Sustainability’s Uncertain Future in the EU: An Expert Analysis

2025 is set to be an eventful year for sustainability in the European Union. After the release of the Draghi report and the results of the EU parliamentary elections in 2024, sustainability regulations enter the new year on the defensive against increasingly critical attacks from industry and elected representatives alike.

Richard Gardiner is well placed to provide guidance and insights into what to expect in the EU in 2025. He is the strategic public policy lead at the World Benchmarking Alliance, a Dutch-registered NGO that analyzes the sustainability performance of the 2,000 most impactful companies around the world to establish benchmarks and best practices for sustainability. His background includes directing the EU office and advocacy efforts at Global Witness, where he spearheaded campaigns and initiatives aimed at tackling corruption, human rights violations, and environmental harm perpetrated by corporations and governments around the world. His work has been critical in establishing impactful coalitions, creating strategic alliances, and achieving meaningful and lasting advocacy results.

Gardiner began the conversation with 3E by discussing the potential omnibus, which EU President Ursula von der Leyen announced on 8 November 2024. Von der Leyen asserted that overlapping requirements in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Taxonomy Regulation, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD or CS3D) are creating bureaucratic obstacles that are potentially constraining EU competitiveness, and that an omnibus regulation will be critical for eliminating redundancies and creating efficiencies.