The government also introduced transition plan requirements for companies to meet the UK’s 2050 net zero target.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 3 November 2021, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation Trustees Chair, Erkki Liikanen, announced the long-awaited formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The ISSB aims to address to one of the key issues that companies and investors have faced in relation to environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related corporate reporting over recent years — the wide variety of different reporting frameworks and a lack of an authoritative market leader.
Liikanen also announced the consolidation of two of the leading sustainability disclosure organisations into the ISSB by June 2022, and introduced prototype climate and general disclosure requirements (the Prototypes), which the ISSB will consider as the basis of its work.
On 18 October 2021, the UK government 
In a sweeping reversal of Trump-era policies, the US Department of Labor (DOL) has 
On 25 June 2021, the Bundesrat, the legislative chamber of the German Federal States, approved the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltsgesetz). The law now only needs to be signed by the Federal President (Bundespräsident) and published before entering into force. Two weeks before, the coalition parties reached a last-minute compromise to adopt the law ahead of the end of the legislative period in September.
On 3 March 2021, the German government adopted the draft Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains Act (Gesetz über die unternehmerischen Sorgfaltspflichten in Lieferketten), which is intended to oblige large German companies to better fulfil their responsibilities in the supply chain with regard to internationally recognized human rights by implementing core elements of human rights due diligence.
Despite concerns early in 2020 that the pandemic would impact the growth of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, the opposite proved to be the case with political and investor momentum aligning and ESG initiatives surging in the climate of “building back better”. This growth will likely accelerate in 2021, particularly as leading economies and financial centres in the US, China, the EU, and the UK make political and legislative commitments focused on ESG and investors double down on their ESG demands.
On 9 November 2020, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced several initiatives designed to help the UK tackle climate change, while maintaining its position as an “open, attractive international financial centre” after the Brexit transition period ends.
On October 30, 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published