REP Wrap: Bumper week for US and EU policymakers
Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.
The US Government has thrown its weight behind the voluntary carbon markets this week and hinted that it wants the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to push forward with its plans to let companies use offsets for their Scope 3 emissions. In a statement, the White House said standard-setters “should consider incorporating approaches that allow companies to count credits toward a portion of their Scope 3 emissions associated with science-aligned emission pathways”. SBTi was accused of enabling companies to ignore their value-chain emissions recently, when it suggested updating its rules to allow offsets to be used to achieve Scope 3 targets. The White House’s statement came alongside the publication of seven “principles for high-integrity voluntary carbon markets”, which can be seen here.
The EU’s Eco-design for Sustainable Product Regulation has been rubber-stamped by European Council. Replacing the existing directive, which applied only the energy products, the new version requires all products sold in the region to meet rules on durability and reparability. Unsold clothing, textiles and footwear will be banned from being destroyed, and products will have to use digital passports to provide sustainability information through supply chains. The next step will be for European legislators to develop delegated acts outlining the details. Companies will have two years to comply.
The EU also passed the final legislative hurdle for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive on Friday, meaning the embattled law has been accepted in its watered-down form.
German cocoa company Albrecht & Dill has filed a lawsuit against the country’s department for agriculture and food over the EU’s deforestation law. The case argues that the regulation, which bans the export or import of products linked to the destruction of forests – even if the activity is legal in the country in which it is conducted – is ambiguous, impractical and burdensome. The rules will apply to large company from December and non-compliance could result in fines up to 4% of annual EU turnover, product confiscation and blacklisting from public procurement opportunities.
The EU’s advisory group on sustainable finance says it is “considering best ways to develop a simplified approach that would facilitate SMEs’ access to sustainable finance”. In a statement from the chair of the Platform on Sustainable Finance, Helena Vines Fiestas, the group said it was aware of the need to be proportional about what smaller companies are expected to disclose and comply with. “Two distinct approaches are to be considered, one mainly for listed SMEs, the other for unlisted ones,” said Vines Fiestas. The first is looking at how the EU’s green taxonomy can be made more usable for SMEs, and the second is to sidestep the taxonomy and find a way to highlight unlisted SMEs’ main environmental impacts. “This approach could be then further integrated into a future transition loan definition/standard for SMEs,” she noted.
Moody’s has assessed Latvenergo’s carbon transition plan and found it to be on track to keep it in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Latvian integrated energy firm was awarded a ‘NZ-3’ score in the assessment, although Moody’s noted that a slightly better score of NZ-2 was “potentially achievable” for the firm.
Amazon has picked 15 green start-ups to take part in a month-long programme to help accelerate the development of solutions to some o the environmental challenges faced by the retail giant. They include companies looking at fashion waste, energy storage and long-life batteries. At the end of the programme, three of the 15 will participate in a longer programme to launch their solutions, with up to £2m in support from Amazon.