Academics, regulators, NGOs and corporate leaders gathered at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam for the launch of the European Company Law Special Issue, “Corporate Climate Transition Plans: Mapping the Fluctuating Legal Landscape.” The event was jointly organized by Nyenrode Business University and the Amsterdam Centre for Climate Change, Corporations and the Law (A4CL) of the Vrije Universiteit.
Opening remarks were delivered by the editorial team: Assoc. Prof. Tim Bleeker (Vrije Universiteit), Prof. Tineke Lambooy (Nyenrode Business University), and Ebba Hooft Toomey (Visiting Fellow, Nyenrode). The Special Issue comes in response to a rapidly evolving legal landscape while non-state entities, including banks and corporations, confront increasingly complex climate transition planning requirements with a lack of consensus on risk management and data quality further complicating decision making.
The program began with a presentation by Rebecca Scholten, PhD Candidate at Nyenrode, who explored how different rates and forms of global transition result in and interact with climate scenarios. Scholten identified climate transition plans as the bridge between these scenarios and warned that global damages from climate change are accelerating faster than temperature increases. The estimated social cost of carbon now exceeds $1,000 per ton of CO2, far above current carbon credit prices which are $70 per ton, indicating we have yet to meaningfully transition. She urged businesses to use scenario analysis as a form of “rehearsal for futures we haven’t yet lived,” emphasizing that the biggest barriers to action are behavioral organizational, not institutional.
Two panel discussions followed. The first, moderated by Tineke Lambooy, examined regulatory developments. Federica Agostini and Nicolò Galasso highlighted the need for scenarios to be consistent across transition regulation in order to decrease complexity and that, when used effectively, scenarios support transition planning through risk management, strategic planning, and disclosures. Johan Vanderlugt identified the gap in transition planning, which largely fails to account for biodiversity, and emphasized the need to transition from extractive to regenerative business models. Eve Ernst emphasized that data quality is a significant limiting factor on tracking scope 1, 2, and 3, emissions, making tasks from compliance to investment decisions difficult and supporting the need for stricter reporting requirements.
The second panel, chaired by Tim Bleeker, focused on liability. Irem Akin explained the love triangle of competing shareholder, corporate, and climate-related interests affecting directors and identified how codification and interpretation of law can resolve these tensions. Brice Laniyan discussed how scenario selection is subjective, shaped by norms and risk tolerances, and cautioned against presenting the selection of scenarios in climate litigation as objective. Nicky van Dijk called on financial institutions to embrace their role as “universal owners” with significant responsibilities for emissions reductions under the common but differentiated responsibilities principle.
The event concluded with a formal handover to Liesbeth Meeuse, who is manager at the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and responsible for CSDDD oversight, followed by a speech by ACM Sustainability Coordinator Joris Ruigewaard, who stressed that “rules without implementation disrupt the level playing field.” He called for enforcement that is mission-driven, risk-based, clear, predictable, and focused on societal impact.
The launch underscored a growing consensus that credible Corporate Climate Transition Plans are a tool for aligning law, finance, and ethics with the realities of a warming planet but highlighted a diverse range of questions relating to reporting, scenario use, regulation, and liability.
Find the special issue here: https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalIssue/European+Company+Law/22.4/20955
Explore Bleeker’s Six-Question Guide to Corporate Climate Transition Planning here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5552702
