Global warming is, by definition, a global problem. But the worldwide scope of the EU’s latest climate change effort — designed to end the practice of describing things as greener than they really are — is provoking alarm on Wall Street.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, agreed in principle with little fanfare earlier this summer and due to come into force from next June, compels all “large” companies that operate in the EU or have listed securities in the bloc to produce extensive new reports on the effects of their business, and of their parent companies, on the environment.
“It’s deliberately global in application,” said Chris McGarry, lawyer at White Case. “That obviously makes sense because we’re talking about global issues.” Andrew Hobbs, of EY, said the rules had become more extraterritorial than the EU’s original proposals.