scale back the bloc’s ESG regulations.
ESG Dive: Republican finance officials from 18 states sent a letter to the acting leaders of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor last week, urging the agencies to adopt regulations for asset managers and retirement plan sponsors that prohibit the use of environmental, social and governance factors or diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
Yahoo Finance: Alternative lending giant Goldman Sachs Asset Management is looking to raise as much as $3 billion for a new climate credit strategy, people with knowledge of the matter said.
ESG Dive: 2025 had an eventful start, with implications looming over the year to follow. Banks and financial institutions have fled climate alliances and several major corporations are scaling back diversity, equity and inclusion commitments.
Yahoo Finance: Top mutual fund manager Vanguard removed some of its guidance for U.S. companies to include women and minority directors, a sign of the shifting dynamics of corporate diversity efforts that have come under attack from the new Trump administration.
BNN Bloomberg: ESG fund managers are facing one of the toughest moments in the strategy’s history, as investment clients pull record amounts of money. Funds complying with the European Union’s strictest ESG standards suffered record outflows last quarter, according to fresh data from Morningstar Inc.
ESG Today: Manulife Financial’s global wealth and asset management business Manulife Investment Management announced that it has raised $480 million in commitments at the final close of its Manulife Forest Climate Fund LP, focused on investing in sustainably managed forests, with carbon as the primary value driver.
ESG Dive: Attorneys general from 10 states, led by Texas AG Ken Paxton, sent letters to six major U.S. financial institutions, warning that some of their diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental, social and governance commitments could lead to enforcement if found to violate state or federal law.
ESG Today: Investment giant BlackRock announced the launch of the BlackRock BFM Brown to Green Materials Fund for UK investors, a new fund aimed at targeting overlooked opportunities stemming from the transition to a low carbon economy in the materials sector.
ESG News: The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) have introduced integrated standards to strengthen sustainability reporting and assurance practices.
Yahoo News: Money flowing into global sustainable funds shrank by half in 2024 and in Europe closures of such funds outpaced new launches, as anti-ESG sentiment and subpar returns dulled the appeal of the investment strategy, Morningstar Sustainalytics said.
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