ClientEarth and Frank Bold bring you their ultimate legal CS3D analysis. It unpacks every single environmental element of the directive and can be used by national governments to unlock its potential in the next two years.
The recently adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) is the first cross-sectoral legislation requiring large companies operating in the EU market to identify, prevent, and address adverse impacts on human rights and the environment. This includes impacts throughout their own operations, those of their subsidiaries, and their business partners in their value chains. Companies must also implement a climate change mitigation transition plan to align their business model and strategy with the transition to a sustainable economy and the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
Furthermore, companies must externally communicate relevant information about their due diligence policies, processes, and activities, including findings and outcomes. For most companies subject to the CS3D, this reporting obligation is addressed by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which amended the Accounting Directive to require the disclosure of sustainability information.
This guide aims at encouraging ambitious and robust transposition, implementation and enforcement of the CS3D by:
On September 24, we will hold a webinar presenting the key findings and recommendations of the analysis, specifically on the environmental scope of the CS3D as well as climate transition plans.
We will also bring together sustainability experts and business to discuss the potential challenges ahead and the best practices linked to the implementation of Environmental Due Diligence.
Look forward to hearing from:
As part of the reform of the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive, the European Commission plans to develop mandatory EU sustainability reporting standards. The analysis of the non-financial reports of 1000 European companies by the Alliance for Corporate Transparency has proven how companies fail to report relevant, specific and comparable information. While this is true for all sustainability matters, it is particularly exacerbated in the case of corporate impacts and risks along the supply chain.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that mining at Poland’s sprawling Turów coal mine must cease while the court processes a Czech government lawsuit against Poland for illegally operating the mine. The Polish mine pushes right up to the Czech and German borders and is depleting people’s water supplies and undercutting houses in nearby communities.
Local groups and NGOs including Frank Bold, that is very active in the process, welcomed the Czech government’s decision to file a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against the Polish government for the illegal operation of the Turów lignite coal mine, which has been dug right up to the Czech and German borders, damaging local water supplies for nearby communities. This is the first such legal case for the Czech Republic and the first in EU’s history where one member state sues another for environmental reasons.