Recital 73

(73) This Directive is an important legislative tool to ensure corporate transition to a sustainable economy, including to reduce the existential harms and costs of climate change, to ensure alignment with ‘global net zero’ by 2050, to avoid any misleading claims regarding such alignment and to stop greenwashing, disinformation and fossil fuels expansion worldwide in order to achieve international and European climate objectives. In order to ensure that this Directive effectively contributes to combating climate change, companies should adopt and put into effect a transition plan for climate change mitigation which aims to ensure, through best efforts, that the business model and strategy of the company are compatible with the transition to a sustainable economy and with the limiting of global warming to 1,5 oC in line with the Paris Agreement and the objective of achieving climate neutrality as established in Regulation (EU) 2021/1119, including its intermediate and 2050 climate neutrality targets. The plan should address, where relevant, the exposure of the company to coal-, oil- and gas- related activities. Such requirements should be understood as an obligation of means and not of results. Being an obligation of means, due account should be given to the progress companies make, and the complexity and evolving nature of climate transitioning. While companies should strive to achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets contained in their plans, specific circumstances may lead to companies not being able to reach these targets, where this is no longer reasonable. The plan should include time-bound targets related to climate change for 2030 and in five-year steps up to 2050 based on conclusive scientific evidence and, where appropriate, absolute emission reduction targets for greenhouse gas for scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. The plan should develop implementing actions to achieve the company’s climate targets and be based on conclusive scientific evidence, meaning evidence with independent scientific validation that is consistent with the limiting of global warming to 1,5 oC as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and taking into account the recommendations of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. Supervisory authorities should be required to at least supervise the adoption and design of the plan and the updates thereof, in accordance with the requirements laid down in this Directive. Since the content of the transition plan for climate change mitigation should be in line with the reporting requirements under Directive 2013/34/EU as regards corporate sustainability reporting, companies that report such a plan under Directive 2013/34/EU should be deemed to have complied with the specific obligation to adopt a plan under this Directive. While the adoption obligation will be considered to have been met, companies should still abide by their obligation to put that transition plan for climate change mitigation into effect and to update it every 12 months to assess progress made towards its targets.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-08-27 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.