Issue - July 8, 2025

📝 Editor’s Summary

Courts and watchdogs kept ESG liability in sharp focus this week: Exxon’s record Baytown air-pollution fine survived at the Supreme Court, Greenpeace wielded the EU’s new anti-SLAPP shield, and xAI got a Memphis turbine permit even as its Clean Air Act case grinds on. At the policy level, Washington axed core green tax credits just as Brussels floated fresh incentives and Latin America’s top rights court told governments they must act on the “climate emergency.” Add rising greenwashing risks for Unilever and Shein plus European investors gearing up for litigation, and it’s clear ESG risk is shifting, not shrinking.

⚖️ ESG Casefile

U.S. Supreme Court Lets $14.25 M Baytown Air-Pollution Fine Stand
The Court declined to hear Exxon Mobil’s challenge to a record Clean Air Act penalty for 17,000+ emission violations at its Baytown, TX refinery-petrochemical complex (2005-13). Exxon argued community groups lacked standing and asked the justices to revisit the 2000 FOE v. Laidlaw precedent, but the denial leaves intact a Fifth Circuit ruling and the largest citizen-suit fine ever imposed under the Act.
🔗 Read more → Reuters

Greenpeace Invokes EU Anti-SLAPP Rules Against Dakota Access Pipeline Owner
In Amsterdam, Greenpeace International filed the first test case under the EU’s 2024 Anti-SLAPP Directive, seeking damages from U.S. pipeline giant Energy Transfer for two multi-billion-dollar “gag” suits it filed in North Dakota after the 2016 Dakota Access protests. Greenpeace argues the US claims—one dismissed, one resulting in a $660 m jury award now on appeal—are abusive litigation meant to silence critics, and that the EU directive already applies under Dutch law to protect free-speech defenders. The Dutch court will set a timetable, while Energy Transfer’s appearance is still uncertain.
🔗 Read more → Greenpeace International

Elon Musk’s xAI Wins Permit for 15 Methane Turbines—Lawsuit Still Looms
Shelby County, TN, approved an air-quality permit for 15 of the ~35 methane generators powering Elon Musk’s Memphis AI data center, drawing ire from residents and the NAACP, which says the predominantly Black neighborhood already faces four times higher cancer risks and vows to press its Clean Air Act suit. Satellite images show at least 24 turbines still on-site.
🔗 Read more → The Guardian

Banana Boat & Hawaiian Tropic Sued for ‘Reef-Friendly’ Claims
Australia’s ACCC has taken Edgewell Personal Care to Federal Court, alleging the firm misled consumers by branding more than 90 Banana Boat and Hawaiian Tropic sunscreens “reef-friendly” even though they contain chemicals (octocrylene, homosalate, 4-MBC, avobenzone) that studies link to coral harm. Regulators seek penalties, injunctions, and corrective orders.
🔗 Read more → ACCC

Trump Tower Chicago Pays $4.8 M for River Fish-Kill Violations
After a years-long Clean Water Act suit by Friends of the Chicago River, the Sierra Club, and Illinois’ AG, Trump International Hotel & Tower agreed to pay $4.8 million (plus $1.8 million in penalties and fees) for withdrawing 20 million gallons of river water daily, killing thousands of fish. $3 million will fund downtown habitat restoration.
🔗 Read more → The Independent

🏛️ Regulatory Developments

Trump-era budget bill slashes clean-energy tax credits
Congress sent President Trump a sweeping fiscal package that repeals home-solar, heat-pump, and EV incentives after 2025, shortens deadlines for wind- and solar-farm credits, and steers support toward fossil fuels—changes analysts warn could add >$100 a year to household power bills and stall U.S. climate goals.
🔗 Read more → AP

Inter-American Court: governments have a human-rights duty to tackle the climate emergency
In a landmark advisory opinion, the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared climate change a “global emergency” and said states must cut emissions, protect ecosystems, and safeguard environmental defenders under existing rights law—guidance that, while non-binding, is expected to shape domestic courts across the Americas.
🔗 Read more → Inside Climate News

EU floats tax-break playbook to turbo-charge its Clean Industrial Deal
Brussels issued a non-binding Recommendation urging countries to offer accelerated depreciation (up to full first-year expensing) and refundable tax credits for investments in clean-tech manufacturing and industrial decarbonization while banning incentives for fossil fuels and aligning all aid with the new Clean Industrial State-Aid Framework. The guidance aims to cut capital costs, crowd in private money, and keep Europe’s 2050 net-zero supply chain competitive.
🔗 Read more → European Commission

ISSB opens 150-day consultation to modernize industry metrics in SASB Standards
The board released two exposure drafts that (i) fully overhaul nine high-impact standards (all industries in the Extractives & Minerals Processing and the Processed Foods industry) and (ii) tweak climate-, nature-, and human-capital metrics in 41 other industries so they dovetail with IFRS S1/S2. The ISSB wants feedback on cost-effectiveness, global applicability, and investor usefulness before finalizing the revamp in 2026.
🔗 Read more → IFRS Foundation

A wave of U.S. state waste-and-recycling rules kicks in this month
Several state-level packaging and waste laws take effect in July: Oregon’s extended-producer-responsibility scheme launches on July 1, the same day Virginia and Delaware ban EPS foam foodware, Illinois hotels (50+ rooms) must stop stocking single-use toiletry bottles, and New Hampshire prohibits landfilling lithium-ion batteries, while Maine hands management of its bottle-bill system to a brand-owner cooperative on 15 July. Producer registration or data-reporting deadlines also arrive this month in Minnesota (July 1) and Colorado (July 31).
🔗 Read more → Waste Dive

🧼 Greenwashing Watch

Unilever dubbed “King of Greenwashing” in the Netherlands
The Dutch Consumers’ Association (Consumentenbond) says Unilever is engaging in “large-scale greenwashing.” After reviewing 450 items from nine Unilever food brands, it found misleading sustainability language or self-designed “eco” logos on 247 products—roughly half the sample, including Knorr, Unox, Calvé, Hellmann’s, Ola, and Lipton. Most claims hinge on the vague word “sustainable,” link to hard-to-find web disclaimers, and invoke in-house logos that mimic certification seals, practices the group says breach Dutch and forthcoming EU rules. Consumentenbond has asked the national regulator (ACM) to intervene, warning that such tactics erode consumer trust and undermine truly green competitors.
🔗 Read more → Consumentenbond (in Dutch)

Shein Fined €40 M for Fake Discounts & “Responsible” Hype
France’s consumer fraud watchdog found that 57 % of items touted as “on-sale” on Shein’s French site had no real markdown—and some were even pricier—while the fast-fashion giant could not back up claims that it is a “responsible” company cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 %. Shein accepted the €40 million penalty, handed down after EU and national probes flagged both the deceptive pricing tactics and unsubstantiated green messaging.
🔗 Read more → Euronews

Google’s “Eco-Failures”: AI push swells emissions and water use
A new investigation by Kairos Fellowship says Alphabet’s generative AI build-out has driven the firm’s reported greenhouse-gas output up 1,515 % since 2010 and its annual water withdrawals to 11 billion gallons, while market-based accounting lets data-center pollution all but vanish on paper. The NGO adds that Google’s 2030 net-zero pledge leans on speculative nuclear tech, branding the company’s latest environmental report a case study in corporate greenwashing.
🔗 Read more → Kairos Fellowship, Google’s Eco-Failures

💡 Insight of the Week

Investors Lawyer Up
Europe’s rollback of flagship ESG rules (CSRD, CSDDD) has pushed big asset owners such as KLP and PME to warn they will cut holdings in companies that stop disclosing ESG data and to explore US-style lawsuits to force transparency and climate-risk management. Law firms are courting funds, regulators flag rising litigation risk, and businesses are budgeting for ESG legal battles.
🔗 Read more → Bloomberg

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