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.
The Frank Bold Society and the Neighbourhood Association Uhelná called on the Czech government today to be more consistent in its negotiations with Poland over mining at the Turów brown coal mine. According to both organisations, the government did not have enough information or time to prepare an agreement that would truly protect Czech interests. Moreover, the government has acted in a non-transparent manner by failing to inform the public in advance of the terms of the agreement being prepared, which should lead to the withdrawal of the action against Poland at the EU Court of Justice. The organisations have therefore drawn up a document with seven basic demands on which the Czech side should insist.
The European Commission recently introduced a draft of the revised EU ETS Directive which, among other things, proposes that 100 % of ETS revenues should be used for environmental measures. We welcome this idea but we’re also sceptical about how the ETS revenues are used in the Czech Republic. Therefore, we have prepared an analysis mapping the use of ETS revenues in Czech Republic and sent it to the European Commission as an input for the recent public consultation. The main conclusions are presented below.
We have analysed hundreds of pages of technical documents and prepared a comprehensive overview of the sustainability reporting requirements under the forthcoming EU legislation. We summarise what ESG data will be critical for companies, banks, and investors in sustainability strategy and management and in the areas of climate change, environment, sustainable activities, employees and supply chains, due diligence, and anti-corruption measures.
