Climate change

Sustainability reporting is quickly going mainstream. While companies aren’t always required by regulators to report their greenhouse gas emissions, human rights records and wastewater management, investors are pushing them for this information at a faster clip.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and the Global Reporting Initiative announced a collaborative work plan to provide more clarity on how their two sets of standards can be used together.

Disclosures of nonfinancial information, such as environmental, social and governance issues, aren’t always “clear or useful,” according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

Audit firms can enhance the reliability of environmental, social and governance reporting, according to a new report from the Center for Audit Quality.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board voted during an online meeting last week to open a new standard-setting project to address single-use plastics and bio-alternatives in the chemicals and pulp and paper industries.

A little-used part of the U.S. tax code allows foundations to use some of their endowments as “program-related investments.”

The region with the highest taxes in the world is weighing how to use them in the fight against climate change.

BlackRock, the world’s biggest fund manager, said Tuesday that it plans to put sustainability at the center of its investment strategy and it will push companies to improve their climate risk disclosures.

Former Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson rejected the New York attorney general’s claim that for years he spearheaded a secret scheme to defraud investors by lying about how the oil company planned for the financial risks of climate change.

International accounting groups convened in New York during Climate Week to discuss the urgent need for action.