This legal briefing provides a detailed overview of the purpose, requirements, timeline, and most importantly, key interactions between different sustainability laws that will apply to companies operating in the European Union.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of developments in sustainability legislation covering both social and environmental aspects of sustainability. While this has positioned the EU as a driving force in the sustainability transition, it has also raised questions from the business community concerned over the complexity or overlaps between certain legal requirements.
With this new resource, we aim to help businesses understand these obligations and support good and efficient implementation. The briefing is designed to help companies navigate legal requirements in different areas, including due diligence, emissions tracking, climate transition planning, and sustainability reporting. Additionally, the Annexes provide a legal summary of each of the 10 legislations*, including process and output requirements, as well as details of GHG accounting methods.
Following the EU Commission’s presentation of the Omnibus Simplification package, our analysis also includes a summary of changes proposed, as well as elements that are not expected to be modified by EU policy-makers.
*The guide covers the following: the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Taxonomy, the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), the European Batteries Regulations (EUBR), the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the Conflict Minerals Regulation (CMR), and the Forced Labour Regulation (FLR).
This publication is part of a project funded by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI), which aims to support practical implementation of EU sustainability legislation by providing high-quality, publicly accessible research and expert guidance. To find out more, visit www.euki.de/en.
Dear Members of the European Parliament, In the next couple of weeks, various committees in the European Parliament will vote on their proposals to reform the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In view of that, the co-signing organisations are calling for broadening the scope of the companies to be covered by the new rules by including all listed SMEs, as well as non-listed SMEs operating in high-risk sectors, subject to proportional rules.
In response to demands from investors and companies, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in February 2022. The Directive is also a response to France, Germany and Norway adopting legislation on due diligence and attempts to harmonize and introduce one European standard of responsible business conduct.
After several months of delay, today, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive in Brussels. The main objective of this new legislation is to integrate into European law international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - adopted globally over a decade ago - and standards developed and approved by the OECD.
