The UK's fund labelling regime under the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and the European Securities and Markets Authority's new guidelines on the use of ESG terms in fund names have have sparked a wave of renaming, mergers, closures and portfolio reshuffling.

On this episode, we are joined by Hortense Bioy, head of sustainable investing research at Morningstar Sustainalytics. Bioy walks us through the most recent regulatory changes and what they mean for the EU and UK sustainable fund landscape. She also discusses the major challenges for asset managers looking to comply with the rules instead of renaming.

ESG shareholder proposals have come under increasing scrutiny over the past few years, with debates focusing around their alleged prescriptiveness and quality. Support for these proposals also fell sharply from the record levels reached in 2021 before stabilising last year at around 20 percent.

Last year also saw ExxonMobil sue Dutch NGO Follow This and Arjuna Capital over a climate resolution. The lawsuit ended with the case being dismissed but Arjuna Capital had to promise never to file a resolution at the oil major again.

And following the election of Donald Trump, filers predicted that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be more likely to side with corporates, increasingly allowing them to block ESG proposals.

So with all of this in mind, how are experts feeling about what we have seen so far this proxy season? How has the SEC's approach to ESG proposals shifted in 2025 – in particular, what has been the impact of Staff Legal Bulletin 14M (SLB14M)? And of the AGMs that have happened so far, what trends are emerging?

To dig into all of this and more, RI's AGM reporter Gina Gambetta sat down with two experts in the space. First up, Lindsey Stewart, director of stewardship research and policy at Morningstar Sustainalytics. And for the second part of the episode, Gina spoke with Damion Rallis, co-founder of ESG research and analytics firm Free Float.

It is now a matter of broad consensus that the world will overshoot its 1.5C temperature goal, but that does not mean there is nothing to be optimistic about, according to climate finance expert Jakob Thomä.

He should know a thing or two about this topic. Thomä led the development of the first climate scenario analysis tool at 2 Degrees Investing Initiative and currently leads a think tank which makes predictions about future climate policy. He is also a professor in practice at SOAS and maintains a column here at RI.

He joins the latest episode of The Responsible Investor Podcast to talk about AI, why continued demand for oil might not translate into emissions, and why modelling social factors is "super crazy difficult".