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In the United Kingdom, the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) legislation was passed requiring member states to introduce mandatory programs for energy audits of large enterprise companies every four years.

The European Union member states agreed to ban the chemical nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) from textile imports. This extends the current EU REACH Regulation ((EC) NO 1907/2006, Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals), which bans NPE from all textiles manufactured regionally. The decision highlights a major push by the EU to regulate environmental pollutants as it pertains to all member states as whole.

Executive Order 13693, signed on March 19, 2015, sets ambitious environmental goals for federal government agencies by attempting to lower the governments’ greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over the next decade. The mandates require each of the seven largest procuring agencies to develop and implement an annual Procurement Plan to Reduce Supply Chain Emissions that identifies at least five procurements to be implemented federal fiscal year 2016.

The Clean Water Act has been the federal government’s main law to address water pollution since 1972. Subsequent laws and amendments have modified it over the years. The most recent modification, the Clean Water Rule, intends to better define which waters are protected under the Act.

On Dec. 12, 2015, more than 190 world leaders reached a landmark climate accord. The accord was the result of the 21st United Nations Conference of Parties (COP21), which gathered in Paris with the ultimate aim of ensuring that temperatures don’t rise beyond 2 degrees Celsius, the temperature that scientists agree is the limit to preserving life on Earth as we know it.

On August 3, 2015, the White House released the final rules for the Clean Power Plan under the Clean Air Act, which requires a 32 percent reduction to the 2005 United States carbon dioxide emission levels by 2030.

As of Dec. 1, 2015, 154 companies have signed the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, representing operations in all 50 states, nearly 11 million employees, and more than $4.2 trillion in annual revenue. By signing this pledge, these companies demonstrate a commitment toward making improvements in their own practices and environmental targets, and voice support for a definitive resolution from the Paris climate change conference.

The EU is taking steps to reduce emissions from fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases,) including hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). F-gases were adopted as replacements for ozone-depleting substances in sectors such as refrigeration and air-conditioning, but they too have been found to be damaging to the environment. Companies must report on production, import, export, feedstock use and destruction of fluorinated greenhouse gases and other greenhouse gases that contain fluorine.

In September 2015, Democrats in the Senate outlined a new energy plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

On February 9, 2016, the Supreme Court voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan from going forward while the rule is challenged in court. This rule just became effective on December 22, 2015. It sought to limit the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced by steam electric and natural gas fired power plants in the United States. Twenty-nine states and dozens of corporations and industry groups had issued a lawsuit challenging the rule. The court will hear arguments on June 2, 2016.

On January 19, 2016, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania announced a plan to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from the natural gas extraction and production process.

On February 8, 170 international aviation experts unanimously supported new aircraft CO2 emissions standards at UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).