Greening corporations via corporate law: implementation of article 22 CSDDD via a Climate Quota
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Climate change is, to say the least, one of the key challenges of the twenty-first century. Tackling it is a human duty and task ( United Nations Development Programme , Climate Change is a matter of justice, http://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/climate-change-matter-justice-heres-why ). Like in all other areas of life, the law has to play its role in achieving this task ( Sjåfjell , Why Law Matters: Corporate Social Irresponsibility and the Futility of Voluntary Climate Change Mitigation, University of Oslo Faculty of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series, No. 2011-17, pp. 12 et seqq.). Many states have already committed to specific climate protection targets via law (see e.g. the German Climate Protection Act in which Germany formulates the goal of reaching greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045; similarly the European Climate Law, which writes into law the goal of the green deal; from a comparative view Merner et al., Comparative analysis of legal mechanisms to net-zero: Lessons from Germany, the United States, Brazil, and China, Carbon Management 2024, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 1 seqq.) or at least via declarations of intention (Japan for example aims to be climate neutral by 2050, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/davos23-japan-accelerate-efforts-carbon-neutral-society/ , China by 2060 https://english.mee.gov.cn/Resources/Reports/reports/202211/P020221110605466439270.pdf ). Furthermore, they are obliged to climate protection by constitutional (The German Climate Ruling (BVerfG judgment of 24.03.2021 – 1 BvR 2656/18, 1 BvR 96/20, 1 BvR 78/20, 1 BvR 288/20, 1 BvR 96/20, 1 BvR 78/20), decided that Art. 20a of the German Constitution contains the duty of the state to protect the climate, including to achieve a state of climate neutrality as soon as possible; similarly Urgenda Climate Case, Rechtsbank Den Haag, search number: C/09/456689 / HA ZA 13-1396, https://elaw.org/wp-content/uploads/archive/urgenda_0.pdf , however not regarding domestic constitutional law, but rather the European Convention on Human Rights; on the significance of the German Climate Ruling: Jahn , Domestic courts as a guarantee of international climate cooperation: Insights from the German Constitutional Court’s climate decision, International Journal of Constitutional Law 2023, pp. 859-883; Winter , The Intergenerational Effect of Fundamental Rights: A Contribution of the German Constitutional Court to Climate Protection, Journal of Environmental Law 2022 (34), pp. 209-221) and international law (The well known obligation under the Paris Agreement of 12 December 2015 to keep global warming significantly below 2 °C; furthermore there are pending advisory opinions in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) which aim to clarify the duties of states concerning climate change with regards to international law; additionally, climate change litigation has already lead to clarification regarding the duty for climate protection enshrined in human right, notably the cases Urgenda against the Netherlands and “The Peoples‘ Climate Case”, in which the Dutch Supreme Court and the European General Court saw a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights). The biggest contributors to climate change, however, are companies. Only 100 companies—the carbon majors —are responsible for over 60% of all global greenhouse gases ( Griffin , CDP Carbon Majors Report 2017 p. 8, https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf ). A total of 90% of these companies are privately owned ( Griffin , CDP Carbon Majors Report 2017 p. 8, https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf ). This has led to an international trend in recent years towards regulatory activities in the form of climate-related product standards and corporate climate disclosure requirements, which are intended to nudge businesses to transform to “net zero” (Hale et al., Turning a groundswell of climate action into ground rules for net zero, Nature Climate Change 2024, Vol. 14, pp. 306, 307).
Source: npj Climate Action
Institution: Heidelberg University
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,340
OpenAlex ID: W4410214617