The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has released the second phase of its taxonomy, adding categories for transition and adaptation activities and growing its sector coverage. The classification now includes a “curated whitelist” of adaptation measures which are automatically deemed eligible for taxonomy-aligned financing. The taxonomy will now cover six sectors, adding manufacturing and ICT, and 25 economic activities. The regulator consulted on the expansion in September last year. The third phase of the taxonomy, which is currently being developed, will address activities such as nuclear and natural gas-fired power, hydrogen for electricity generation and sustainable aviation fuel.
New York State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has filed a shareholder proposal at Uber on behalf of the state’s Common Retirement Fund, calling on the firm to produce a report explaining how it is addressing alleged incidents of riders being sexually harassed or assaulted. The fund has a stake of $240 million in the company. “For Uber to succeed, its users need to feel safe and not have a shred of doubt about using the service,” DiNapoli said. “The company should increase transparency about what it’s doing to protect riders.”
An Uber spokesperson said: “Over the past two months, we’ve had productive conversations with the New York State Comptroller’s office and look forward to continuing that dialogue. Safety is foundational at Uber. We remain firmly committed to helping protect people on our platform by investing in innovative technology, strong policies, and trusted partnerships with law enforcement and advocates to strengthen in-app safeguards, help prevent harm, and support survivors.”
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has launched a consultation on its standard setting priorities for the next three years. The standard setter is asking whether stakeholders agree with plans set out in its 2026-28 work programme, including proposals to finalise projects on labour, economic impact and pollution, as well as completing the next phase of sector standards – for example on the financial sector – and start work on a new digitalisation standard. The work plan also sets out how the GRI co-operates with other standards bodies such as EFRAG and the International Sustainability Standards Board. The public comment period is open until 27 March. Separately, the GRI is also consulting on the next phase of its review of all economic impact disclosures, seeking feedback on three revised standards for corruption, competition and public policy. This consultation runs until 10 April.
Ortec Finance has announced a strategic partnership with Forward Analytics, a provider of climate transition-related data and analytics. The collaboration will provide users of Ortec’s climate scenarios the ability to go beyond the sector-level risk indicators provided by Ortec, and drill down into corporate-level assessments. Forward Analytics CEO Moritz Baer said the combined offering “goes above and beyond” supervisory expectations following increasing regulatory oversight on the use of climate scenarios by supervisors such as the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) and the European Banking Agency (EBA).
Sustainable Fitch has said it is seeing interest in transition finance frameworks “predominantly from the Middle East” in emerging markets. Speaking on the Fitch 2026 sustainable finance outlook, global business head for ESG Craig Gosnell said that “people are preparing RFPs, questions and considerations around what a transition finance framework would incorporate and look like”. He added that transition finance was beginning “to stand on its own two feet” with more confidence across the investment chain, and that “the safeguards are there to protect integrity and avoid any sort of greenwashing, or for transition to be sort of the garbage of green”. He said that he was optimistic about issuance levels, despite a note from SEB last week forecasting just $1 billion in European transition issuance.
Commerzbank has said it expects a resumption of growth in green-labelled bonds from Euro sovereigns and SSAs, as a focus on public infrastructure spending such as transport and electrical grids aligns with “key sustainable investment segments”. While Euro-denominated sovereign and SSA issuance has stagnated since 2021, head of ESG research Stephan Kippe said that significant increases in public spending on European rail infrastructure and spending on grid resilience and stability could drive issuance growth in 2026. However, he cautioned that “there is usually a significant difference between public investment intentions and actual spending”.
