In an appeal of a district court decision upholding a 2022 final rule that allows Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) fiduciaries to consider “collateral benefits” such as environment, social, and governance (ESG) factors “when deciding between competing investment options that each equally served the beneficiaries’ financial interests,” the federal government informed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 28, 2025 that the U.S. Department of Labor had decided to “engage in a new rulemaking on the subject of the challenged rule.” The government said the rulemaking would be included in the Labor Department’s Spring Regulatory Agenda and that “the Department intends to move through the rulemaking process as expeditiously as possible.”

Challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor's amendment of the Investment Duties regulation governing private-sector benefit plans.

Utah v. Chavez-DeRemer

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Federal Government Informed Fifth Circuit of Intent to Conduct New Rulemaking on Subject of Regulation Allowing ERISA Fiduciaries to Consider ESG Factors

Filed

United States of America

Texas

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

Federal Government Informed Fifth Circuit of Intent to Conduct New Rulemaking on Subject of Regulation Allowing ERISA Fiduciaries to Consider ESG Factors

Economic sector