Supporting the transition to sustainability
With our comprehensive analysis as the foundation, we developed reform proposals to achieve the necessary change. We strongly believe that achieving sustainability is possible (video 1 m 27 s:
https://youtu.be/Vu0pU47lWPk(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). The transition to sustainability has a firm legal basis in the EU’s overarching goals set out in its Treaties, with duties to protect the environment, human rights and human dignity, within the EU and in the EU’s relations with the wider world. To achieve sustainability, we need to change the way business operates.
Our elaborate set of reform proposals (
https://www.smart.uio.no/reform_proposals(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) aims to support the transition to sustainability, as we outlined in our introductory 2019 report Supporting the Transition to Sustainability (
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3503310(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). Our reform proposals seek to change the way business and finance operate, and the way products are produced and consumed. We aim to make it possible and easy for business and finance to create value in a sustainable manner, and for products to be produced and consumed in a way that contributes to securing a safe and just space for humanity within planetary boundaries. The detailed proposals are presented in three main reports, with sustainability due diligence as a common thread.
In Securing the Future of European Business (
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3595048(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) we present suggestions for how international trade and investment law better can support sustainable business, and how sustainability can be integrated in to the purpose of business and the duties of the board (video 5 m 52 s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMIWifFv94o&feature=youtu.be(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). In Financing the Transition to Sustainability (
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3594433(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) aim to strengthen and broaden the EU’s Sustainable Finance Initiative, ensuring that both public and private funding is geared towards sustainability (video 7 m 15 s:
https://youtu.be/dQeneISGmwc(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). In Towards a Sustainable Circular Economy (
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3596076(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) we make suggestions for how sustainability can be fully integrated into the production and consumption of products in the EU (video 5 m 3 s:
https://youtu.be/_wiKK9NO00A(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). In addition, there is a separate report feeding into the latter one: Sustainability Through Public Procurement (
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3559393(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
Our reform proposals concern the EU as a global actor, and the EU as a legislator and policymaker. We have also developed SMART guidelines to make the EU’s policy coherence for development fit for purpose (
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3596036(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) and SMART guidance for the sustainability assessment process in business (
https://www.smart.uio.no/publications/reports/d.5.4-v0.2_wp5.pdf(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
