Sustainability Regulatory Radar

Welcome to our first edition of 2026 under the updated banner of Sustainability Regulatory Radar. Powered by KPMG Regulatory Horizon, Sustainability Regulatory Radar replaces ESG Regulatory Essentials and rounds up the latest regulatory developments impacting financial services firms in the UK and EU.

We continue to see the impacts of political efforts to simplify and streamline sustainability reporting and disclosure requirements for firms, as well as renewed regulatory focus on transition plans and on enhancing approaches to climate and environment-related risks.

One of the most significant developments of the last few months has been the exceptionally rapid progress of the proposed EU Omnibus initiative on sustainability reporting and disclosure requirements.

The political drive for growth and competitiveness has been felt across many areas of FS regulation, including ESG. This, alongside the transition from rulemaking to implementation in some areas, broader concerns around continuing geopolitical uncertainty, and questions around whether regulations are achieving their intended outcomes, is contributing to deferrals and scaling back.

This last edition of ESG Regulatory Essentials for 2024 rounds up the latest updates and looks ahead to what the FS sector can expect before the end of the year and into 2025.

This edition of ESG Regulatory Essentials is shorter than usual. 2024 is a year of elections, and both the EU and UK saw a pause in major regulatory announcements as a result in the run-up to the summer break.

In the UK, the period of sensitivity in the run up to a General Election means that regulators typically refrain from publishing new consultations or contentious final policies. This has extended to publications such as the eighth edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid.

KPMG in the UK's latest Regulatory Barometer finds that regulation relating to ESG and sustainable finance continues to have a material impact on firms across all areas of financial services.

Regulators are well and truly in `back to work' mode after the holiday season and are pressing ahead with their ESG and sustainability agendas. With elections expected in 2024 in both the EU and the UK, there is uncertainty around which in-progress regulatory initiatives will make the cut.