The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are a major step forward to providing investors with the decision-useful corporate sustainability-related information they need.

There remain concerns, however, that the European Commission has decided to make all issue-specific disclosures subject to a materiality assessment, and to make it optional to explain why an issue covered by the ESRS is not material for a company. This could result in a potential failure to report the information that investors urgently need to assess the sustainability risks, opportunities and impacts of their investments, and to meet their own regulatory requirements such as those under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Therefore, the statement posits that the final ESRS should maintain certain requirements as mandatory – including Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions, disclosures enabling investors to assess the credibility of corporate transition plans, and indicators needed to comply with SFDR and other reporting regulations.

To sign the statement, please e-mail benjamin.taylor@unpri.org confirming that your organisation is happy to sign on.