Green Policies, Regulations & Standards

Greece’s Law 4342/2015 requires large enterprises to conduct four-yearly energy audits covering buildings, industrial processes, and transport. Audits must be performed by certified auditors and reported to national authorities, with feasible measures implemented. Companies certified under ISO 50001 may be exempt. Enforcement has increased, and penalties apply for missing or inadequate audits. The law is central to Greece’s energy-efficiency strategy.

The Oregon Climate Protection Program (CPP) establishes mandatory declining greenhouse-gas limits for fuel suppliers and major industrial sources. This article outlines requirements, penalties, timelines, and compliance pathways.

Greece’s Law 4936/2022 – National Climate Law sets a binding framework for the transition to climate neutrality by 2050, with interim targets of at least -55% emissions by 2030 and -80% by 2040 versus 1990. It introduces sectoral five-year carbon budgets, requires in-scope enterprises and installations to measure and verify greenhouse gas emissions, and mandates annual carbon footprint reports to a national database operated by NECCA. The law also embeds climate mitigation and adaptation into national planning and environmental governance. Secondary legislation is still evolving, but the law now anchors Greece’s climate strategy and corporate climate-reporting obligations.

Greece’s Law 1650/1986 is the foundational environmental protection framework, establishing principles for pollution control, environmental permitting, and EIAs. Although modernised by later laws, it remains central to Greek environmental governance. Developers and operators must obtain permits, comply with environmental conditions, and remediate damage. Penalties include administrative fines and criminal sanctions.

The SASB Standards provide industry-specific sustainability disclosure metrics focused on financially material ESG issues for investors. Covering 77 industries, they define consistent, comparable metrics across environmental, social, and governance topics. While voluntary, SASB is widely used in capital markets and increasingly serves as a foundation for mandatory reporting under emerging regimes. Since 2022, the standards have been maintained by the IFRS Foundation through the ISSB, reinforcing their role in global sustainability reporting. The main compliance risk is not non-use, but weak application: incorrect industry selection, missing metrics, or disclosures that cannot be reconciled with financial reporting.

The ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) is a voluntary, industry-led initiative that seeks to standardize sustainability data collection and reporting across private markets. Originally launched for private equity in 2021, it now also supports infrastructure and private credit. By promoting a common set of sustainability metrics and benchmarking performance across portfolio companies, the EDCI aims to reduce reporting fragmentation and improve the comparability of ESG data for investors and portfolio companies.

The Basel Convention is a global, legally binding treaty regulating the movement, trade, and disposal of hazardous waste. It requires Parties to minimise waste generation, ensure environmentally sound management, and prevent illegal shipments. This article explains obligations, enforcement, and known violations.

The Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), Directive 2014/95/EU, introduced the EU’s first mandatory framework for large companies to disclose non-financial and sustainability information. Effective since 2014, it required public-interest entities with over 500 employees to report on environmental, social, human-rights, and anti-corruption topics as part of their annual management reports. The directive improved transparency and accountability in corporate governance but lacked harmonised standards, leading to inconsistent disclosures across Member States. The NFRD has since been succeeded by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which expands the scope and introduces detailed European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) to ensure comparability and reliability of ESG data across the EU.

The Canada Green Buildings Strategy is a federal framework launched in July 2024 that outlines Canada’s plan to transform its building sector toward net‑zero emissions and climate resilience by 2050 while improving affordability and energy efficiency. It identifies buildings as a major source of emissions and sets out actions to accelerate deep retrofits of existing buildings, promote energy‑efficient and climate‑resilient new construction, expand adoption of clean technologies (e.g., heat pumps), and align federal procurement with low‑carbon materials. The strategy coordinates existing programs, codes, and investments under a common national vision and supports complementary initiatives such as federal building decarbonization commitments, retrofit funding, and energy efficiency modernization. It does not itself function as a standalone regulation but provides a policy and regulatory direction that informs future federal and multi‑jurisdictional code adoption, standards modernization,...

Spain’s IPPC framework is the main legal mechanism controlling pollution from major industrial sites. It relies on integrated permits and BAT-based updates, creating recurring compliance cycles for large emitters and high-impact installations.