Media advisory, 10 March 2025

Launched today, the Mistra Geopolitics policy brief Human rights and environmental due diligence in the green transition, shows that if the new EU proposal on due diligence regulation would be adopted, it would significantly weaken recent human rights and environmental due diligence regulation.

On 26 February 2025, the EU Commission proposed simplified rules for companies on sustainable finance reporting, sustainability due diligence, EU Taxonomy etc. Lead author Maria-Therese Gustafsson, Associate Professor at Stockholm University and researcher in Mistra Geopolitics said:

“Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) rules serve as a crucial tool for addressing the negative impacts of critical raw material supply chains, requiring large companies to identify and mitigate risks associated with their business activities. However, on February 26, the European Commission introduced an Omnibus proposal that, if adopted, it would significantly weaken existing HREDD legislation.”

European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Henri Buenen / Unsplash.

How to make HREDD rules effective

• Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) rules offer a tool to address negative impacts associated with critical raw material supply chains, placing new demands on large companies to identify and address risks related to their business activities.
• The European Union is currently renegotiating legislation on corporate sustainability and human rights obligations. The adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is likely to be weakened by the EU’s recent efforts to align it with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Taxonomy Regulation through an Omnibus law.
• For Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence rules to be effective, they must be integrated into policies regulating critical raw material supply chains. These policies should include clear implementation guidance, rigorous monitoring of companies’ due diligence systems (including voluntary standards), strict reporting requirements, and robust enforcement mechanisms.

Demands for critical raw materials continue to rise

“As global demand for critical raw materials continue to rise, and the prospect of a diluted HREDD framework loom, the tension between securing supply and mitigating harm will only deepen. In this context, decision-makers must ensure that HREDD remains embedded in CRM governance to establish a framework that supports a just and sustainable green transition,” Maria-Therese Gustafsson said.

Read the policy brief

For interviews or information, please contact:

Ylva Rylander, Press Contact for Mistra Geopolitics, Stockholm Environment Institute
[email protected], +46 (0) 73-150 3384

Maria-Therese Gustafsson, Associate Professor at Stockholm University
[email protected], +46 (0) 8-16 3572

Maria Cole, Communications Lead for Mistra Geopolitics, Stockholm Environment Institute
[email protected], +46 (0) 70-224 2012

SEI

Ylva Rylander

Ylva Rylander is the press contact for Mistra Geopolitics. Ylva is a Communications and Impact Officer at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). As a core member of SEI’s communications team and previous Press Officer of SEI, Ylva writes and edits press releases and creates news stories. With over 15 years of experience in public relations, awareness raising and external communication, she also provides strategic advice to SEI and Mistra Geopolitics researchers to help them maximize the impact of their research.

Telephone:+4673 150 33 84

Stockholm University

Maria-Therese Gustafsson

Maria-Therese Gustafsson is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. Prominent themes in her research are natural resource governance, political participation, and climate security. She has published a research monography Private Politics and Peasant Mobilization: Mining in Peru (Palgrave MacMillan), articles in Third World Quarterly, WIRE Climate Change, the Latin American Research Review and Canadian Journal of Development Studies, and has edited two anthologies. She is a researcher in Work Package 3 and heads the Research School in the Mistra Geopolitics programme.

Telephone:+468163572

SEI

Maria Cole

Maria Cole is a Senior Communications and Impact Officer at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Stockholm. Maria is the Communications Lead for Mistra Geopolitics and leads the work package on Communications and Stakeholder engagement.

Telephone:+46 70 224 20 22

Authors and acknowledgment

The Mistra Geopolitics report is written by Maria-Therese Gustafsson and Meaghan Gordon at Stockholm University, Rasmus Kløcker Larsen at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Anna Frohn Pedersen and Almut Schilling-Vacaflor at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg.

This publication is a deliverable of the Mistra Mineral Governance and of the Mistra Geopolitics programme, Phase II, under the theme Food Security. Mistra Geopolitics is hosted by SEI and Mistra Mineral Governance is hosted by Lund University; both programmes are funded by Mistra – the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research.