The EU, Sustainability Regulations, and the Green Deal

We’re boarding the EU Omnibus to see how European corporate reporting regulating affect businesses – tens of thousands of them – within the EU and beyond.

The EU has been a major innovator when it comes to sustainability regulation, but it has not come without controversy. Professor Andreas, from the Copenhagen Business School Centre for Sustainability, joins us to talk about the changes that we have seen in recent years, where they have worked – and where there have been issues.

We talk about why the EU gets involved in sustainability directives and regulations in the first place; discover how they have been a pacesetter in the field; and show how regulations are more than just red tape, but also question how they could be improved.

We touch on the ambitions of the Green Deal, the environmental taxonomy, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR), the attempts of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to standardise sustainability reporting, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and try to understand the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). All the while trying not to drown in acronym soup and looking at the whole as one big system.

We see how thousands of companies have been affected – even if they don’t have to report themselves; how politics has pushed back against regulations, with the USA playing a role from outside; where the omnibus comes into everything (it’s not an actual bus); and the ever-changing nature of regulations, and why that can cause confusion.

Plus, we send Goldilocks on the hunt for just the right level of regulation; come to understand the concept of smart compliance – companies following the rules even if they don’t have to; and we look at how other countries are following Europe’s lead, and may even overtake the EU when it comes to regulations.

And we might even mention Brexit – however briefly.

For an overview of the EU’s Green deal: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

Information about the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is here: https://finance.ec.europa.eu/sustainable-finance/disclosures/sustainability-related-disclosure-financial-services-sector_en

And to understand the rationale for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/doing-business-eu/sustainability-due-diligence-responsible-business/corporate-sustainability-due-diligence_en

Episode Transcript