Economies wavering, too many businesses in difficulty, the far right gaining ground everywhere. Faced with this scenario, for many the solution is to abandon the few, insufficient advances made on the environmental front. The new European Commission, despite being led by Ursula von der Leyen, appears to be oriented towards a markedly less incisive approach on ecological issues. The Draghi report, commissioned by the same executive body in Brussels, made the case that environmental regulations risk becoming too great a financial and bureaucratic burden for European businesses. The latest in a line — though particularly significant both for the political weight of his country and for the language used — is the new prime minister of France, Michel Barnier.

For the French prime minister, the rules are "dangerous" and "counterproductive"

The head of the Paris government has announced his intention to introduce "a moratorium" on a series of regulations. Including the CSRD directive, which from next January will require companies to report on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and the sustainability risks to which they are exposed. And including, too, the regulations needed for the ecological transition.

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Une proposition “dangereuse” et “contreproductive” à l’heure où la transformation durable de l’économie apparaît plus que jamais essentielle novethic.fr/economie-et-so…

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The reason? According to Barnier, these are rules that are "dangerous" and "counterproductive". "This applies in particular to certain European texts, whose scope it would be wise to re-examine," he added. Such a position represents an enormous problem, given that the CSRD directive, for instance, is a cornerstone of the transformation of European businesses towards greater sustainability. Politically, moreover, this is the first time a French head of government has explicitly called into question the European Green Deal.

A contradictory message sent to European businesses

It must be said that from a legal standpoint, one might well ask what a moratorium would actually entail. European law stipulates that directives must be transposed into national law by each member state, though unlike regulations they are not simply introduced wholesale: directives set an objective and leave individual states to determine how to achieve it. It is here that rules and loopholes could creep in, even if the process remains a difficult one — just recently, the Court of Justice of the European Union launched proceedings against seventeen member states precisely because they had not transposed the CSRD.

The political dimension remains, however. The risk is that businesses receive a contradictory message, implying that it is right to rail against these regulations. On the contrary, a survey by PwC showed that the majority of European businesses do not regard the CSRD directive as a bureaucratic deadweight, but rather as an opportunity.

Procrastinating on the ecological transition actually means increasing costs

Climate change, moreover, demands immediate and drastic action. Opposing the regulations that require an ecological transition means compounding the crisis stemming from global warming, along with its impacts and its costs. Because, as is well known, the cost of inaction will certainly be higher than the cost of action — assuming the latter is truly only a burden, and not a potential driver of a new, different and more sustainable form of growth.