July 15 (Reuters) - Energy and environment, social and governance (ESG) editor Sharon Kimathi here, filling in for Ross Kerber again while he is away.

Today’s newsletter focuses on diversity and inclusion data from The Conference Board, a global non-profit research organization showing a downward trend for both gender and race in hiring, promotion or other workplace decisions.

We’ll also look at the major lawsuits facing top tech firms Meta, Apple and Google ranging from alleged workplace discrimination to child abuse material and antitrust.

We will wrap up with U.S. President Donald Trump’s cuts to clean energy funding and the European Union’s proposal to overhaul its carbon pricing on fuel.

Feel free to follow me on LinkedIn here if you like what you read and click here to subscribe to the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter for more environment, social and governance news.

IS DEI IN DECLINE?

Since Trump came back to power, his administration has cracked down on public and private organizations, from ​government agencies to private universities, over diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, practices.

Mentions of gender as a qualifying factor were referenced in 34.3% of regulatory filings by S&P 500 companies through April, down by nearly half from 61.3% last year, according to The Conference Board and data mining and analytics firm ESGAUGE.

Race was referenced in 34% of filings through April, versus 60.9% for all of 2025, the data shows.

Anuj Saush, head of advisory, international at The Conference Board, said that the data points to a “recalibration, not a disappearance”, of diversity in corporate governance.

"Women CEO appointments remain uneven, and board diversity disclosure has become less detailed in recent filings,” said Saush.

Saush said that the most effective companies will be those that can preserve the substance of inclusive talent and board-building practices while improving the clarity, consistency, and business relevance of their disclosure.

Look out for Ross Kerber’s stories on this later this week on the link here.

COMPANY NEWS

• Meta disabilities layoff suit: Twenty-six employees of Meta ‌Platforms have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Oakland, California, accusing the tech giant of using AI-powered software that disproportionately targeted people with disabilities or those who took medical leave due to medical conditions or caring for family ⁠members, for its latest round of layoffs when it slashed thousands of jobs. ​ A Meta spokesperson said the claims lack merit.

• Apple child abuse material case: U.S. District Judge Noël Wise in San Jose, California, has dismissed a proposed class ​action of 2,680 people who accused Apple of failing to stop the dissemination of child sexual abuse material through its iCloud data storage platform. The judge said the company is broadly shielded under a federal law protecting online services from liability for user content.

• Google antitrust EU case: Alphabet unit Google urged Europe's Court of Justice to dismiss an EU antitrust regulators' appeal for a case in 2024 that scrapped a €49 billion ($1.7 billion) fine imposed on Google in 2019 over its AdSense platform. The Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, said Google used ⁠restrictive clauses in contracts with publishers that prevented rivals from placing search ads on the publishers' websites. This reinforced Google's dominance in online search advertising. Click here to read more about the case.

ON MY RADAR

• Trump clean energy rollbacks: A report by labor and environmental coalition BlueGreen Alliance found that the Trump administration cuts to clean energy have led to the cancellation ​or delay of $83 billion in investment across hundreds of projects. The report also said federal funding cuts and regulatory rollbacks initiated in 2025 have ​weakened workplace protections for workers in energy and industrial sectors.

• EU carbon price: The European Commission is facing pushback from 10 countries, including Italy and Poland, who have urged the EU to reconsider its new carbon price on fuel as part of a separate revision of the bloc's carbon market, according to a joint statement seen by Reuters. The countries behind the statement have enough ​votes in the EU system to block amendments they oppose. Click here for the full story from our EU climate and energy policy correspondent Kate Abnett.

• De-regulating deregulation: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned against calls for broad deregulation ‌in a speech at an annual dinner for Britain's banking elite in the City of ​London financial district. Bailey, who heads the Financial Stability Board, an international forum for regulators, said that well-designed regulation was vital for supporting economic growth, and used his speech to renew his ​call on the U.S. to take a more cooperative approach to ​tackling the risks ⁠from AI.