Buzz: Transfer to editor

Regulatory developments between 1 January and 15 May 2026 confirm that ESG regulation is continuing to expand across the reporting and investment landscape, not only through corporate reporting standards but also through fund disclosures, product labelling and taxonomies.

Published: 2026

Summary: Covers engagement, voting, investment solutions and responsible investment implementation, with a particular focus on stewardship outcomes and long-term investor dialogue.

Published: 2026 reporting cycle

Summary: Covers proxy voting, company engagement, climate stewardship, governance priorities and escalation activities. Includes detailed engagement statistics and case studies across global holdings.

Published: 11 February 2026

Summary: Includes dedicated sustainability statements covering talent development, fair labour markets, employee wellbeing, governance and environmental performance. Also complemented by Randstad's Local Sustainability Initiatives Report focused on workforce inclusion and the green transition.

Published: 12–13 March 2026

Summary: Integrated reporting from the global education and learning company. Sustainability disclosures are linked directly to workforce skills, lifelong learning, AI-enabled education, employee development and social impact. Pearson also publishes additional sustainability disclosures, climate reporting and assurance documentation alongside the annual report.

Published: 10 March 2026

Summary: Focus on employability, workforce skills, diversity, sustainable employability and social value creation, supported by dedicated non-financial reporting disclosures and sustainability methodologies.

Published: Spring 2026 reporting cycle

Summary: Focuses on climate advisory, environmental services, sustainable infrastructure and the firm's own operational footprint. Particularly useful given WSP's position as a major sustainability services provider.

Published: April 2026

Summary: Covers workforce development, diversity, employee wellbeing, human capital outcomes and the firm's role in supporting green and sustainability-related employment markets. The report also discusses sustainability governance and operational emissions.

With the SEC no longer vetting shareholder proposals, companies have started self-certifying their own exclusions. As shareholders push back and turn to litigation, this proxy season may prove to be a defining one for shareholder rights.  

When conflict disrupted gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, attention focused on gas prices and shipping lanes. But the shock travelled further — quietly rippling through fertilizer markets, where some producers were hit far harder than others, revealing how location-based risk can emerge deep within a supply chain.

In the wake of war in Ukraine and now in response to war in Iran, the fossil fuel industry has deployed a playbook of misleading narratives that push fossil fuels as the key to global energy security and affordability. InfluenceMap’s research indicates that this strategy is more than just an opportunistic reaction to a global energy crisis. In 2021, the fossil fuel industry predicted such a “black swan event upending the global political agenda” in the first half of the decade, and for years, it has acknowledged the likelihood and implications of the geopolitical and economic instability that might accompany a delayed global energy transition.

While the industry's strategy succeeded post-Ukraine, leading to new investments in fossil fuels, world leaders are beginning to recognize that fossil fuel reliance leaves countries vulnerable to future crises. As geopolitical instability plunges the world into the second major energy crisis of the decade, the renewable energy and utility sectors are wresting back control of the energy security narrative, pushing back on decades of fossil fuel industry-driven misconceptions.

In response to the Trump administration’s repeal of major US environmental regulations and federal subsidies, automakers are reporting losses of tens of billions of dollars as they retreat from EV production. The industry’s lobbying against environmental regulations, however, may have contributed to the regulatory instability that it now faces.

US automakers have often emphasized the need for stable environmental regulations, citing the substantial time required to develop and manufacture new vehicles. Despite this, many of these automakers have lobbied for years to roll back US emissions regulations, either directly or through their industry associations, counter to a strong global trend towards the electrification of road transport, further accelerated by high oil prices resulting from the conflict in Iran, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s warnings that ambitious government regulations are needed to decarbonize the industry.

At the same time, they have inadequately disclosed these lobbying activities, keeping their own investors in the dark about their lobbying for the rollbacks that are causing regulatory chaos for the industry.

This insight draws on InfluenceMap's assessment of BP and Shell's climate policy engagement from 2021–2025, using publicly available data and company disclosures up to the end of 2025.

With investor scrutiny intensifying ahead of both companies' 2026 AGMs, it considers what that record reveals about their positioning on the energy transition.

The Takeaway

• Now entering our fifth year for this survey, this year’s qualitative phase gathered perspectives and insights from a series of live, in-depth interviews with 25 asset owners from around the world.
• This year, we recorded plenty of shifts in the market environment, global investment standards, regulatory standards, and policy in our conversation with global stewards of capital.
• Notable observations were a concerning yet necessary concentration in US market, increasing diversification to build resilience across global portfolios, a healthy caution around AI and growing interest in private markets.