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An oil major (“the Company”) filed suit in federal court on October 24, 2025, challenging California’s Climate Laws — the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (“SB 253”) and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (“SB 261”) — on the basis that the laws violate the Company’s First Amendment rights.

In a potential watershed moment that could reverberate across companies that have set climate goals or made claims regarding climate ambitions (e.g., “net zero” or carbon neutrality), on October 23, 2025, a European oil major (the “Company”) was handed a potentially significant greenwashing ruling by the Paris Judicial Court (the “Court”), which found the Company’s claims about its role in the energy transition and its net zero ambitions were likely to mislead consumers.

On June 26, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) hosted a roundtable on executive compensation disclosure requirements.

As we previously noted last month, the SEC is hosting a roundtable on the executive compensation disclosure requirements on June 26, 2025.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently issued a press release announcing that it will host a public roundtable on June 26, 2025, to discuss executive compensation disclosure requirements.

The past few years have seen concerted efforts — both domestically and globally — advancing the reporting and disclosure of various climate- and sustainability-related metrics by businesses and investors.

In early March 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) finalized its climate-related disclosures rule (The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors) (the “Final Rule”).

On December 16, 2024, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) released a notice soliciting comments on a number of specific questions to inform its implementation of the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (“CCDAA” or “SB 253”) and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (“CRFRA” or “SB 261”) (the “Notice”).

On December 11, 2024, in a 9-8 ruling along party lines, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) struck down the Nasdaq board diversity rules issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in August 2021 (the “Rules”), holding that the SEC exceeded its authority in issuing the Rules.

On November 14, 2024, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the SEC’s ability to intervene in shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Rule 14a-8 Proposals”).

On November 5, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied a motion for summary judgment that sought to declare SB 253 and SB 261 (the “California Climate Laws”) invalid on their face under the First Amendment for compelling political speech.