The EU’s new supply chain regulations: progress and peril in promoting global sustainability

For instance, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which has now entered its initial implementation phase, imposes carbon costs on the “imported emissions” of some raw materials. The recently adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the EU Deforestation Regulation require companies to assess and address the environmental and human rights impacts caused by their subsidiaries and suppliers. Combined with earlier policies, such as the Conflict Minerals Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and revisions to the EU Emissions Trading System, these recent policies mark a significant shift from the soft, voluntary measures of prior decades to mandatory measures.

This shift-in-progress raises important questions about the nature of the EU’s regulatory authority, how compliance can be assessed on the ground, and how these new standards intersect with highly unequal structures of global trade.

The seminar will focus on four questions:

• How have business actors positioned themselves in policymaking processes?
• How are actors on different ends of the supply chain responding to and preparing for the EU regulations?
• How might the new regulations shift prices, purchasing practices, or the entire geography of global supply chains?
• What are the likely consequences of supply chain regulations in terms of human rights protection and environmental sustainability?

Agenda

15:00-15:05 | Opening Remarks

Toby Gardner, Moderator, Senior Research Fellow SEI and co-lead of the Trase initiative

15:05-15:12 | Research highlights: Business Positions on Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Due Diligence

Daniel Kinderman, Associate Professor, University of Delaware

15:12-15:19 | Research highlights: Levelling Playing Fields through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

John Murray, Associate Professor, Lund University

Tim Bartley, Professor, Georgetown University

15:19-15:26 | Research highlights: EU Deforestation Regulation Compliance Preparations in Coffee GVCs

Janina Grabs, Associate Professor, University of Basel

15:26-15:33 | Research highlights: Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) Laws and Consequences for Rightsholders

Surya Deva, Professor, Macquarie University

15:33-15:40 | Research highlights: How Civil Society in Producing Sites Leverage the HREDD Regime

Maria-Therese Gustafsson, Associate Professor, Stockholm University

15:40-16:00 | Panel Discussion and Audience Questions