"Revised EU Sustainability Reporting Standards Adopted", 3 July 2026

The new ESRS will apply to all European companies within the CSRD scope from 2027. The  first-wave companies can already use them from 2026. They will also form the basis for the version of the standards that will apply to third-country groups, i.e. those with parent companies outside of the EU, known as the ESRS-TC.

Against this pressure, it is highly positive that the final standards: 

Explicitly retain fair presentation as a foundational principle ensuring reporting focuses on material impacts and risks rather than a mere compliance checklist...

Maintain the requirement to quantify anticipated financial effects...

Protect reporting under the double materiality principle, rejecting proposals to require artificially separation of impact and financial disclosures, a move that would have forced companies to duplicate disclosures and made it harder for investors and other users to understand companies’ impacts, risks and their connectivity...

Retain the requirement to benchmark workers' wages against adequate wages that takes into account  ILO criteria on estimating living wage rather than mere minimum-wage compliance...

However, the Commission made several changes that significantly undermine transparency, without meaningfully reducing reporting burden:

Rolling back improved, yet more flexible rules for GHG emission calculation in line with the recommendations of the GHG Protocol's own Corporate Standard Technical Working Group that is currently revising its standards...

Deleting requirements to disclose on secondary microplastics (i.e those that form when plastic products break down) which effectively limits reporting on microplastics only to those that are intentionally manufactured...

Further limiting disclosure on human rights incidents, by adding more layers of conditionality and interpretive flexibility for companies...