Standards

WHAT'S NEXT?: Improving standards are likely to be driven more by business and technological improvement than governments in the future. The latter will be under severe pressure to cut bureaucracy, speed policy making and improve their nation's productivity performance.

• [New] The Bank of England is already taking steps to conduct climate-related stress tests for banks and insurers within its jurisdiction in 2021 and initially will provide aggregated (rather than institution-by-institution) results.
• [New] Regional regulations that set standards for multiple countries are becoming increasingly popular, emerging as a promising strategy for accelerating progress towards global elimination by 2023.
• [New] The European Commission will present later this year new rules to develop a sound crypto-asset market in the EU, including for stablecoins such as Facebook's digital currency Libra.
• Boris Johnson's administration is spending up to €400 million on a new trading system for goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland, which will still follow EU customs rules from next year and remain partially aligned to EU regulatory standards.
• The Trump Administration continues to relax rules for reporting workplace accidents, though a new law in California is expected to preserve many Obama-era requirements.
• The adoption of a more conscious approach to fashion consumption, changes in consumer behavior during use and reuse, and the introduction by brands of radically new business models could contribute 347 million metric tons of emission abatement in 2030.
• Very recently; the UK government DEFRA; confirmed a sale ban which could raise standards (laws) further with regards fur products by the introduction of new laws; once the UK is completely free in 2021.
• To reach net-zero emissions as rapidly as possible, US Democrats commit to eliminating carbon 27 pollution from power plants by 2035 through technology-neutral standards for clean energy and 28 energy efficiency.
• EPA could simply delay the use of the E10 test fuel for an additional year or two until it has an opportunity to set new greenhouse gas standards, as it will likely do again long before model year 2026.
• The new UK building rules will require thousands of large (12m 2) accessible toilet facilities to be designed and built into new public buildings, from next year onwards.
• Some travellers will be exempt from new border rules in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland as set out in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations 2020.
• Companies from China and other countries that do not comply with U.S. accounting standards will be delisted from U.S. stock exchanges from the end of 2021.
• One of the biggest shifts in Chinese consumer behavior has been from the search, pay, and leave model of traditional ecommerce to social commerce.
• In the short term, Nando's has signed the Better Chicken Commitment, which means that it pledges to fully implement higher standards of welfare for chickens in its supply chain by 2026.
• The world risks the possible loss of the best instrument of dispute settlement in the multilateral system, and a crucial one for guaranteeing that countries abide by WTO rules.
• Regulators should require a system of regular stress testing by 2024 for energy, water, digital, road and rail infrastructure operators, to ensure that infrastructure operators' systems and decision-making can credibly meet resilience standards for infrastructure services.
• A major change to guidance for building rules in England will require the addition of large and well-equipped accessible toilet facilities to be designed and built into new public buildings, from next year.
• In the next few years, strategic investments in IT solutions and services in the healthcare and public safety sectors will pave the way for high-quality health and safety standards globally.
• Farming throughout the UK has high standards of safety and welfare with an ambition to be net zero in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
• Biden's plan outlines specific and aggressive US targets, including achieving an emissions-free power sector by 2035 and upgrading 4 million buildings over four years to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency.
• The United Nations Development Program predicts a decline in global human development - education, health, and living standards - for the first time in 30 years.

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Last updated: 17 September 2020