The UK Government launched a Consultation on the introduction of a UK CBAM on 21 March 2024. The Consultation closes on 13 June 2024. This follows the announcement, in December 2023, that the UK would implement a UK CBAM similar to the EU CBAM which came into effect on 1 October 2023.
In this update
On March 5, 2024, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a “political agreement” on a Regulation prohibiting products made with forced labour (“the EU Forced Labour Regulation” or “the EUFLR“) on the European Union (“EU“) market (see Insight of 6 March 2024 hhttps://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2024/03/eu-political-agreement-on-forced-labor-product-ban).
On 9 June 2023, the European Union published Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation (the “Deforestation Regulation” or the “EUDR”). The EUDR entered into force on 29 June 2023, although the main prohibitions
On March 5, 2024, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a “political agreement” on a Regulation prohibiting products made with forced labor on the European Union (“EU“) market.1 While binding legislation was initially proposed by the European Commission (“Commission“) in September 2022 (see Legal Update
On 20 December 2023, the Council of the EU reached an agreement on its negotiating mandate on a proposal for a regulation on ESG ratings (the “Proposed EU Regulation“). This builds on the European Commission’s proposal, which was published on 13 June 2023.
The EU’s desire to regulate ESG rating agencies is a response to increasing concerns from a variety of stakeholders about the reliability, comparability and transparency of ESG ratings and the data behind these ratings.Continue Reading Council of the EU agrees on proposal to regulate ESG ratings providers
On 14 December 2023, following several rounds of inter-institutional negotiations, the European Council of the European Union (Council) and the European Parliament (Parliament) announced that a political agreement had been reached on a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CS3D). The European Commission (Commission) had initially published its proposal for CS3D on 23 February 2022, with the Council and the Parliament issuing their own positions on the text on 30 November 2022 and 1 June 2023, respectively (see our previous blogs, here, here and here).
Inspired by the 2017 French law on Corporate Duty of Vigilance and the 2021 German Supply Chain Law (see our previous blog post), and in response to growing stakeholder expectations and demands in the EU and globally, CS3D sets out EU standards for human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD), requiring in-scope companies to mitigate their negative impact on human rights and the environment with respect to their own operations, those of their subsidiaries and those carried out by their business partners. In so doing, CS3D seeks to provide legal certainty and a level playing field as regards corporate supply chain obligations.Continue Reading Human Rights and the Environment – EU Institutions Reach Political Agreement On Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
On 31 May 2023, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 regarding the marketing and export of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation from the European Union. In this Legal Update, we delve into the regulation and highlight what operators and traders should know
On 1 June 2023, the European Parliament (the “EP“) plenary session adopted its proposed amendments to the draft EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“CSDDD“).
The adopted text largely mirrors the version voted on by the EP’s Legal Affairs Committee in April 2023 (which we discussed in our earlier blog post), in that it confirms that:
The adopted text also confirms that non-compliant companies may be liable for damages and could be sanctioned by the national supervisory authorities of EU member states. Sanctions include taking a company’s goods off the market and/or the imposition of fines of at least 5% of a company’s net global turnover. Non-EU companies that fail to comply may also be banned from public procurement in the EU.Continue Reading Human Rights and the Environment – European Parliament adopts amendments to draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
The European Union has agreed on the final version of its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (“CBAM”). The CBAM will apply to a limited set of products (cement, aluminium, fertilisers, electric energy production, hydrogen, iron and steel, as well as some “precursors” such as cathode active materials and a limited number of downstream products)
On 25 April 2023, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted in favour of a revised version of the EU draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“the Draft Directive”).
The revised version differs from the versions that we have previously commented on here, here and here in the following key respects: