On March 14, 2025, Mark Carney - the former governor of the Banks of Canada and England, boasting an extensive track record of climate advocacy - was sworn in as Canada’s 24th Prime Minister, replacing Justin Trudeau.

On Wednesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a regulation to establish standardized requirements for funds marketed as featuring environmental, social, and governance (ESG) characteristics.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a landmark climate-related disclosure rule on Monday that would require publicly-traded companies to detail climate-related risks to their operations and provide standardized emission metrics.

If adopted, firms offering public investments would have to disclose greenhouse gas emissions (or explain non-disclosure), as well as governance, strategy, risk management practices, and metrics pertaining to climate-related risks and opportunities.

The fact that Texas, a state famous for its oil industry, felt it necessary to pass a law of this sort signals the industry’s growing consternation with an increasingly climate-conscious and oil un-friendly investing environment.

Not only should ESG standardization be by law, but governments are starting to show that ESG standardization will be by law.

In its recent report One Year On: BlackRock still addicted to fossil fuels, French sustainable finance organization Reclaim Finance details how American financial giant BlackRock’s public declaration to make sustainability its new investing standard has, one year later, yielded only “half-hearted” and “superficial” results.