The European Taxonomy Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: A Human Rights Perspective
(2022) JURM02 20222Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- The EU has over the last few years set up the objective to become climate neutral by the year 2050. To achieve this objective, the European Commission has recognised the need for a massive transition investment into sustainable economic activities. The European Commission has also recognised that this investment cannot be done without the help of private funding which is why the European Commission recently adopted the Taxonomy Regulation that will help entities such as governments and private actors to categorize what activities can be regarded as sustainable and conclusively help the EU in the green transition.
As this green transition will have a huge impact on resources allocated to sustainable activities both inside and outside of... (More) - The EU has over the last few years set up the objective to become climate neutral by the year 2050. To achieve this objective, the European Commission has recognised the need for a massive transition investment into sustainable economic activities. The European Commission has also recognised that this investment cannot be done without the help of private funding which is why the European Commission recently adopted the Taxonomy Regulation that will help entities such as governments and private actors to categorize what activities can be regarded as sustainable and conclusively help the EU in the green transition.
As this green transition will have a huge impact on resources allocated to sustainable activities both inside and outside of the EU, the European Commission has also identified the need to incorporate human rights considerations into this framework in what is named ‘the minimum safeguards’. Although these minimum safeguards establish a need for human rights considerations, especially the Bill of Rights and business and human rights frameworks such as the UNGPs and OECD guidelines on multinational enterprises, there is no clear guidance as to how these considerations should be applied in practice. Therefore, the European Commission has proposed a new directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, that will ensure that entities that want their activities to be classified as sustainable must conduct a human rights audit that fulfil several human rights considerations.
This thesis examines the relationship between on the one hand the Taxonomy and on the other hand the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive out of a human rights perspective. It finds that there is undoubtedly a clear need for the proposed directive but that the correlation to human rights standards and the reference to the frameworks on business and human rights differ in the two instruments. There are several variations, both in the application and in the integration of the proposed directive. This thesis establishes that the combination of instruments has potential but that the dissonance will potentially undermine human rights concerns in relation to the aspiration of the EU of becoming climate neutral in 2050. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- EU har under de senaste åren satt upp målet att bli klimatneutral till 2050. För
att nå upp till målet har EU-kommissionen identifierat att det behövs en massiv ekonomisk investering i hållbara ekonomiska aktiviteter runt om i EU.
Denna omställning kan inte lösas utan stöd från privata investeringar och som
en lösning på detta har EU-kommissionen infört EU:s gröna taxonomi som
ska hjälpa entiteter såsom stater och privata aktörer att klassificera vilka ekonomiska aktiviteter som kan räknas som hållbara och därmed hjälpa EU att
nå målet om att bli klimatneutral till 2050.
Eftersom denna omställning innebär en stor resursallokering till hållbara aktiviteter i och utanför EU har EU-kommissionen sett till så att det inkorporerats... (More) - EU har under de senaste åren satt upp målet att bli klimatneutral till 2050. För
att nå upp till målet har EU-kommissionen identifierat att det behövs en massiv ekonomisk investering i hållbara ekonomiska aktiviteter runt om i EU.
Denna omställning kan inte lösas utan stöd från privata investeringar och som
en lösning på detta har EU-kommissionen infört EU:s gröna taxonomi som
ska hjälpa entiteter såsom stater och privata aktörer att klassificera vilka ekonomiska aktiviteter som kan räknas som hållbara och därmed hjälpa EU att
nå målet om att bli klimatneutral till 2050.
Eftersom denna omställning innebär en stor resursallokering till hållbara aktiviteter i och utanför EU har EU-kommissionen sett till så att det inkorporerats minimiskyddsåtgärder som ska skydda mänskliga rättigheter i anslutning
till dessa investeringar. Dessa minimiskyddsåtgärder etablerar ett krav att
följa internationella konventioner såsom OECD:s riktlinjer för multinationella företag och FN:s vägledande principer för företag och mänskliga rättigheter, och det internationella regelverket för mänskliga rättigheter. Dock etablerar inte minimiskyddsåtgärderna någon klar ledning av hur dessa åtaganden ska genomföras i praktiken. Som svar på detta har EU-kommissionen gett
förslag på direktivet om hållbarhet i företags värdekedjor som ska säkerställa
att aktiviteter som ska klassas som hållbara måste genomgå en granskning
med hänseende till mänskliga rättigheter.
Den här uppsatsen undersöker hur mänskliga rättigheter korrelerar med å ena
sidan den gröna taxonomin och å andra sidan direktivet om hållbarhet i företags värdekedjor och hur dessa rättsliga dokument förhåller sig till varandra.
Slutsatsen är att det nya direktivet är nödvändigt för att säkerställa minimiskyddsrättigheterna men att korrelationen mellan vilka överväganden som
görs i förhållande till mänskliga rättigheter skiljer sig mellan de två instrumenten. Det finns flera skillnader som avser både tillämpligheten och i integrationen av direktivet. Uppsatsen slår fast att de båda instrumenten har potential men att dissonansen riskerar att underminera införandet av ett starkt
skydd för mänskliga rättigheter i förhållande till EU:s mål att bli klimatneutrala 2050. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9104618
- author
- Kristensson, Björn LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JURM02 20222
- year
- 2022
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- EU law, Public international law, Human Rights Law, Business and Human Rights, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Taxonomy Regulation, Human Rights Due Diligence
- language
- English
- id
- 9104618
- date added to LUP
- 2023-01-24 09:17:06
- date last changed
- 2023-01-24 09:17:06
@misc{9104618,
abstract = {{The EU has over the last few years set up the objective to become climate neutral by the year 2050. To achieve this objective, the European Commission has recognised the need for a massive transition investment into sustainable economic activities. The European Commission has also recognised that this investment cannot be done without the help of private funding which is why the European Commission recently adopted the Taxonomy Regulation that will help entities such as governments and private actors to categorize what activities can be regarded as sustainable and conclusively help the EU in the green transition.
As this green transition will have a huge impact on resources allocated to sustainable activities both inside and outside of the EU, the European Commission has also identified the need to incorporate human rights considerations into this framework in what is named ‘the minimum safeguards’. Although these minimum safeguards establish a need for human rights considerations, especially the Bill of Rights and business and human rights frameworks such as the UNGPs and OECD guidelines on multinational enterprises, there is no clear guidance as to how these considerations should be applied in practice. Therefore, the European Commission has proposed a new directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, that will ensure that entities that want their activities to be classified as sustainable must conduct a human rights audit that fulfil several human rights considerations.
This thesis examines the relationship between on the one hand the Taxonomy and on the other hand the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive out of a human rights perspective. It finds that there is undoubtedly a clear need for the proposed directive but that the correlation to human rights standards and the reference to the frameworks on business and human rights differ in the two instruments. There are several variations, both in the application and in the integration of the proposed directive. This thesis establishes that the combination of instruments has potential but that the dissonance will potentially undermine human rights concerns in relation to the aspiration of the EU of becoming climate neutral in 2050.}},
author = {{Kristensson, Björn}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The European Taxonomy Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: A Human Rights Perspective}},
year = {{2022}},
}