Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday the publication of a new legal opinion, declaring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks and programs included in more than 100 state laws unconstitutional. While focusing primarily on DEI programs in schools and state and local governments, in a statement announcing the release of the new 74-page opinion, Paxton, who is currently…

Mexico’s Ministry of Finance and Public Credit announced the issuance of a series of sustainable bonds, raising €4.75 billion aimed at financing projects aligned with a broad range of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The transaction, which included 5-year (€2 billion), 10-year (€1.75 billion) and 14-year (€1 billion) sustainable benchmark notes marks the largest ESG-labelled bond issuance by a…

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced plans to “sledgehammer” the 8(a) Program, a federal contracting program aimed at assisting socially and economically disadvantaged small business owners, calling it “the oldest DEI program in the federal government.” Established in 1978, the 8(a) program is run by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency, to provide eligible small businesses…

Global climate consultancy the Carbon Trust announced the appointment of Wei Mei Hum as its new Head of Asia, with responsibility for leading the firm’s Singapore, and expanding its impact across key markets in the region, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Launched in 2001, the Carbon Trust offers services and expertise aimed at helping clients across a range…

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and carbon accounting coalition Carbon Measures announced today the selection of an initial cohort of experts, aimed at supporting an initiative to develop a new global ledger-based carbon emissions accounting system, capable of tracking product-level emissions across the value chain. The selection of the panel follows the launch of Carbon Measures in October 2025,…

The European Central Bank (ECB) revealed a series of new priority areas to advance its work on embedding climate and nature-related risks into its activities, including plans to intensity its work in areas including assessing banks’ green economy transition plans and on analyzing their capabilities to address risks related to the growing physical impacts of climate change. The new priorities…

Global mining and metals company Rio Tinto announced the launch of a new strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which will include providing AWS with its new low-carbon, low-water “Nuton” copper, and Rio Tinto using AWS technology to advance its Nuton production. Rio’s Nuton is a bio-heap leaching technology that enables copper to be produced from resources that were…