The Directors’ Duties Navigator: Climate Risk and Sustainability Disclosures is a recurring series initiated in 2021, originally published as the Primer on Climate Change: Directors’ Duties and Disclosure Obligations. The series examines how directors’ legal duties, corporate governance responsibilities and disclosure obligations apply to climate-related risks and, in later editions, nature-related risks.

Purpose

The series is designed to help directors and their advisers understand how climate and nature-related considerations interact with existing company and securities law, corporate governance, risk management and sustainability disclosure requirements. It provides jurisdiction-specific guidance on directors’ duties, regulatory approaches, disclosure obligations and potential liability.

The scope has evolved alongside sustainability regulation. Earlier editions focused principally on climate change, directors’ duties and climate-related disclosure, while later editions incorporate sustainability and nature-related considerations.

Methodology

The series uses a comparative, jurisdiction-based legal research approach. Country chapters examine relevant legislation, regulation and guidance; directors’ duties relating to climate and nature; sustainability-related reporting and disclosure requirements; and associated liability and litigation risks. The structure is designed to support comparison between jurisdictions.

The analysis draws on legal research and contributions from lawyers and other specialists in the jurisdictions covered. The latest edition is drafted and coordinated by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), with regional authors and reviewers identified for individual country chapters. CCLI also commissions independent legal opinions to develop its evidence base on company and trust law as it relates to climate and nature.

Relevance for finance professionals

Finance professionals can use the series as a reference for comparing how climate and nature-related financial risks intersect with corporate governance, directors’ duties and sustainability reporting across jurisdictions. It can support analysis of governance and disclosure practices, regulatory and litigation exposure, and the legal context surrounding companies’ management of material sustainability-related risks.

The series is particularly relevant when assessing companies operating across multiple jurisdictions, where directors’ responsibilities and sustainability disclosure regimes may differ. It can complement financial, ESG and governance analysis by providing the legal and regulatory context in which corporate decisions and disclosures are made.