The European Commission announced the adoption of a series of measures aimed at simplifying the application of the EU Taxonomy, and reducing the administrative burden on companies, including dramatically reducing the number of datapoints in the taxonomy’s reporting templates, and exempting companies from assessing taxonomy alignment for non-material activities. The simplification measures come amidst a major push by the EU Commission to…
This week in ESG news: European Commission proposes cutting emissions 90% by 2040, includes role for carbon credits in target; Microsoft signs new 1 million ton+ carbon removal deal; companies, investors campaign to keep EU sustainable reporting rules intact; JPMorgan tokenizes carbon credits; Nestlé scales program to boost cocoa supply chain sustainability; EU Commission confirms anti-greenwashing law has not been…
M&G has announced Nadia Nikolova (pictured) as the new CEO of its emerging markets impact division responsAbility. Nikolova is replacing Rochus Mommartz who is retiring after 22 years at responsAbility having joined when it was founded in 2003. See also: M&G hires Jockers for ESG focus in real estate business responsAbility is part of M&G’s €90bn private markets business investing in…
Direct air capture (DAC) technology company Phlair and project developer Carbon Removal, via its subsidiary NorDAC Kollsnes AS, announced a new agreement to build Europe’s first large-scale DAC carbon removal and geological storage project in Øygarden, Norway. The plant will be located next to the Northern Lights carbon transportation and storage project in Norway, with the project initially targeting 60,000…
M&G’s impact investing unit responsAbility Investments announced today the appointment of Nadia Nikolova as its new Chief Executive Officer, taking over the role in September 2025 from outgoing CEO Rochus Mommartz, who has announced plans to retire at the end of the year. Founded in 2003, Zurich-based responsAbility is an impact asset manager specializing in private market investments, with a focus on…
The IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) announced today the publication of new exposure drafts, focused on proposed amendments to its sector-focused SASB sustainability reporting standards. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) was founded in 2011 with a mission to establish industry-specific ESG disclosure standards for companies, designed to enable investors to assess the materiality of reported sustainability information,…
JPMorgan announced that its blockchain business unit, Kinexys, is currently developing and testing a new blockchain application to tokenize global carbon credits, in a bid to resolve key standardization and transparency challenges holding back the voluntary carbon market (VCM). The company said that it is partnering with S&P Global Commodity Insights, EcoRegistry and the International Carbon Registry (ICR) to test…
UBS announced that the SDG Outcomes Fund, developed by its philanthropy-focused platform UBS Optimus Foundation and impact specialist Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP) has raised $100 million in commitments at its final close, reaching the initial fundraising target for the blended finance fund. The final close of the fund included an $18 million anchor commitment from the European Investment Bank (EIB),…
The European Commission revealed that it has allowed additional time for the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to complete its work on the revision of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), extending the deadline for EFRAG’s technical advice to November 30, from the prior October 31 deadline. EFRAG, which had previously expressed concerns that the initial tight timeline could…