Over the past decade, the EU has taken a pioneering role in extending environmental and social standards to companies’ global supply chains. This trend has been widely hailed as a ground-breaking attempt to bring the state back in and to overcome the limitations of voluntary measures.
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.
In this webinar, hosted by the REBALANCE project, Stockholm Environment Institute and Mistra Geopolitics, leading researchers with expertise in different supply chain regulations and anchored in various research debates (business and human rights, environmental governance and supply chain regulations) will present their ongoing research.
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
14:00-14:05 | Opening Remarks
Toby Gardner, Moderator, Senior Research Fellow SEI and co-lead of the Trase initiative
14:05-14:12 | Research highlights: Business Positions on Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Due Diligence
Daniel Kinderman, Associate Professor, University of Delaware
14:12-14:19 | Research highlights: Levelling Playing Fields through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
John Murray, Associate Professor, Lund University
Tim Bartley, Professor, Georgetown University
14:19-14:26 | Research highlights: EU Deforestation Regulation Compliance Preparations in Coffee GVCs
Janina Grabs, Associate Professor, University of Basel
14:26-14:33 | Research highlights: Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) Laws and Consequences for Rightsholders
Surya Deva, Professor, Macquarie University
14:33-14:40 | Research highlights: How Civil Society in Producing Sites Leverage the HREDD Regime
Maria-Therese Gustafsson, Associate Professor, Stockholm University
14:40-15:00 | Panel Discussion and Audience Questions
To register please visit the following webpage.
