Devaluing Sustainability: Financialized Disclosure Governance and Transparency in Modern Slavery and Climate Change

The long-awaited European Supply Chain Act, known as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), entered into force on July 25, 2024, has been criticized as a missed opportunity to advance more impactful protections for vulnerable stakeholders of global value chain capitalism. Concluding a lengthy, contested legislative process, the Directive’s adoption reflects the diverse trends that make up global value chain (GVC) governance today: disclosure legislation, international soft law, and private actors’ corporate sustainability codes of conduct. Despite an abundance of norms, egregious human and environmental rights violations in and around GVCs persist, and devastating factory accidents, worker deaths, and exploitation along with irreparable harm to lands and water continue. This article assesses the prevailing regulatory approach against the background of deeply rooted accounting and discounting methods that discourage actors from adopting substantial—and costly—measures today with a view to long-term benefits.