The Commission issued its formal consultation on the ESRS with a number of proposed changes.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 9 June 2023, the European Commission (Commission) issued its formal consultation on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The ESRS represent the detailed standards which set out the disclosure requirements for companies required to report on sustainability-related impacts, risks, and opportunities under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The revised ESRS that the Commission is consulting on have been changed in notable ways from the draft set of the ESRS submitted in November 2022 by EFRAG, the technical expert group tasked with helping the Commission develop the ESRS.
With effect from 1 June 2022, the Guidance for Enterprise ESG Disclosure (the Guidance), published by Beijing-based think tank China Enterprise Reform and Development Society (CERDS), is seeking to become the first, and definitive, China-focused ESG disclosure standard.
A group of leading sustainability and integrated reporting organisations — including the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Climate Disclosure Standard Board (CDSB), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and the Sustainability Accounting Board (SASB) — have pledged to work together on the harmonisation of sustainability standards. In the document, which was published on 11 September 2020, the organisations commit to collaborating together by providing joint market guidance on sustainability standards while also building a shared vision of how such standards could complement generally accepted financial principles.