How to ensure sustainability reporting in Europe drives emissions cuts

The We Mean Business Coalition and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development argue that the current draft of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) risks flooding the market with incomplete information. They advocate for alignment with the International Sustainable Standards Board (ISSB) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to ensure global comparability and reduce the reporting burden. The authors specifically criticize the 'rebuttable presumptions' concept and the lack of maturity in certain KPIs, such as biodiversity offsets, suggesting a phased-in approach for less mature metrics to prevent greenwashing and maintain investor trust.

• The current draft ESRS lacks technical compatibility with the International Sustainable Standards Board (ISSB) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) due to differences in architecture, terminology, and definitions regarding enterprise value, materiality, and reporting boundaries.
• The 'rebuttable presumptions' concept in the ESRS, which assumes KPIs are material unless proven otherwise, may lead companies to provide excessive data to avoid the burden of justifying non-materiality, potentially obscuring critical information for investors.
• Research on the 25 largest listed EU companies' 2021 reports indicates a significant gap in metric maturity; while scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions are widely reported, almost no companies report on biodiversity offsets or marine resources related performance.
• The authors propose a phased-in approach for reporting, suggesting that the European Commission require initial disclosure for mature metrics and phase in others over one to three years to prevent the system from being flooded with incomplete data.

APA

Jagd, J. T., & Taylor, J. (2022). How to ensure sustainability reporting in Europe drives emissions cuts. We Mean Business Coalition. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/how-to-ensure-sustainability-reporting-in-europe-drives-emissions-cuts/

Chicago

Jagd, Jane Thostrup, and Juliet Taylor. How to ensure sustainability reporting in Europe drives emissions cuts. We Mean Business Coalition, 2022. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/how-to-ensure-sustainability-reporting-in-europe-drives-emissions-cuts/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Jagd |first1=Jane Thostrup |last2=Taylor |first2=Juliet |title=How to ensure sustainability reporting in Europe drives emissions cuts |publisher=We Mean Business Coalition |date=12 September 2022 |url=https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/how-to-ensure-sustainability-reporting-in-europe-drives-emissions-cuts/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{jagd2022how, author = {Jagd, Jane Thostrup and Taylor, Juliet}, title = {{How to ensure sustainability reporting in Europe drives emissions cuts}}, publisher = {We Mean Business Coalition}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/how-to-ensure-sustainability-reporting-in-europe-drives-emissions-cuts/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }