Emperor Sustainability Briefing 15.01.2026

Issue #12

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Setting the tone

Welcome back to the Emperor Sustainability Briefing, our fortnightly briefing on the need-to-know in corporate sustainability news. We’ll continue to bring you the year’s essential updates and – if 2026 is anything like 2025 – help you to make sense of the myriad twists and turns in the world of sustainability and ESG. 

A couple of stories this week have set some of the themes that might come to define the year. On the one hand, steadily increasing maturity and strength: the CDP’s glowing report on the number of companies receiving top marks indicates strong underlying progress, at least in the world of reporting. On the other hand, real challenges with achieving climate targets, prompted by market realities and lagging policy. Neste and Ricardo join others from 2025 who have had to revise or cut their commitments, reflecting the scale of the challenges that some sectors will face. 

Whatever else the year brings, we’re looking forward to keeping you up to speed. 

Contents

UK SRS next month – IFRS Asian progress

France targets – Climate targets pushed

CDP A-listers

Stories

Regulation and frameworks

UK SRS to be published in February 2026

After being unveiled in Summer 2025, the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (SRS) are now expected to have their final versions published next month. SRS is the UK’s implementation of the IFRS Sustainability Standards (aka the ISSB Standards), and barring any surprise changes, they are expected to be close to identical to the IFRS standards. Initially, SRS will comprise ‘S1’, covering wider sustainability-related risks and opportunities, and ‘S2’, which will be focused on climate – with both standards following the four-pillar structure of the TCFD framework. 

The decision on how and when SRS will become mandatory for reporting, and for what scope of companies, will be made separately by the UK FCA – but the earliest implementation could be from January 2027. 

IFRS sustainability standards make progress in Asia

The IFRS sustainability standards (aka the ISSB standards) continue their global march, with China and the Philippines the latest jurisdictions to develop standards aligned with the framework. In general, this gradual progress towards global alignment – the ISSB’s stated goal since its inception – is good news for companies across all regions which are set to report using the framework, as it will ultimately create greater familiarity and comparability for report users. China’s version, which makes a few adaptations to the IFRS’s S2 standard, will begin as a trial with an eventual view towards mandatory reporting. Side note – China released this standard on the 25th December, making it the perfect Christmas present for any sustainability regulation nerds! The Philippines’ ‘PFRS’, meanwhile, corresponds closely to the IFRS standards, and will be mandatory for FY26 reporting. The final UK SRS, the UK’s own implementation of IFRS standards, is expected to be published next month. 

Policy

France’s climate targets are still out of reach 

France’s greenhouse gas reductions slowed for the second year running, with 2025 seeing just a 1.6% drop, far short of the 4.6% annual decline needed to hit 2030 targets. Citepa, the nonprofit body tasked by France’s ecology ministry to track emissions, warned that while sectors like industry, agriculture and transport improved slightly, energy and waste treatment barely moved.

After strong progress in 2022 and 2023, when emissions were reduced by 3.9% and 6.8% respectively, the pace has collapsed to just 1.8% in 2024, raising serious doubts about the achievability of France’s updated carbon neutrality pathway towards 2050. 

The assessment stressed the urgency for the country to phase out fossil fuels, a dependency that Climate Action Network France says is both a climate and geopolitical risk. The slowdown mirrors Germany’s performance, with only a 1.5% reduction in 2025, signaling a broader European struggle despite the EU’s ambitious pledge to cut emissions by 90% by 2040. 

Corporate

Neste joins others in pushing back climate targets

2025 was a challenging year for corporate climate commitments, with many companies reconsidering their approaches as deadlines began to loom. Neste, the Finish oil refining company which has been one of the leading lights on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), has become the latest to revise and push back targets – citing market realities and a slower rate of transition away from fossil fuels than was expected. Meanwhile, UK engineering firm Ricardo has dropped its SBTi climate targets, claiming there was no “economic or technically-viable way” to achieve the reductions it would need to. 

Companies’ honesty about the challenges of targets – which, importantly, we have been seeing from both sustainability leaders and from companies that have been less engaged – is a sobering indication of how difficult the next stretch of reductions is likely to be. For companies that will have to make target revisions, communicating candidly while demonstrating how ambition is set to be maintained will be essential. If there are sustainability commitments, climate or otherwise, which you’re having to review, then be in touch with our sustainability team – we’d be happy to have a conversation on approaches you might take. 

Making the A-Team: CDP reports 70% increase in A listers 

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the environmental sustainability reporting platform that enables stakeholders to measure and track a company’s performance across areas including climate, forests and water security, has reported a surge in the number of companies scoring an “A”.  The number of A list companies jumped by over 70% in 2025 to 877, while “Triple A” achievers (top marks in climate, water and forests) nearly tripled to 23. Climate remains the strongest category with 751 A listers, but water and forests grew significantly, doubling their numbers to 263 and 55 respectively.

With CDP scores continuing to be valued as one of the most authentic indicators of good reporting, it’s promising to see progress here. CDP’s report can be taken as a legitimate indicator of the continually improving depth and quality of reported sustainability information. 

One Number

66  

Sustainability-related organisations the U.S. withdrew from last week, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and UN Climate Treaty, following an announcement by Trump hailing them as “contrary to the interests of the United States”.

Short List

The National Trust is set to direct a £10m donation, the largest single donation in its history, towards its net zero strategy and nature conservation.

Standard Chartered is issuing its first-ever green bond, raising €1 billion to finance renewable energy and green buildings across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

To discuss any of these topics in more detail or speak to one of our Sustainability team about how to better your corporate sustainability efforts, email [email protected] -we'd love to hear from you.