Towards Planetary Boundaries for Business? - The EU’s Ambivalent Approach to Corporate Environmental Due Diligence

Abstract

While the material scope of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) fell behind civil society demands, it does mandate a degree of environmental due diligence that constitutes a tentative shift towards real corporate environmental accountability. Despite its conceptual restrictions, which are the result of a somewhat polarised legislative process, the CSDDD’s environmental annex provides a provision with potential for the protection of biological diversity: the reference to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Keywords

• CSDDD
• Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
• Environment
• Environmental Protection
• Lieferkettengesetz
• Umweltschutz