Supply Chain Due Diligence and Reporting Regulations

The European Union enforced new rules forbidding products made with forced labor in the EU market while allowing shipments to be intercepted on the bloc’s border. National authorities or the EU Commission will investigate suspicious products and supply chains.

Companies doing business in the EU and dealing with certain products must conduct extensive due diligence on their supply chains to avoid buying from illegal forest clearance to reduce deforestation significantly.

The C-12 Bill seals Canada’s net zero transition into writing. This move sets out federal emissions targets in law, giving precedent to Canadian businesses to also hold themselves accountable to emissions-reduction goals.

The Australian government released its second Consultation Paper on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, setting out the proposed design of Australia’s mandatory climate reporting regime.

A framework for ESG reporting in India, BRSR represents a significant revolution from the Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR) voluntary guidelines set out in 2009. Today’s global reporting arena necessitated more refined standards to enhance sustainability disclosures and promote transparency and accountability among Indian companies.

Senate Bill 261 requires certain entities doing business in California to disclose climate-related financial risks in detail and make that information publicly accessible.

If adopted, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule would require publicly traded companies to improve and standardize their disclosures on climate-related risks, GHG emissions and net-zero transition plans.

The Uyghur Customs Act is a US federal law that aims to prevent imports linked to forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China from entering US markets. Importers whose shipments are flagged for potential association with the region will have to demonstrate that their products are either not sourced from Xinjiang or were not produced with forced labor.

California’s Senate Bill 253, The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, requires large businesses operating in California to disclose their GHG emissions. Part of California’s Climate Accountability Package, the bill is the first in the country to mandate disclosing climate-related information in a standardized manner.

The beginning of October 2023 marks the start of the transition period of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. While the definitive phase won’t start until January 2026, EU importers are already required to monitor CO2 emissions embedded in their goods through cyclic reporting.

Effective January 2024, the “Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act,” or the S-211 bill, introduces reporting obligations on some entities to describe the measures they have taken to prevent and reduce the risk that they or their suppliers are using forced labor or child labor. The first reports are due by the end of May 2024.

The California Transparency Act requires businesses to disclose the effort they take to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their direct supply chains by requiring companies of the specified size and scope to disclose their efforts to eradicate these practices.

This Australian Commonwealth legislative regime establishes a reporting requirement for certain large entities to prepare annual public reports on their actions to address forced labor risks in their operations and supply chains. The reporting requirement applies to Australian entities and foreign entities carrying on business in Australia.

This landmark 2015 legislation consolidated modern slavery and human trafficking offenses and introduced preventive measures, support systems, and a regulatory body. The current regime requires commercial organizations to publish an annual statement on their efforts to eradicate forced or involuntary labor within any part of their value chains.

The SFDR imposes reporting requirements on investment funds and other financial market participants to capture their ESG performance. Comprehensive and standardized disclosure should enable investors to make informed decisions regarding the environmental and social impacts of their investment choices.

This taxonomy is primarily a classification system that sets out a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities. To scale up sustainable investing and limit greenwashing, the EU developed an assessment framework with well-defined criteria for science-based screening of 170 activities.

The CSRD, underpinned by 12 European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), requires companies to submit detailed disclosures on their sustainability performance and to consider the impact of sustainability on their business.

Lieferkettengesetzes or LkSG mandates due diligence on human rights and environmental issues in supply chains. The German Act is an addition to a growing body of prescriptive legislation to ensure that companies take responsibility for their value chains. It requires specific due diligence actions and parameters in risk mapping, assessment and mitigation, as well as a higher threshold for supplier response.

The French law of duty of care requires select companies to establish annual vigilance plans to identify and prevent serious violations against human rights, fundamental freedoms, individuals’ health and safety, and the environment committed by their subsidiaries, suppliers or subcontractors.

The proposed Dutch legislation would oblige companies to investigate whether their goods or services have been produced utilizing child labor and to devise a plan to prevent the occurrence of such. The law would also impose a reporting obligation on companies to affirm they have exercised an appropriate level of supply chain due diligence to stop child labor.

The Transparency Act ensures the public access to information on how businesses safeguard human rights and decent working conditions across their supply chains. Larger enterprises carrying on a business in Norway now have a legal obligation to conduct human rights due diligence and report their findings.