ESG remains a hot topic for investors and regulators alike in 2024. However, the specific concerns of investors and regulators – and what they expect to develop in the coming months – vary across jurisdictions, not least due to the differing maturity of existing regulation between the EU/UK and the US.

In the UK and EU, ESG concerns will take a different direction. With long-established regimes for accountability, reporting and product categorisation and labelling covering a wide range of companies and partnerships, we anticipate that ESG in the UK (and more broadly in the EU) in 2024 will focus on how existing obligations impact  individual  duties of company directors.

Under English law, directors – including directors appointed to an investee company and non-executive directors – have statutory and fiduciary duties to the company to promote its success for the benefit of its members as a whole, taking into account the long-term impact of the company’s operations on the community and the environment, and to exercise reasonable skill, care and diligence in their role.

For several years, activist shareholders have sought to use these obligations to force corporate boards to change their approach and policies—for example, to adopt more aggressive zero-net-worth goals. (Author: Margaret A Dale, Michael R. Hackett, Stephen Hibbard, William C. Komaroff, Timothy W. Mungovan, and Dorothy Murray of Proskauer Rose LLP –   The Capital Commitment, more at natlawreview.com)