Climate Policy News You Can Use — April 2025

Published: April 25, 2025 by Daniel Neff

Climate Policy Leadership

Dear Colleagues,

Happy Earth week! Earth Day is an important holiday for this community for many reasons. It is a reminder of the progress we’ve made, but also the huge amount of work that remains. We’ve seen demonstrated leadership in the past few months amidst a wildly changing operating environment for policy. The fact that there are still opportunities to be found, when appropriate, is encouraging nonetheless. I hope everyone has had time to celebrate our planet this week, and the great work this community does to protect it.

Endangerment Finding Comment Period Anticipated

Early this week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin confirmed the agency’s intent to undertake a full rulemaking and comment period to reconsider EPA’s 2009 conclusion that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare – the Endangerment Finding. Rooted in science and law, this vital determination helps support EPA standards to reduce climate pollution – reductions that are especially important to help address significant climate related harms that communities face. The Finding has also provided a stable, predictable, and certain regulatory framework that has allowed businesses to invest in clean solutions – driving innovation, economic and job growth, and saving consumers money.

Weakening or overturning the Endangerment Finding would destabilize a regulatory framework that supports U.S. economic strength. It would raise costs, increase exposure to legal and market risk, and put American businesses at a disadvantage globally in the race to develop clean solutions.

Take Action:

  • Evaluate what’s at stake for your business if the Endangerment Finding is weakened.
  • Begin to prepare your comments in anticipation of the EPA’s upcoming public comment period.
  • Make public statements in any form, such as press releases, op-eds, blogs, social media posts, or media interviews in support of the Endangerment Finding.
  • Engage with peers, trade associations and policymakers and urge them to oppose efforts to undermine the Endangerment Finding.
  • Reach out to us if you are interested in discussing further.

Go Deeper:

Markup on IRA Imminent

Both Chambers have passed their budget resolutions and are now set to begin committee markups starting in the House the week of April 28th — though the tax writing Ways & Means Committee might not see action for a few more weeks. These will be important to determine the outcome of the tax credits and key grant programs.

Advocacy efforts continue to create results in Congress as members urge congressional leadership to avoid a full-scale repeal of the tax credits. Companies have been demonstrating clear leadership in pushing the importance of the tax credits to their business investments. That progress was demonstrated in a new letter from four Senate Republicans defending the credits, in addition to last month’s updated letter from House Republicans (signed by 21 members) urging leadership to maintain the tax credits.

Take Action:

  • Continue to engage with Members whose districts you are investing in and tell them about the tax credits and grant programs your company has benefitted from.
  • Align your trade associations with your advocacy to maintain these incentives.
  • Still relevant, thank the growing list of House and Senate Members of Congress who have signed letters in support of maintaining these federal economic initiatives.

Go Deeper:

  • EDF and the Sabin Center have re-launched our IRA Tracker with a new functionality to track rollbacks, legal action, and other threats and changes to the tax credits.

EU Omnibus: What’s Next After “Stop-the-Clock”?

The EU Omnibus package continues to reshape the sustainability reporting landscape. On April 14, 2025, the European Parliament and Council formally adopted the “Stop-the-Clock” Directive, which is now in force. This directive postpones the application of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) by two years for wave 2 companies and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) by one year, giving companies more time and certainty as broader legislative changes are negotiated. Member States must transpose this directive into national law by December 31, 2025.

Meanwhile, the second part of the Omnibus – substantive changes to the CSRD and CSDDD – remains under discussion. The Council is well advanced in preparing amendments, and the European Parliament is expected to have a draft report by June 6. Trilogues are anticipated over the summer, and the final shape of these reforms is still being negotiated.

Take Action:

  • We continue to seek input from EU-based companies and multinationals on the implications of the Omnibus package and broader policy landscape. If you’d like to share your perspectives or discuss these changes, please reach out.

Go Deeper:

ICYMI – Things We’re Tracking

  1. Article: How Leading Companies Navigate Climate Risk Opportunities Now
  2. NZAA Newsletter: Three Ways Climate Action is Evolving
  3. NZAA Resource: Supplier Engagement for Resilient Supply Chains

Thank you for reading, and if this was forwarded to you, email us to subscribe!

Best,
Daniel Neff on behalf of the Climate Policy Leadership Team