Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Guidelines Response to the Open Public Consultation

ClientEarth argues that CSDDD guidelines must explicitly include greenhouse gas emissions under 'harmful emissions' and adopt a risk-based approach to environmental due diligence. The submission recommends a strict hierarchy for remediation—prioritising prevention and restoration over offsetting—and suggests the creation of industry-funded remediation funds to address complex value chain harms.

• The guidelines should explicitly state that "harmful emissions" under Point 15 of the Annex include anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including Scope 3 emissions. ClientEarth bases this on textual interpretation, the purpose of the Directive to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and recent judicial developments from the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice.
• Environmental due diligence must account for harms that are cumulative, diffuse, and intergenerational, meaning companies should not only look for immediate human rights impacts but also consider long-term and transboundary effects.
• The identification of adverse impacts should be a two-step process: a broad scoping exercise to identify general areas of risk (including sector-specific and geographic risks), followed by an in-depth assessment involving engagement with business partners and affected stakeholders.
• Prioritisation of responses to adverse impacts must be based exclusively on severity and likelihood. ClientEarth argues that a low likelihood of occurrence should not justify deprioritising a severe potential impact.
• Environmental remediation should follow a strict hierarchy: first preventive remedy, then restoration and rehabilitation (primary remediation), and finally compensation or offsetting (complementary remediation). Ecological restoration should be the default remedy for actual damage.
• To address the difficulty of attributing harm in global value chains, the guidelines should recommend that environmental restoration proceed first, with the allocation of costs resolved later. ClientEarth suggests establishing mandatory industry-funded environmental remediation funds based on criteria like turnover or market share.

APA

ClientEarth (2026). Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Guidelines Response to the Open Public Consultation. https://www.clientearth.org/media/t2db32gh/clientearth-final-written-submission-cs3d-guidelines-opc.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Guidelines Response to the Open Public Consultation. 2026. https://www.clientearth.org/media/t2db32gh/clientearth-final-written-submission-cs3d-guidelines-opc.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Guidelines Response to the Open Public Consultation |date=1 July 2026 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/t2db32gh/clientearth-final-written-submission-cs3d-guidelines-opc.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2026corporate, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Guidelines Response to the Open Public Consultation}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2026}, month = jul, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/t2db32gh/clientearth-final-written-submission-cs3d-guidelines-opc.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }