Central banks report good progress on developing climate stress testing but critics point to weaknesses, including difficulties in modelling for catastrophic shocks to financial stability.

Momentum is building behind European Parliament plans to impose tough capital adequacy requirements on banks backing new fossil fuels projects, say supporters, but resistance is becoming fiercer too. 

The Basel Committee’s paper on climate change might lack ambition by the standards of European initiatives, but it may nudge the rest of the world in the direction of sustainability, and thereby ensure a more level playing field globally.

Amid fears that a wave of greenwashing scandals could break, global regulators have launched a multi-layered strategy to combat mis-selling, spearheaded by dramatic enforcement actions that may yet target individuals.

The background to the Financial Stability Board’s latest climate change initiative is full of potentially profound implications for the global financial system.

Hong Kong is the latest entrant into the voluntary carbon market with a remit to channel much-needed overseas funds into mainland China. Its new regulatory regime needs to overcome a crippling lack of trust in offsets despite their vast growth prospects. 

Interoperability between standards is key if the much-vaunted International Sustainability Standards Board is to prove effective in setting a new regulatory global baseline on disclosures. The new Impact Management Platform may help bridge the gap across jurisdictions.

The credibility of the EU’s landmark green taxonomy has taken a blow after the decision to categorise nuclear and natural gas as “green”. Yet the need for it – and taxonomies like it – is stronger than ever.

The European Commission believes that its new European single access point to standardise data will remove a big barrier to effective use of ESG information. But how far it can achieve this on its own remains in question. 

Regulators are having to respond fast to avert a wide scale greenwashing scandal on the back of the explosive growth in ESG investments.