Fortum’s position on the Omnibus simplification package on sustainability

Fortum sees both benefits and disadvantages with the Omnibus package. The proposals include beneficial provisions that can help to reduce unnecessary administrative burden, without jeopardising the policy objectives. At the same time, we have concerns related to the legal certainty for companies. An extensive negotiation process is underway, resulting in an unpredictable operating environment for companies for the next two-three years.

For larger companies, like Fortum that has already published its first CSRD report, the Omnibus proposals regarding the CSRD could make the reporting more flexible. The package includes beneficial provisions that can help to reduce unnecessary administrative burden, e.g. not moving forward with the sector-specific sustainability reporting standards and clarifying and simplifying the assurance process and requirements. However, some further simplifications should still be assessed, and some amendments are also needed to the proposals by the Commission. Fortum e.g. sees that the proposed scope of the CSRD should be carefully assessed. The need to reduce the reporting burden on smaller companies is understandable, but leaving such a huge number of them out of the scope is questionable. Fortum also sees that limiting information requests in the legislation is not appropriate.

Some of the amendments proposed to the CSDDD would reduce the administrative burden while adhering to agreed policy options, while other amendments, in our view, would mean lowering the ambition level of the legislation. Some of the proposals could also make the due diligence process more difficult and would not reduce the administrative burden. Fortum e.g. supports accelerating the adoption of Commission guidelines and extending the scope of maximum harmonisation to more CSDDD provisions. Fortum however sees that the proposed limitation of information requests vis-à-vis SME and SMC business partners for mapping the value chain for the purposes of identifying adverse impacts should not be introduced. Also, the proposed amendments to the due diligence obligations need to be clarified. The due diligence requirements should highlight a possibility for a risk-based prioritisation in the due diligence process, that enables to target the efforts of companies better but still go beyond tier-1.