Leading NGOs working on corporate sustainability and sustainable finance have published a briefing with key recommendations to help clarify directors’ responsibilities to oversee sustainability that fully fit with existing company law and corporate governance frameworks across Europe.
The briefing follows a public letter sent by NGOs to DG Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans in support of the EU Commission plans on Sustainable Corporate Governance (SCG) and responding to recent criticism.
The SCG initiative, which was included in the Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the EU Green Deal, is set to provide solutions to two issues:
The NGOs are presenting detailed recommendations for the latter part of the initiative. The involvement of boards is paramount to ensure that companies are able to consider and take the necessary strategic decisions with regards to the management of sustainability risks and impacts, and integrate them in overall corporate strategies and business operations.
More specifically, our recommendations tackle the need for coherence and alignment within the corporate and financial market regulatory framework in Europe. In this regard, connecting the dots between companies’ sustainability reporting and upcoming due diligence obligations requires effective governance and oversight from the company’s senior management and the board. Our proposals are therefore divided into two categories to ensure an effective reform:
Filip Gregor, Head of Responsible Companies Section at Frank Bold, states: Board members already have wide discretion to take account of sustainability matters. However, as shown by the Alliance for Corporate Transparency research on 1000 large EU corporations’ non-financial (sustainability) reports, less than 15% of companies provide insights on the integration of sustainability in core business strategy, Board discussions, and performance incentives. The solution to this gap in practice is simple. To bring sustainability on the board's agenda, withing the existing directors' duties, the European Commission's sustainable corporate governance reform should specify board's procedural obligation to provide oversight of corporate sustainability risk management and due diligence obligations."
If you have any questions, please write to susanna.arus@frankbold.org
The threatened loss of drinking water for tens of thousands of people in the Czech Republic’s Liberec region has earned the notice of Politico, a Brussels-based news site. Politico reported on the plans for the expansion of the Turów brown coal mine in Poland, near the Czech/German/Polish border.
Thirty thousand people in the Czech Republic’s Liberec region face a loss of access to drinking water due to the planned expansion of the Turów coal mine. This mine is planned to newly stretch outwards to just 150 meters from the Czech border and downwards to a depth below the bottom of the Baltic. The resulting drainage of Czech underground water is not just a threat to citizens; the drying out of the area would destroy entire local ecosystems and cause significant agricultural damage. A further increase to dust and noise levels is a threat as well. Furthermore, the end date for mining is to be delayed from 2020 out to 2044.
What would happen to Czech power grid in 2030 if all coal power plants were shut down? Even without coal-fired generation it is possible to ensure stable electricity supply in the Czech Republic, proves a study which we publicly presented in May 2018. Now we introduce new additional scenarios to the study, again analysed by Energynautics.
