Posted on October, 05 2023
WWF Greece together with 12 Greek organisations have sent a letter to the European Commission highlighting the urgent need for the EU to require companies to cut emissions in the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
This summer, the worsening climate change resulted in unprecedented floods and wildfires in Greece. The calamities claimed tens of lives, flooded 72,000 hectares, and burnt 161,000 hectares of valuable arable land and ecosystems—an area nearly 15 times the size of the Brussels-Capital Region. The tragedies cost Greece one quarter of its agricultural output and billions of euros in losses, and led to permanent harm to the jobs, livelihoods and future prospects in the agriculture and tourism sectors.
Alexandros Moulopoulos, Climate and energy lead at WWF Greece said: "Despite the gravity of the situation and corporate emissions being a major contributor to the climate disasters, no EU law requires firms from across all sectors to actually cut their emissions. The EU increasingly encourages larger companies to develop corporate-wide transition plans to align their activities with the climate goals, but nothing obligates them to truly implement these plans."
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is a crucial policy tool, which could mandate all larger companies to develop and implement transition plans with science-based emission reduction targets. However, several EU Member States are actively opposing the requirement for companies to ‘implement’ those plans. This would make transition plans a mere formality and fail to ensure that EU’s firms would be sufficiently contributing to tackling the climate crisis and prepared to cope with its growing impact on business.
Uku Lilleväli, Sustainable Finance Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office said: “The corporate sector must not only plan but also take rapid and decisive action to cut emissions and address the worsening climate impacts on business. This is a non-negotiable for safeguarding lives, jobs and the economy in Greece and beyond."
WWF calls on the European Commission to take political leadership and to support a strong and forward-looking Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive that requires larger companies throughout the EU to both develop and implement transition plans.
