The European Parliament has turned its back on climate and nature, people, and businesses, by effectively dismantling the EU’s flagship corporate sustainability laws, all in the name of ‘simplification’.
“These laws that provided hope, security, and promise for a fairer and more sustainable future have been reduced to performative exercises that have little effect on the real needs of people, nature, and businesses. This is not a time to slow down on our path to a more sustainable economy, but the EU is moving in reverse”, said Mariana Ferreira, Sustainable Finance Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office.
To reach this agreement, conservative Members of the European Parliament aligned with far-right groups, knocking the political stability of the institution off-balance and raising serious concerns over the future of legislative processes in the EU.
With today’s result, the omnibus package sees major changes made to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and, in turn, the EU Taxonomy. It is particularly disheartening to see the dwindling of Climate Transition Plans, which are a key tool for reaching climate targets, particularly after years of practice and market evidence from thousands of progressive companies. The substantial reduction of scope in reporting obligations is also very damaging, as it signals to companies that have been investing in effective reporting systems that the EU does not support them in their efforts to become sustainable.
“The European Commission bears significant responsibility in this debacle, having opened a Pandora’s box of sensitive files in a rushed and unevidenced process that created the conditions for a disastrous race to the bottom. Both the Parliament and the Council have worsened the Commission’s Omnibus proposal,” said Sebastien Godinot, Senior Economist at WWF European Policy Office.
The process is moving fast, and the interinstitutional negotiations are expected to start soon. WWF calls on EU institutions to keep corporate climate transition plans central to the EU Sustainable Finance Framework, maintain the scope ambition based on market evidence, and not sacrifice our climate and nature on the altar of competitiveness: both can and must go together for Europe’s long-term resilience.
