Today’s ESG Updates
- West Africa’s Cocoa Farmers Race Against the Clock: More than half of Nigeria’s 300,000 cocoa farmers could struggle to meet new EU traceability requirements, as exporters raise their expenses to keep access to the bloc.
- US Ambassador Says EU’s Sustainability Reporting Reforms Still Fall Short: U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder says the EU’s December reforms to the CSRD and CSDDD, which cut compliance scope by up to 90%, still don’t go far enough to protect American businesses.
- Europe’s Seas Hit Record Temperatures This Summer: A new study finds global warming pushed the Mediterranean to its hottest July on record, with some waters up to 6°C above average and octopus populations shifting north into UK waters as a result.
- Senken and Carbonsate Sign Europe’s Largest Biomass Carbon Removal Deal: The 50,000-ton, multi-year offtake agreement will remove carbon through Carbonsate’s Namibia storage project, as demand for permanent carbon removal continues to outpace supply.
EU deforestation rules threaten West Africa’s cocoa trade
The EU Deforestation Regulation is a major obstacle for cocoa farmers across West Africa as they join the race to map their farms. The EU asks companies to prove that their commodities were not grown on land recently deforested.
Industry estimates suggest more than half of Nigeria’s 300,000 cocoa farmers could struggle to comply with these regulations. Exporters are spending $30 to $80 per metric ton on farm mapping and digital traceability, and these costs do not get absorbed by European buyers. In Ivory Coast, only about half of cocoa production can currently be traced to its farm of origin, according to the non-profit Trase.
The EU has the largest stake in cocoa as it buys 60% of the world’s cocoa, and West Africa, which produces roughly 70% of the global supply, sends two-thirds of its exports to the bloc.
Klimado – Navigating climate complexity just got easier. Klimado offers a user-friendly platform for tracking local and global environmental shifts, making it an essential tool for climate-aware individuals and organizations.
US pushes EU to further ease sustainability directives
The United States is pressing the European Union to further revise its corporate sustainability laws, which it says burden American businesses. In December 2025, EU legislators reached a political agreement, as part of the Sustainability Omnibus process, to raise the compliance thresholds for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Despite these recent reforms, the U.S. Ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, commented on X that they “failed to fully address” U.S. concerns.
The December agreement is expected to remove around 90% of companies from the CSRD’s scope and 70% from the CSDDD’s scope. Puzder’s letter asks the EU to limit the CSDDD’s reach to EU subsidiaries and business partners of U.S. companies, and to avoid penalising U.S. firms based on revenue earned outside the EU. He warned the U.S. “will take any actions necessary” if concerns go unaddressed.
Related Articles
Here is a list of articles selected by our Editorial Board that have gained significant interest from the public:
Climate change drives record marine heat waves
In a recent series of climate-driven consequences, the World Weather Attribution consortium released a study that shows the rise of marine heat waves this summer. With global warming as its main contributor, some parts of the Atlantic and Mediterranean have reached 6°C above average this week. In July, the average temperature of the entire Mediterranean reached over 27°C, its highest on record.
Researchers have found that climate change made the Western and Eastern Mediterranean 2°C warmer, the Iberian waters 1.4°C warmer, and the Irish seas 1.3°C warmer than they would have been otherwise. Without climate change, only 40% of the Bay of Biscay and Western Mediterranean would have experienced hot temperatures this year, compared to 90% and 80%, respectively.
Extreme marine heat waves pose a serious threat to marine ecosystems and coastal communities. In the UK, this has driven the octopus population north, while France witnesses jellyfish clogging nuclear power stations.
Senken and Carbonsate sign Europe’s largest biomass-based carbon removal deal
Carbon credit procurement platform Senken has signed a multi-year offtake agreement with Carbonsate, a CO2 removal technology company, which covers 50,000 tons of permanent carbon removal. This deal marks the largest biomass storage deal signed in Europe to date.
Carbonsate stores waste wood in engineered underground chambers, permanently locking away carbon without an energy-intensive capture step. In this process, each site is independently verified under the Puro.earth standard. The deal is also the second-largest buyer commitment globally in the biomass geological storage category and the largest for a project operating in Africa.
Carbon will be removed through Carbonsate’s Namibia storage project, with deliveries beginning this year and continuing through 2028. “Demand for permanent carbon removal is already outrunning supply,” said Senken CEO Adrian Wons, adding that corporate net-zero targets are converging on the same limited pool of verified capacity.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: Kawê Rodrigues.
