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As part of its strategy to implement the European Green Deal and the Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
This paper specifically addresses the parts of the proposal that relate to corporate governance and directors’ obligations, as well as to the responsibilities of the financial sector. It intends to complement the analyses of non governmental and expert organisations on the due diligence aspects.
1. Directors’ obligations as part of due diligence
2. Directors’ obligations with regard to climate change
3. Alignment of incentives to sustainability objectives
4. Responsibilities of the financial sector
In the explanatory memorandum of the draft CSDDD, the EU Commission recalls that one of the five specific objectives of the directive is “(1) improving corporate governance practices to better integrate risk management and mitigation processes of human rights and environmental risks and impacts, including those stemming from value chains, into corporate strategies”. However, the proposal initially referred to as 'Sustainable Corporate Governance' has been presented with only a few elements to foster integration of sustainability and long-term thinking in corporate governance rules. It is important that corporate governance keeps pace with sustainable finance and the demands of stakeholders and investors, which themselves have supported the call on clarifying directors’ obligations.
Briefing supported by:
NGOs and civil society groups will only support an ambitious first set of sector-agnostic ESRS that closely builds on the EFRAG drafts adopted last November. They urge the Commission to follow EFRAG’s technical advice alongside 60+ companies and investors worth 651bn USD, and caution against making significant changes at this stage, as this would risk discrediting the process so far and undoing a good compromise.
Governments turning a blind eye to Illegal lignite mining in Turów: Local communities and the environment suffer.
Frank Bold, ShareAction, Accountancy Europe, Eurosif, Finance Watch and WWF, as members of the Informal Group on Sustainable Finance, have released a joint statement on the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
