This week in ESG
Here’s what’s been making the headlines in the world of sustainability and responsible investing this fortnight, and what advisers should know:
Key highlights for advisers
- US EPA scraps landmark emissions ruling – the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is set to repeal a major scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. The move would bring existing emission requirements across vehicles, power plants, and other industrial sources into question. The EPA is already facing multiple lawsuits from pro-health and environmental groups.
- Microsoft hits 100% renewable electricity milestone – the tech giant announced it had met its 2025 target to power all electricity consumption by renewable energy. The company now runs one of the largest clean energy operations in the world, spanning 26 countries.
- Crédit Agricole fined for ignoring climate risk – the European Central Bank has fined the banking group over €7.5m for failing to assess the materiality of the climate-related and environmental risks it faces.
- Companies continue to talk about sustainability – a new global business survey by Workiva found only 3% of the firms surveyed either paused or reduced their sustainability communications over the past year. In fact, 47% increased transparency around their environmental progress.
- Climate risk pressures sovereign credit ratings – many small countries prone to extreme weather could face downgrades to their sovereign debt as credit rating agencies assess the impact of rising costs and climbing debt levels – despite often being some of the lowest polluters globally.
Spotlight - have China’s emissions peaked?
Source: Bloomberg; Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Carbon Brief
Why this matters
The chart above shows China's total annual CO2 emissions.
China remains the world’s largest polluter, accounting for a staggering 29% of global emissions in 2024. However, new research from Carbon Brief shows emissions growth has slowed in recent years, with a small year-on-year decline recorded in 2025. Here 2022 is being treated as an anomaly due to the Covid restrictions in place at the time.
The data shows CO2 emissions fell year-on-year in almost all major economic sectors in 2025, including transport, power, and building materials. At the same time, solar power output increased by 43% year-on-year, wind power increased by 14% and nuclear grew by 8%.
It may be too soon to judge China on whether its total emissions have peaked. However, this shift could represent an important milestone for the country. With Xi Jinping maintaining public commitments to climate targets and clean energy capacity expanding at pace, the trajectory is becoming more encouraging, even though substantial reductions are still required to align with global climate goals.
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