The latest edition of our Sustainable Views newsletter

Dear reader,

California’s climate risk disclosure rule is on hold after a legal challenge, but a small group of companies have filed anyway — and many more are believed to be waiting in the wings if and when the court gives the green light.

As Elizabeth writes, under Senate Bill 261, companies with more than $500mn in annual revenues doing business in California were due to begin submitting climate reports for the first time from the beginning of this year, outlining any climate-related risks to their business and how they are managing them.

A judge halted implementation just weeks before reporting was due to begin, meaning most companies were already — or at least should have been — ready to submit. Elizabeth reports that so far 67 businesses across a range of sectors have voluntarily submitted reports to the California Air Resources Board — a start, but only a tiny fraction of the roughly 10,000 companies previously estimated to fall within the scope. 

Obsessing over the minutiae involved in corporate reporting can sometimes obscure why it matters, adds Elizabeth, reminding us in California, climate risk is not a distant threat. A year ago, wildfires ravaged Los Angeles, killing 31 people and causing an estimated $250bn in economic losses. A January 2026 study finds publicly listed insurers took a 4 per cent stock price hit in the immediate aftermath.

You can read the full story here.

The just transition in action

Haley St Dennis, head of just transitions at the Institute for Human Rights and Business, also underlines why companies should treat reporting and disclosure as much more than box-ticking exercises — for their own sake and that of people working in their supply chains. She argues companies that recognise just transitions as a catalyst for growth, innovation and long-term competitiveness stand to seize the strategic advantage, but acknowledges the dearth of real-world examples to help them along. 

Over the past two years, her organisation has dug out stories of just transitions in action around the globe, with the aim of “understand[ing] the people, perspectives and relationships at the heart of these models. We wanted to bring to life practical considerations for businesses looking to move from theory to application — particularly the governance, financing and operational choices that made them viable”, writes St Dennis.

“Our search demonstrated how embedding climate and social resilience into operations and supply chains attracts new sources of funding, including innovative blended finance mechanisms to de-risk investment,” she adds.

You can read more about the case studies the institute uncovered here. 

Phase out fossil fuel clients

Finally today, Clarissa Salmon and Alexis McGivern from Oxford Net Zero issue a call for professional service providers to phase out fossil fuel clients. Between 2020 and 2024, Vault 100 law firms facilitated more than $2tn in transactions supporting fossil fuel work, while advertising and public relations agencies supported 1,217 fossil fuel contracts in 2024–25 alone, they write. 

Salmon and McGivern cite the boycotts of products from other sectors or countries and demand such logic is extended to fossil fuel companies, which “bear clear responsibility” for the climate crisis: “they have produced the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions and are guilty of decades of active misinformation, climate denial and obstruction of climate action”. 

Until tomorrow,

Philippa

Philippa Nuttall is the editor of Sustainable Views