ESG International Weekly News 9/1 - 9/7

🌍 ESG Top 5 Weekly Highlights | Sept 1 – Sept 7

1. 📑 California Climate Risk Disclosure Guidance: Mandatory Reporting Begins in 2026

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has released its Draft Checklist for Climate-Related Financial Risk Disclosures, helping companies prepare for SB 261, the “Climate-Related Financial Risk Act.”
Who’s covered: U.S. companies doing business in California with revenues over $500 million. The first reports are due by January 1, 2026, with updates required every two years. This makes California one of the first U.S. states to mandate climate risk disclosure.

🔑 Key points:

• Subsidiaries may be included in parent company reports

• Accepted frameworks include TCFD and IFRS S2

• Scope 1–3 emissions disclosure not required in the first report

• Scenario analysis may be qualitative rather than complex modeling

• Checklist covers governance, strategy, risk management, metrics & targets

👉 This rule will significantly impact corporate risk management and sustainability planning, while raising transparency in global capital markets.
📌 Learn how to prepare for climate disclosure → From Recycling to Carbon Reduction: 10 Steps to a Transparent ESG Supply Chain

2. 🎯 Sony GM2030: Cutting 25% Value Chain Emissions in Five Years

Sony has launched its Green Management 2030 (GM2030) mid-term plan, setting new climate goals for 2030:

• Scope 1 & 2 emissions cut by 60%

• Scope 3 value chain emissions cut by 25%

• 100% renewable energy adoption, with suppliers expected to follow

Part of Sony’s broader Road to Zero strategy, GM2030 accelerates its net-zero target to 2040, a full decade earlier than planned. Sony also committed to circular resource use:

• Increase recycled material content in products

• Limit non-recyclable plastics to under 30% of product weight

• Phase out plastic packaging for smaller products and in retail stores

👉 Sony’s move underscores multinational leadership in supply chain decarbonization, circular economy, and renewable energy adoption—a benchmark ESG case study.
📌 Explore the carbon reduction benefits of recycled plastics → TYC's Recycling Materials and Carbon Reduction Benefit

3. ⚡ Texas Sustainable Data Centers: Engie × Prometheus Partnership

Engie North America has partnered with Prometheus Hyperscale to co-locate data centers with renewable energy and storage facilities along Texas’ I-35 corridor.

Prometheus’ proprietary liquid cooling technology improves energy efficiency by 50% compared to air cooling, eliminates water use, and will be powered by 100% renewable energy. This breakthrough provides a sustainable solution to the high energy demands of AI computing.

The first sites are set to go live in 2026, with further expansion from 2027. This partnership showcases a new model of energy transition × AI infrastructure, combining efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.
📌 Learn how data centers are moving toward low carbon → ESG TODAY

4. 🔋 Australia’s Storage Milestone: Akaysha Energy Secures $197M Financing

Australian BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) developer Akaysha Energy has secured a A$300 million (USD $197 million) borrowing base loan to advance large-scale projects in Australia, the U.S., Japan, and Germany. This marks the first of its kind in Australia’s renewable energy sector, highlighting growing investor confidence in storage.

Akaysha also brought online 350MW of the Waratah Super Battery, now the world’s most powerful storage system, boosting grid stability and supporting electrification and AI’s rising power demand.

👉 The financing expands global storage capacity and reinforces energy storage as a cornerstone of the clean energy transition.

5. ⚡ SBTi Drafts Net-Zero Standard for the Power Sector: Coal Phase-Out by 2030

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has published a draft Net-Zero Standard for the Power Sector, setting a framework for achieving net zero by 2050 across power generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and trading.

🔑 Key requirements:

• Phase out unabated fossil fuel power and halt new coal, oil, and gas projects

• OECD countries: Coal retired/abated by 2030, oil & gas by 2035

• Non-OECD countries: Coal & gas phased out by 2040

• Biomass: 100% from certified sustainable sources by 2030

• Non-baseload gas plants may remain until 2050 only if required for grid stability

👉 The draft is open for public consultation until November 3, 2025, shaping the future of decarbonization and investment decisions in the power sector.
📌 Dive deeper into the Net-Zero Standard → SBTi