The NOVA BHRE Blog

A 13 de junho de 2024, a União Europeia (UE) parecia ter alcançado um consenso histórico com a adoção da Diretiva de Diligência Devida de Sustentabilidade Corporativa (CSDDD), cujo objetivo era a conversão de normas internacionais de soft law em obrigações legais vinculativas, através da exigência de que as grandes empresas dentro do escopo da Diretiva abordassem os impactos adversos nos direitos humanos e no ambiente ao longo das suas cadeias de valor através do processo de devida diligência.

Climate change is widely recognized as a global crisis. However, it is less frequently acknowledged as a crisis of inequality.The climate crisis is not gender neutral. Across regions and sectors, environmental degradation and climate change intensify pre-existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting women while also highlighting their critical role as agents of change. As economies shift toward low-carbon, climate-resilient models, the just transition framework has emerged to ensure that environmental transformation promotes social equity rather than exacerbates exclusion. In this context, businesses play a pivotal role in shaping production systems, investment flows, and labor markets. Integrating gender equality into corporate governance and sustainability strategies is essential.

In July of last year, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, released his report ‘Corporate Power and Human Rights in Food Systems’. The report underscores a stark reality: “Corporate power in food systems is so concentrated that a relatively small group of people shape what is grown, how it is grown, labour conditions, prices and food choices in a way that serves the ultimate goal of profit maximization and not the public good” (A/80/213, 21 July 2025).

Due to the threat that the current triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss possesses to existence on Earth as we know it, humanity finds itself in desperate need for a way out. Indeed, as of today, seven out of ten planetary boundaries have been breached, meaning that such disruptions risk triggering a cascade effect on Earth systems that may lead to irreversible changes.