France's Court of Audit puts the transition's investment needs at €161 billion
• On October 7, 2026, the Cour des comptes, France's Court of Audit, estimated that €161 billion of investment would be needed by 2030 to meet France's environmental targets, an increase of 12% a year against 5% today, with most of it expected to come from the private sector.
• The Court found the multi-year strategy for financing the ecological transition (Spafte) largely insufficient, with no detailed trajectory and nothing on adaptation, biodiversity, water or the circular economy, and pointed to industrial decarbonization subsidies that are poorly evaluated and prone to windfall effects.
• By advocating regulation as an effective and inexpensive tool, and by recalling the very real cost of the 2026 climate events, the Court sent companies a strong signal about rising regulatory requirements and private investment needs.
Source: Reporterre – "La Cour des comptes alerte sur le financement insuffisant de la transition écologique"
HSBC ties its SME loan rates to EcoVadis or CDP ratings
• On October 7, 2026, HSBC launched its Sustainability Improvement Loan in continental Europe, an SME loan whose rate is indexed to an external ESG rating from EcoVadis, CDP or Inrate, with preferential pricing when the rating improves.
• First launched in the United Kingdom in 2024 and then rolled out in Asia and the Middle East, the product was designed to avoid the tailor-made, KPI-based structure of sustainability-linked loans, which is too heavy for smaller companies.
• The offer increases the direct financial weight of EcoVadis and CDP ratings for European SMEs, turning a better ESG score into a concrete way to lower the cost of credit.
Source: ESG Today – "HSBC Launches Loans with Rates Tied to ESG Scores for European Small, Medium Businesses"
Scope 3: corporate emissions may be underestimated by up to 2.7 times
• On October 6, 2026, Novethic reported on an EcoVadis and Kearney study finding that companies' Scope 3 emissions, which come from their value chain, could be up to 2.7 times higher than current estimates.
• The underestimation stems from a lack of reliable supplier data, with companies relying heavily on estimates because they receive no actual data from their supply chain.
• For sustainability and procurement teams, the finding reinforces the importance of collecting primary data from suppliers, a condition for credible carbon footprints and for the reduction pathways required by CDP, the CSRD or the SBTi.
Source: Novethic – "Scope 3 : le vrai poids carbone des entreprises serait jusqu’à 2,7 fois plus élevé"
Heatwaves, drought, wildfires: summer 2026 cost France €16 billion
• On October 5, 2026, a fact-finding mission led by Éric Coquerel, chair of the French National Assembly's finance committee, put the cost of the heatwaves, drought and wildfires of summer 2026 in France at €16 billion.
• The estimate adds up the loss of third-quarter GDP, public spending and losses for households and businesses, including €10 billion for agriculture and 868,022 compensated hours in construction.
• Its 45 adaptation recommendations are costed at €10 to 13 billion for 2027 and up to €157.65 billion cumulatively by 2050, a signal to companies about the rising cost of physical climate risks.
Source: Reporterre – "Canicules, incendies... Le coût de l’été 2026 évalué à 16 milliards d’euros"
CAC 40 climate pathways: only 9 groups out of 40 reach 7/10
• On October 5, 2026, the 2026 ranking of CAC 40 climate pathways by Les Ateliers du futur showed that only 9 groups out of 40 scored at least 7/10, with Sanofi, Schneider Electric and Stellantis losing their leading positions.
• These three groups, which topped the 2025 ranking, fell to the "average" tier or lower, as the first 2030 milestone toward carbon neutrality approaches.
• The decline highlights how far large French companies lag on their climate pathways and reminds sustainability teams that the credibility of transition plans will be closely scrutinized as the 2030 deadlines near.
Source: Novethic – "Climat : Stellantis, Schneider Electric et Sanofi perdent leur position de leader au sein du CAC40"
Deloitte: 78% of executives increased sustainability investment, citing ROI
• On October 6, 2026, a Deloitte survey of more than 2,150 executives in 29 countries found that 78% had increased their sustainability investment by more than 5% in a year, and that 77% considered the return on investment higher.
• This growth came with a sharper focus: the average number of initiatives fell from 5.0 to 3.4, and financial benefit became the top decision criterion for 51% of respondents, ahead of environmental impact, cited by 26%.
• For sustainability leaders, the results confirm that sustainability has become a business performance argument, while measuring impact remains a challenge, cited as an obstacle by 20% of executives.
Source: ESG Today – "Over Three Quarters of Companies Increased Investment in Sustainability Over Past Year, Citing Higher ROI: Deloitte Survey"
The plastics lobby spends €2.5 million a year to hold back France's AGEC law
• In 2025, players in the plastics and recycling sector, including L’Oréal, Plastalliance, Polyvia, Elipso, Paprec, Suez and Veolia, spent about €2.5 million to influence French environmental regulation, according to an investigation based on the HATVP lobbying register and a new Zero Waste France report.
• This lobbying led to the removal of the plastic tax and a rollback of the AGEC anti-waste law, despite a rise in single-use plastics placed on the market.
• This intense mobilization aims to protect the sector's economic interests at the expense of regulatory and environmental commitments.
Source: Reporterre – "Lobby du plastique : 2,5 millions d’euros par an pour continuer de polluer"
Sexual and gender-based violence: the law brings companies into the fight
• On October 6, 2026, Novethic reported that the so-called "comprehensive" bill against sexual and gender-based violence, under review in the French National Assembly, includes eight articles dedicated to companies, which are called on for the first time to take part in this fight.
• Some large companies such as La Poste, Carrefour and EDF had already moved ahead of lawmakers by setting up their own systems to combat this violence, according to the article.
• For employers, the bill signals new obligations on preventing and handling sexual and gender-based violence, a topic increasingly scrutinized in the social standards of sustainability reporting.
Source: Novethic – "Violences sexistes et sexuelles : La Poste, Carrefour, EDF… ces entreprises qui ont devancé la loi"
Sustainability: the "glass ceiling" of awareness among French employees
• On October 2, 2026, Novethic reported on a new study by Audencia's Positive Impact Chair finding that few French employees know what corporate sustainability is and even fewer get involved, a finding described as a "glass ceiling" on engagement.
• This gap has recurred year after year in surveys and studies on the subject, even as sustainability regulation has kept expanding, and according to the article it reflects the divides within the French economy.
• For sustainability teams, the finding is a reminder that regulatory compliance is not enough and that internal awareness-building is still needed for sustainability initiatives to be understood and carried by all employees.
Source: Novethic – "RSE : quel est ce plafond de verre qui freine l’engagement des salariés ?"
Pesticides omnibus: lobby demands taken up word for word by Brussels
• The European Parliament debated the Omnibus X regulation on food safety, whose drafting incorporated the chemical industry lobbies' demands almost word for word, according to a report by the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).
• This influence led to the removal of the mandatory fifteen-year reassessment of pesticides, replaced by open-ended authorizations, drawing criticism over environmental protection.
• Deregulation on this scale would shape the European legislative framework on pesticides for a long time.
Source: Reporterre – "Pesticides : les demandes des lobbies reprises telles quelles dans le règlement Omnibus"
