ESG+ Newsletter – 23 October 2025

SEC continues plans to exclude environmental and social shareholder proposals

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, Paul Atkins, announced plans to revise Rule 14a-8, which governs shareholder proposals, citing a potential exclusion of environmental and social submissions. Atkins claimed these issues risk “politicising” shareholder meetings, arguing that these shareholder proposal submissions receive lower support and “involve issues not material to the company’s business” with their inclusion. According to the article, the number and support for environmental and social proposals have already declined as 45% fewer votes were held at S&P 1500 companies; average support for the proposals fell to 14%. Atkins’ key priority is to “make being a public company an attractive proposition for more firms.” In response, sustainability focused investors and representatives have strongly opposed the idea, warning that weakening the shareholder proposal process would undermine decades of progress in corporate accountability, a core tenet of the rationale for allowing shareholder proposals at all.

EU confirms delay to deforestation limited to six-months 

Bloomberg reports, the European Union has agreed to give companies six months of leeway to comply with its new law aimed at curbing deforestation worldwide, rejecting industry calls for a longer delay. The European Commission has proposed this six-month relief from sanctions once the law takes effect at the end of the year, rolling back earlier plans to postpone implementation by a full year. The law targets imports linked to deforestation, including soy, beef, and palm oil, and the commission also plans to simplify regulations to ease obligations on smallholder farmers and companies tracking deforestation in their supply chains. 

The move provides some relief to environmental activists who feared that a longer delay would perpetuate high rates of deforestation. It follows criticism from EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall, who had sought a delay due to an IT system being unable to handle compliance requests but faced pushback from other commission members for proposing too long a postponement. Several EU nations have also criticised the law as overly bureaucratic and punitive for farmers. Both the European Parliament and member states still need to approve the proposed changes before they take effect. 

GHG Protocol launches consultation on updated Scope 2 guidance

While a corporate coalition The GHG Protocol has updated its Scope 2 emissions calculation guidance, with a consultation for feedback open until 19 December, according to ESG Today. The widely used GHG Protocol acts as a framework for companies when calculating emissions and its methodology has been embedded into reporting frameworks such as the ISSB standards and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) which support the CSRD regulation. The proposed changes include updates to requirements from energy contracts and instruments as well as quality criteria contractual instruments must meet to be considered reliable data sources. These updates reflect the increasing complexity of energy systems and the need to ensure emissions calculation guidance keeps pace with the changing energy market. 

Corporate coalition seeks to set carbon accounting measures

A consortium of global companies has launched a coalition seeking to create a standardised framework for carbon accounting across industries and products, underpinned by “reliable, comparable” data. Entitled ‘Carbon Measures’, the group intends to correct inconsistencies in current emissions reporting systems. As governments and investors face mounting pressure to align industrial data systems with climate commitments, current carbon reporting mechanisms which are often fragmented and voluntary, can produce inconsistent results across industries and geographies. ESG News suggests that Carbon Measures is aiming to apply the precision of financial accounting to carbon management. With current efforts to achieve Net Zero under scrutiny from across the political spectrum, the initiative aims to create a transparent, unified carbon reporting system which enables governments, investors, and companies to base climate decisions on verifiable, comparable data. Given the variance in success from coalitions on climate, including those that are company led, the newest approach may need to be received with a level of cautions; however, with the need for action on climate as pronounced as ever, for companies, Carbon Measures may represent the latest efforts to define how emissions intensity is priced and managed across supply chains. For policymakers, it could enable evidence-based rulemaking grounded in comparable carbon data. 

Sustainability reporting software industry slows, consolidates 

Unsurprisingly, Sustainable Views reports that over the last 12 months, with consistent changes to sustainability regulations globally, growth in the reporting solutions markets has slowed. On the back of a significant increase in regulatory reporting requirements globally, hundreds of sustainability reporting vendors had been founded, aiming to solve the internal reporting headaches that the new wave of regulations had caused for companies of all sizes. The article points to the large players in the market building out full-service platforms, making smaller players less attractive to buyers, while private equity backed companies are also expanding market share, driving consolidation. Despite a roll back of regulations in most jurisdictions, accurate ESG and sustainability data remains a highly sought after commodity, whether it be in terms of accessing larger pools of capital, integrating sustainability into strategy or insurance needs relating to climate-related data. As such, demand for software solutions is unlikely to subside fully; however, the challenge for the market now will be reflecting the shifting demand – from regulatory necessity to decision useful data grounded in strategy and performance.  

ICYMI 

• The UK government has released its first comprehensive Clean Energy Jobs Plan, forecasting 400,000 new clean-energy jobs by 2030 as part of its mission to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”, ESG News reports. 
• Airbus and the Cathay Group have announced a joint investment of up to US$70 million to accelerate the development of sustainable aviation fuel production in Asia and globally.
• A new report by the London Stock Exchange Group revealed that financial risk due to climate-related natural disasters is predicted to rise from the current $7.8 trillion in GDP to $28.3 trillion in 2050.