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M&A hub: Developments driving and shaping M&A
Key legal and regulatory developments driving and shaping M&A
United Kingdom | Publication | September 2023
On 18 September 2024, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) published its final Recommendations for nature-related risk management and disclosure. These provide companies and financial institutions of all sizes with a risk management and disclosure framework to identify, assess, manage and, where appropriate, disclose nature-related issues.
The TNFD Recommendations build on those of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and they include 14 recommended disclosures covering nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. They have been designed to:
An accompanying suite of additional guidance has also been released to help market participants begin to develop integrated assessment and corporate reporting related to nature. This can be accessed via the Recommendations and the Executive Summary (see links below). It includes particular guidance for financial institutions, with further sector and biome guidance to be developed.
The TNFD is encouraging and supporting voluntary market adoption of the Recommendations and, following the example of the TCFD, the TNFD will track voluntary market adoption on an annual basis through an annual status update report beginning in 2024. The TNFD is expecting companies to start announcing their intention to adopt the Recommendations shortly. GSK are reported to have announced they are committed to publishing their first TNFD disclosures from 2026, based on 2025 data. Others are expected to signal similar intentions soon and the TNFD will announce an inaugural list of TNFD Adopters, companies that have indicated their intention to start adopting the Recommendations, at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January 2024.
(TNFD, Recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, 18.09.2023)
(TNFD, Executive Summary of the TFND Recommendations, 18.09.2023)
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Key legal and regulatory developments driving and shaping M&A
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On February 2, 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union confirmed that the Committee of Permanent Representatives had signed the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation, referred to as the AI Act. Approval by the EU Parliament followed on 13 March 2024, and the AI Act is likely to appear in the EU’s Official Journal around May 2024. The AI Act aims to establish a stringent legal framework governing the development, marketing, and utilisation of artificial intelligence within the region, thereby marking a significant advancement in the regulation of this burgeoning domain.
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The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation, commonly referred to as the AI Act, is expected to come into force during the summer of 2024 (the AI Act). The AI Act will be the first comprehensive legal framework for the use and development of artificial intelligence (AI), and is intended to ensure that AI systems developed and used in the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly.
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