Lhe law finally seems to be moving from incentive to constraint to oblige companies to take up the cause of environmental protection. It was about time because the number of voluntary commitments (“say on climate”) among listed companies declined in 2023.
By advocating a simple ” presentation “ from climate strategy to general meetings of shareholders, the AFEP-Medef code seems very timid. The green industry law of October 25, 2023 finally renounced imposing a vote, even consultative, of the general meeting of shareholders on climate strategy (“say on climate”).
Finally, CSR issues are hardly mentioned by members of the board of directors within listed companies. According to a 2021 study, 49% say global warming is not (or only marginally) integrated into their company’s investment decisions – it is not fully integrated. only for 11% of them (“Changing the Climate in the Boardroom”, report by Heidrick & Struggles and Insead, December 2021).
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) of December 14, 2022, which must be transposed into French law by December 9, 2023 and which will come into force in 2024, aims to improve the quality of information relating to rights environmental, social and human rights within companies and all stakeholders.
A risk of legal or administrative sanctions
This directive requires the publication of this information in a specific section of the management reports of listed or large companies, as well as their certification by an independent third party, auditors or service providers. The main objective is to harmonize the reporting sustainability and improve the availability and quality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
Until now this information seemed intended more to instill confidence than to guarantee the transparency of its origin. But, in the future, failing to communicate or poorly communicating about sustainability will undoubtedly mean taking the risk of legal, administrative or disciplinary sanctions, or even financial losses.
The very hypothesis of being able to impose these sanctions, while it has long been believed that media sanction would be the most appropriate, demonstrates a change of direction in the direction of a hardening of a hitherto “flexible” law. The sanctions are however not specified in the final version of the CSRD directive; they will be defined by each Member State.
You have 55.4% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.