DUE DILIGENCE AS AN INSTRUMENT TO ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: analysis of the regulatory proposal in european law

The accountability of companies for causing environmental damage is a global challenge. Considering this and the worsening climate change, the European Commission has adopted a directive proposal on corporate sustainability due diligence. This will allow for the assessment and monitoring of business activities’ risks to protect human rights, prevent environmental damage, and promote access to justice. In light of this, the following question arises: what are the limitations of European due diligence in terms of the effective protection of the environment? This research aims to understand the obstacles to be faced and the prospects of this instrument regarding the materialization of environmental protection in the EU. To this end, this research explains the spread of the instrument in the EU and the justification for its regional regulation, in order to understand the challenges that due diligence might face, based on the directive proposed by the European Commission. The methodology is qualitative in nature, applying inductive and deductive reasoning through literature review and document analysis of international norms and regional instruments. As a result, it is found that the regulation could contribute to regional and global progress in environmental matters, human rights, and good governance, but may face limitations in its effectiveness due to the approval of a less ambitious legal text and therefore inadequate to address the issues, especially those related to climate, the complexity of companies’ value chains, and difficulties in controlling and monitoring compliance with the regulations. It is concluded that this is an important instrument given the current climate circumstances, despite the need for joint action with other mechanisms and improvement of its provisions, so that environmental protection is effectively achieved.