Climate change is the most important challenge humankind ever faced. GHG emissions must be reduced at great pace and to a significant extent to keep global warming below fatal thresholds. This can only be achieved if the obligations of major players are sufficiently clear. The Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises’ main focus is on the obligations of enterprises. They identify the reduction obligations, and articulate a series of related obligations. The Principles aim to provide a legal basis for active investment management and engagement geared at stimulating enterprises to comply with their legal obligations.

This edition also contains obligations of accountants, credit rating agencies, (re)insurers and attorneys. An extensive commentary explains the Principles and their legal underpinning. The members of the Expert Group are: Jaap Spier, Bastiaan Kock, Brian J. Preston, Daniël Witte, Thomas Pogge, Philip Sutherland, Yann Aguila, Jörg Fedtke, Miquel Martin Casals, Qin Tianbao, Eva Schulev-Steindl, Jim Silk, Jessica Simor, and Elisabeth Steiner.

“The principles, as now updated, can be taken as a fair indication as to how the law stands or is likely to develop.” Lord Carnwath, former Justice of the UK Supreme Court

---

Inhoudsopgave:

PREFACES; TEXT OF THE PRINCIPLES; GENERAL COMMENTARY; 1 Members of the group; 2 Our website; 3 Concerned, and unprepared: the known knowns; 4 Concerned and allegedly prepared; 5 Ignorance; 6 From global warming to climate crisis; 7 Why an update?; 8 The purpose of the Principles; 9 Promising initiatives; 10 Why an emphasis on the corporate sector?; 11 Key features: general observations; 12 Key features: more emphasis on activities, products and services; 13 Key features: obligations of players in a position to bring about; tangible change; 14 Unwilling to take action: the costs are too high?; 15 Vague Principles, laudable Declarations, but concretisation important; 16 Principles as concrete as possible; 17 A special regime for fossil fuel enterprises?; 18 Attribution of GHG emissions; 19 A circular economy?; 20 The 2050 paradigm: aligning with the Paris Agreement: hoping for a bright future; 21 Let us focus on what needs to be done in the ten years to come; 22 Legal basis; 23 Not one size fits all; 24 Not all or nothing; 25 No bullet proof interpretation; 26 Bold interpretation in case of doubt?; 27 Gap filling obligations; 28 The law as a living instrument; 29 Role of courts; 30 Climate change and the other sustainability goals; 31 The temporal effect of the update; COMMENTARY TO THE PRINCIPLES; Use of the previous version of the commentary; Principle 1; Enterprises’ GHG emissions reduction obligations; Principle 2; Principle 2.1; Principle 2.1.1; Principle 2.1.2; Principle 2.1.3; Principle 2.1.4; Principle 2.2.1; Principle 2.2.2; Principles 3 and 4: flexibility to determine the reduction obligations different from Principle 2.1.1; Principle 3.1; Principle 3.3.1; Principle 3.3.2; Principle 3.3.3; Principle 4.1; Principle 4.2.1; Principles 4.2.2 and 4.2.3; Principle 4.3.1; Principles 4.3.2 and 4.3.3; Principle 5: General observations; Principle 5.1; Principle 5.2; Principle 6; Principles 7 and 8; Principle 7; Principle 7.1 Principle 7.2; Principle 8; General commentary on Principles 9 and 10; Principle 9.1; Principle 9.2; Principle 9.3; Principles 9.4 to 9.6; Principle 9.4; Principle 9.5; Principle 9.6; Principle 10; Principle 10.1; Principle 10.2; Principle 10.3; Principle 10.4; Principle 11; Principle 12; Principle 13.1; Principles 13.2 to 13.5; Principle 14; Principles 14.1(a), (b), (c); Principle 14.1(d); Principle 14.2; Principle 15; Principle 16; Principle 17; Consideration of suppliers’ GHG emissions; Principle 18; Principle 18.1; Principle 18.2; Principle 18.3; Principles 18.4 and 18.5; Principle 18.6; Advertising products and enticing consumers; Principles 19 and 20; Principle 19.1; Principle 19.2; Principle 20; Obligations of buyers of fossil fuels; Principle 21; Principle 21.1; Principle 21.2; Principle 21.3; Supermarket chains, major internet sellers and other major retailers; Principle 22; Principle 22.1; Principle 22.2; Principle 23: Outsourcing; Effective Climate Governance; Principles 24-26: general commentary; Principle 24; Principle 25; Principle 26; Enterprise’s Obligations of disclosure; Principles 27 to 34: Disclosure; Principle 27; Principle 28; Principle 29; Principle 30; Principle 31.1; Principle 31.2; Principle 32; Principle 33; Principle 34; Environmental impact assessments of new facilities; Principle 35; Principles 36 to 44: Obligations of financiers and investors: General Commentary; Obligations of financiers; Principle 36; Principles 37 to 44: Obligations of investors: general commentary; Principle 37; Principle 37.1; Principle 37.2; Principle 37.3; Principle 38; Principle 39; Principle 40; Principle 41.1; Principle 41.2; Principle 42; Principles 43.1 and 43.2; Principles 43.3 and 43.4; Principle 44; Principles 45 to 48: Obligations of insurers, re-insurers, accountants, credit rating agents and attorneys: General commentary; Principle 45: Insurers and re-insurers; Principle 45.2; Principles 46 to 48: Obligations of accountants, credit rating agencies and attorneys: General commentary; Principle 46: Accountants; Principle 47: Credit rating agencies; Principle 48: Attorneys; Principle 49: Exceptions for hard cases; Finally; Bibliography; Case law