ESG

During Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025, the UAE Sustainable Finance Working Group released its fourth statement, offering a clear signal that the country’s sustainable finance agenda is now moving beyond frameworks and into delivery. The update does not introduce a wholesale reset. Instead, it takes stock of what has already been built and focuses squarely on how those principles are beginning to shape real-world governance, disclosure, and financing decisions.

France’s competition authority has turned its attention to a growing tension at the heart of artificial intelligence. As AI systems scale across Europe, the energy and environmental costs of that expansion are becoming a competition issue in their own right.

Europe’s experiment with cleaning up ESG fund labels is already having a visible effect on the market. New research by the European Securities and Markets Authority shows that its guidelines on the use of ESG and sustainability-related terms in fund names have triggered widespread rebranding, portfolio changes, and a sharper divide between funds willing to adapt and those opting to step back from ESG branding altogether.

The European Parliament has formally approved a revised sustainability reporting and due diligence framework, giving legal and political backing to a deal EU lawmakers struck earlier this month to narrow the scope of the bloc’s corporate sustainability obligations.

As climate shocks intensify and biodiversity loss accelerates, the era of treating sustainability as a long-term aspiration rather than an immediate business imperative is quickly closing. A new white paper from the Council on Sustainability Transformation, Aligning Climate, Nature, and Markets, argues that companies now face a pivotal moment where fragmented climate strategies and short-term market thinking are no longer sufficient to protect value or support growth.

Sustainability is no longer being treated as a reputational add-on or a long-term aspiration. According to HSBC’s Sustainability Pulse Survey 2025, it is increasingly being positioned at the centre of business growth, competitive strategy, and investor decision-making.

The International Sustainability Standards Board released targeted amendments to its IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures standard, responding to practical challenges companies have encountered as they begin putting the new climate rules into practice.