EU Looks to Roll Back Climate Accounting Rules

The European Commission is reviewing elements of its flagship Green Deal environmental policy, as worries over rising costs and a lack of competitiveness with China and the U.S. grow within the continent.

- By YusuF KHAN AnD Kim MAcKRAEL

Commission officials met Wednesday and Thursday with businesses and industry groups to discuss broad changes to its sustainability legislation that will start to go into effect this year. The meeting followed a report by the bloc's executive arm in which it outlined concerns over competition and said that it needed to cut red tape while also championing decarbonisation to help the continent restore economic growth.

"The EU must urgently tackle long-standing barriers and structural weaknesses that hold it back. For over two decades, Europe hasn't been able to keep pace with other major economies, due to a persistent gap in productivity growth," the European Commission said in its Competitiveness Compass document.

The Competitiveness Compass laid out a plan to boost the bloc's economy and make its companies more competitive globally. Planned measures include reducing companies' regulatory burden, lowering barriers that hurt trade and investment flows between EU member states and offering better training opportunities for workers.

To address concerns about companies' regulatory burden, the EU plans to release a proposal later this month that is expected to pare back reporting requirements in some of the bloc's key sustainability laws. Two key policies are under review: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.