The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee has backed a two-year delay to the implementation of demanding sector-specific corporate sustainability disclosure requirements for the oil and gas, road transport, food, automobile, agriculture, textiles, energy and mining industries. Due to the heavy compliance burden the requirements will impose on companies, implementation will be delayed until June 2026, providing EU member states also agree. Companies can use the time to focus on broader disclosures that must be included in annual reports starting from next year under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Wealth management firms overseeing €3.2trn in assets say they are still confused by EU sustainability rules, according to a study by behavioural finance fintech firm Oxford Risk. One in twelve wealth managers say they do not know which directives relating to sustainability assessments apply to their businesses, and less than 40% say they are aware of and understand the changes to the declaration of client ESG preferences under MiFID II introduced by the European Securities and Markets Authority in August 2022.

German financial regulator BaFin has given authorisation to Crypto Carbon Credits Exchange, a blockchain-based trading platform for carbon credits developed by technology firm Neutral and German broker DLT Finance. The platform is intended for commodity traders and brokers seeking to trade credits from forest offsets, wind and solar projects as well as carbon capture facilities.

Despite promises by governments at last December's COP28 UN climate conference in December to triple global renewable energy capacity, private and public financing, risk management and higher interest rates remain a significant barrier to meeting the target for 2030 of at least 11,000GW. The International Energy Agency says new capacity of 510 GW added last year represented an increase of 50% over 2022, taking the global total of connected solar, wind and other sustainable energy capacity to 3,700GW. However, the agency says many utility companies, renewable suppliers and grid operators are financially stressed, and government and multilateral lending institution guarantees and project risk-reduction tools are underdeveloped, particularly in emerging countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. High inflation has also upset business and financing models, with slow adaptation of government policies and financing channels to the new macroeconomic environment resulting in equipment manufacturers facing profitability issues, the failure of electricity supply and slower progress to connect generation facilities to power grids.

Investors in Inditex, which owns Zara and other international fast fashion brands, have called on the group to publish a full list of its suppliers and their clothing factories in order to assess supply chain risks including forced labour. H&M and Primark have already begun to publish supplier lists, as do Adidas, Hugo Boss, UK retailer Marks & Spencer, Nike and Puma. Dutch pension fund administrator and asset manager MN and other members of the Platform Living Wage Financials group say extensive data is needed for their own due diligence and to ensure that garment and footwear factory workers receive fair remuneration, but complain they have not seen a significant shift by Inditex despite three years of engagement.

European-domiciled ESG funds suffered a second difficult year in 2023 due to mixed performance and record outflows, with funds geared toward renewable energy and infrastructure investment suffering most, according to Morningstar. The Global X Hydrogen exchange-traded fund was the worst performer, dropping in value by almost 40% during the year. Global X, the ETF business of South Korea's Mirae Asset Global Investments, also had the second and third worst performing funds, with its Solar ETF losing 36% and China Clean Energy ETF dropping 35%.

The value of new sustainable bond issues is likely to remain steady at $950bn this year despite macroeconomic challenges including elevated interest rates and slow economic growth, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service. The rating agency says the predicted value of issuance is up slightly on 2023, even in a time of increased market scrutiny of sustainability performance targets attached to such bonds.

Developing nations will need almost $6trn in climate change and adaptation financing by 2030, according to the president-designate of the COP29 United Nations climate conference, Azerbaijan's environment minister Mukhtar Babayev. He says the Baku government will promote innovative financing mechanisms including public-private partnerships, and that the conference in November will focus on designing a roadmap to triple global renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency rates by 2030. Signatories of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have not yet met previous promises made in 2009 to deliver $100bn in financing a year, but they will have to set new targets for 2025 onward at COP29.

Artificial intelligence is likely to replace or assist in tasks that currently occupy almost three-quarters of bank employees' working time, according to a study by Accenture. The consultancy says banking has greater potential to benefit from generative AI than any other industry, with productivity gains of 30% possible over the next three years. Around 60% of the routine tasks performed by bank tellers could be supported by generative AI, and overall just 27% of bank employees’ time has low potential for being transformed by the technology, the study concludes.

Emily Shepperd, chief operating officer at the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, says financial services industry participants, including the regulator itself, need to ensure employees have greater skills to deal with artificial intelligence. While supervision at the FCA still depends on human decision-making, it could evolve to require only appropriate levels of technical or human validation. Shepperd says guardrails will be required for content targeting consumers and their interaction in financial services, as the rapid spread of deepfake AI content has demonstrated. She also warned that an increased need for IT expertise could exacerbate the problem of gender imbalance in the financial workforce.

Around 52% of Europeans are open to purchasing a refurbished smartphone, with 43% already in possession of one, according to a study by product re-use data specialist Recommerce Barometer unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona. The primary motivations for choosing refurbished phones are affordability, cited by 67% of consumers, as well as environmental concerns, mentioned by 39%. In 2023, the global market for second-hand smartphones expanded to 309 million units, and forecasts suggest the number could rise to 431 million by 2027.

The United Nations Environment Programme's Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 argues that better waste management controls and a shift toward a circular economy could lead to annual savings of $100bn. It is projected that municipal waste will see a 66% increase worldwide by 2050, with associated costs expected to reach $360bn. The authors of the report stress the importance of disconnecting waste generation from economic growth and the promotion of waste avoidance as a strategy to lower costs significantly.