“‘The climate emergency won’t wait’ – Global Witness reacts to EP vote to delay CSDDD”

Reacting to the European Parliament’s vote to back a delay of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Beate Beller, campaigner at Global Witness said:

“MEPs have backed a delay to this vital climate protection law – but the climate emergency won’t wait for it to come into force. Delays and any watering down of this law not only fail people and planet, but create uncertainty and instability.

“In an uncertain world, the European Union has a responsibility to stand firm and uphold its global leadership on climate. We’re calling on the EU to reintroduce key parts of the original law – like obliging big companies to act on climate, and giving communities around the world the chance to take them to court in Europe for human rights abuses committed outside the EU.”

Last week, Global Witness revealed yet another example of the sort of dangerous activity that the CSDDD was designed to prevent.

Secretly-filmed footage showed Veolia, a multi-billion-dollar European company, pumping toxins into a protected nature area in Colombia, potentially contaminating the downstream water supply for hundreds of thousands of people… [Read Veolia's comments here]