Mapping of Danish Law Related to Companies' Impact on Environment and Climate Change

Abstract

This overview of Danish law related to companies’ conduct and impact on environment and climate change has been undertaken under the ‘Sustainable Companies’ project hosted at the Department of Private Law at the University of Oslo. The ‘mapping’ of national law – including in particular company law – in various countries forms a major part of the empirical studies undertaken under that project. The ‘mapping’ of Danish law has been undertaken according to a general structure applied by all studies under the project, and the selection of issues described in here must be understood on that background. Environmental law has been seen under the project as essentially related to climate change. Some other issues related to sustainable development and company conduct have been addressed as well, in particular in relation to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In the current paper, this particularly applies to issues covered by the Danish CSR reporting requirement, which in addition to environment and climate change mitigation measures broadly applies to human rights, social issues such as working conditions, and anti-corruption measures. The ‘mapping paper’ by way of introduction describes the context for Danish law related to environment and climate change and CSR in a general sense, sources of law and jurisdiction specific issues, types of companies, shareholding structure etc. (section 1); the purpose of the company, duties and competence of the company organs, and corporate governance issues (section 2); reporting and auditing (section 3); liability and enforcement (section 4), general observations including taxation, remuneration as a climate change incentive, and marketing law (section 5); parent-subsidiary issues, including monitoring, control and duties of the company organs (section 6); and finally special enforcement issues and a general evaluation (section 7).

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, company conduct, sustainable development, environment and climate change

JEL Classification: K22