CSRD: EU’s sustainability reporting on track, despite questions
Patrick de Cambourg, Chair of the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board, delivered a compelling keynote at Data Amplified 2024, highlighting the progress and some of the challenges surrounding the EU’s flagship sustainability initiative, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
While potential adjustments to the European Green Deal, including the CSRD, are being debated at a political level, de Cambourg made clear: this is a global macro trend. Thousands of companies are already deep into preparations for disclosing under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) – with many early-adopting digital reporting in Inline XBRL.
He highlighted the importance of narrative disclosures, explaining that EFRAG has been thinking from the outset about how to create an environment for narrative information that is comparable and relevant. When structured and tagged, narrative disclosures deliver value for users – especially investors eager for quality digital data – while fear over the number of data points in the ESRS is overblown, argues de Cambourg.
Looking ahead, EFRAG is working to align ESRS with global frameworks like ISSB, GRI, and CDP to avoid duplication and ensure interoperability. The digital-first approach of the CSRD is pivotal, as investors are looking for this information, and simply can’t access it effectively by sifting through thousands of PDFs. Instead, digital taxonomies enable clarity and comparability across borders and industries.
De Cambourg’s message was simple: bumps in the road are inevitable, but as a standards setter it is critical to think and work long-term. And the long-term benefits of harmonised, digital sustainability reporting are worth the journey.
Read more about EFRAG’s standard setting work on their website.
