‘We’re not asking for an easier path, we’re asking for a level one’: German truck CSO calls for policy certainty

Traton’s Andreas Follér says companies need ‘stable, predictable and fair’ rules

The head of sustainability at German truck maker Traton has called on governments to become the “architects of certainty” when it comes to climate policy. 

Andreas Follér, CSO at the Volkswagen subsidiary, wrote in a LinkedIn post that firms were “not asking for an easier path” when it came to green ambitions, but “a level one”. 

The post was a follow-up to a question he was asked at London Climate Action Week on what businesses need from governments in the run-up to the COP30 climate summit later this year. 

It comes as the EU continues with its efforts to pare back its corporate sustainability laws, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).  

Traton would have been required to publish its first mandatory CSRD report in 2026, for the 2025 financial year, but regulators have now delayed that by two years.

Some lawmakers are pushing for the obligations to be further reduced during ongoing political negotiations, and for companies like Traton to be removed altogether from the scope of the directive.

“What we ask from you is clear: set ambitious, science-based frameworks that are stable, predictable, and fair,” Follér wrote in his post. 

He added that companies need “regulatory clarity and market signals that reward those who act fast, invest boldly, and decarbonise deep”. 

If the right conditions are in place, Follér said businesses can scale solutions more quickly than governments and “mobilise trillions in capital and turn climate ambition into industrial renewal”. 

His post attracted support including from Vodaphone’s CSO, Bobbie Mellor.