Category: Updates

Home Updates
Post

Council signs off simplification of sustainability reporting and due diligence

The European Council has approved the simplification of the sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements for companies. This legislation simplifies the directives on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and corporate sustainability due diligence (CS3D) by reducing the reporting burden and limiting the trickle-down effect of obligations on smaller companies.

Post

Sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater

Researchers at the University of Surrey in the UK have discovered that keeping water inside a key battery material dramatically boosts performance. The batteries then store nearly twice as much charge, charge faster and remain stable for hundreds of cycles. This makes them among the top-performing sodium batteries ever.

Post

University of Graz develops computation method for climate extremes

How much heat, flooding, drought and storms increase as a result of human-induced climate change can be calculated, according to a study by Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz. It can compute all relevant hazard metrics in any region worldwide. The researchers found that anthropogenic climate change has caused a tenfold increase in extreme heat in recent decades.

Post

Spain’s Repsol installs its second 100MW electrolyser

Repsol is making further progress in its industrial decarbonisation strategy through renewable hydrogen and will install its second large-scale electrolyser at its Petronor refinery in Muskiz close to Bilbao in Northern Spain. Last September, the company approved the construction in Cartagena of its first large electrolyser, with a capacity of 100 megawatts (MW).

Post

More decisive reform needed to secure UK leadership in finance

TheCityUK and PwC UK have published a report setting out the actions needed for the UK to lead in the next era of global finance. The report, ‘No time to lose: Reasserting UK leadership in financial and related professional services’, draws on engagement with over 300 senior leaders across industry, government, regulators and academia – and is  underpinned by new economic modelling and international benchmarking from PwC.

Post

Millions in UK water company fines for waterway restoration

Water companies who broke environmental rules are now funding the recovery of England’s waterways, as local communities and environmental groups are being put in the driving seat to clean up rivers, lakes and seas. The UK Government is reinvesting £29m from water company fines into local projects which clean up the environment – funding over 100 projects which will improve 450km of rivers, restore 650 acres of natural habitats and plant 100,000 new trees.

Post

£43m boost for UK green aviation to drive growth

The investment comes as the UK Government drives forward plans for expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports. With the production of low-carbon fuels alone expected to add up to £5bn to the economy by 2050, the funding will drive millions of pounds of private investment into the aviation sector, says the Government.

Post

UN: global economy holding up but clouded by uncertainty

The global economy has shown resilience, but the outlook remains clouded by trade tensions, fiscal strains and persistent uncertainty, according to a United Nations report. Growth is expected to slow to 2.7% in 2026, below 2025 levels and the pre-pandemic average, as subdued investment and structural headwinds weigh on momentum despite easing inflation and monetary loosening.

Post

World Bank: worldwide economy steady but developing economies struggling

The global economy is proving more resilient than anticipated despite persistent trade tensions and policy uncertainty, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report. Global growth is projected to remain broadly steady over the next two years, easing to 2.6% in 2026 before rising to 2.7% in 2027, an upward revision from the June forecast.

Post

Oliver Wyman & Uni of California: Industry 5.0 is a driver of GDP

Industry 5.0 places human creativity and welfare, sustainability, and resilient systems at the centre of business and government strategies for the benefit of economies, societies and the planet. The combination of these elements can add $1tr annually to global GDP in addition to technology-driven profits, says 'The Industry 5.0 Index', created by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the University of California, Berkeley.

Post

Growth unlocked through enhanced sustainability data

The UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association’s (UKSIF’s) institutional investor members were surveyed in November 2025 to gauge the investment community’s experience and use of sustainability data from investee companies and wider assets. Sustainability data – specifically the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information that companies and assets disclose – is increasingly crucial for financial markets. 

Post

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) goes live on 1 January 2026

Those importing more than 50 tonnes of cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertiliser, as well as all importers of electricity or hydrogen, need to have submitted an application for a CBAM account number or a CBAM application
reference number under the EU CBAM (or received an authorisation at the time of import). Importers who have not already submitted applications need to act fast now to avoid risking disruptions, delays or penalties. Applications must be submitted prior to import and at the latest by 31 March 2026 for all concerned import companies.

Post

World Weather Attribution: was 2025 a bad year for extreme weather?

Every December, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) asks: was it a bad year for extreme weather? And each year, the answer becomes more unequivocal: yes. Fossil fuel emissions continue to rise, driving global temperatures upward and fuelling increasingly destructive climate extremes across every continent. Although 2025 was slightly cooler than 2024 globally, it was still far hotter than almost any other year on record and the impacts of this hotness were unmistakable.