Going After the Gatekeepers

The sustainability pushback tracked in this newsletter in the past few years often targets companies — their emissions and diversity goals, their ESG reports, and their compliance with reporting mandates. The news we present in this issue aims, instead, at the “gatekeepers” of the sustainability disclosure ecosystem.

Institutions in the crosshairs this week include regulators in the EU, auditing teams at Big Four accounting firms, U.S. states with EPR programs, and standard-setters like ISSB, TCFD, CDP, SBTi. Read on to see how each one responded.

As reported by ESG Dive, the U.S. Ambassador to the EU said that the late-2025 Omnibus Package of reforms to the CSRD — which has been calculated to remove roughly 90% of companies from scope — “failed to fully address U.S. concerns.” The Ambassador indicated that Washington “will take any actions necessary,” with double materiality named among U.S. objections.

Meanwhile, attorneys general from 16 states questioned Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC over their ties to the TCFD, the ISSB, and a net-zero alliance that ceased operating in January 2026, Responsible Investor reports.

The courts are the scene of an ongoing confrontation over packaging. Packaging Dive reports that the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, in a case led by 17 states’ attorneys general, is seeking a preliminary injunction against California’s SB 54. But a federal trial about Oregon’s EPR program, also brought by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, concluded in July, and the judge ruled on August 27  that the program is not unconstitutional, reports Practical ESG. We understand that this is the first U.S. federal trial court decision upholding a state’s EPR packaging statute against constitutional challenges. The outcome gives new weight to a comment from Foley & Lardner: “While Oregon is the bellwether, California is the main event.” We’ll be watching to see if, indeed, California’s EPR program also survives the test. Producers navigating the shifting regulatory map can lean on our EPR support team.

A new analysis released this week showcases what happens when companies proceed despite political headwinds. G&A published Trends in Climate Risk Reporting, which presents fresh, first-of-its-kind research with Ceres of the 154 climate-risk reports filed voluntarily under California’s SB 261. We consider them “voluntary” despite the mandatory nature of the law, because litigation has paused enforcement, and more than 150 companies filed anyway.

Assessment of the initial SB 261 submissions points to a sizeable gap between the business risks exacerbated by climate change, and an estimate of their financial impact. Investors describe the same gap. Responsible Investor’s inaugural Climate Risk and Resilience Survey cites the head of climate at Amundi calling most corporate disclosure on climate-related risk “qualitative at best” and “extremely difficult to benchmark.”

The ISSB — one of the initiatives named in the attorneys general’s letter — has its next five years funded. ESG Today reports that the IFRS Foundation approved five-year operating and financing plans that secure the Board’s resources through 2031 and add a Geneva office in 2027. More than 45 jurisdictions now use the ISSB’s standards, – IFRS S1 and IFRS S2.

Other stories in the issue examine how the disclosure system is evolving: Responsible Investor asks what CDP’s restructuring and SBTi’s revised net-zero standard mean for investors — developments that our CDP response and SBTi target-setting teams know well. ESG Dive reports a UC Berkeley finding that S&P 500 companies that kept their DEI commitments performed as well as or better than peers that rolled them back.

From the G&A team: a new blog on the finalized EU Deforestation Regulation and its first compliance deadline coming up in four months, our Side by Side research with Ropes & Gray, and our issue brief on Responsible AI Due Diligence.

Come talk about all of this with us! Registration is open for Resilient Leadership, our September 16 webinar with S&P Global on what 25 years of sustainability disclosure and the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) teach about what comes next.

This is just the introduction of G&A's Sustainability Highlights newsletter this week. Click here to view the full issue.