EFRAG releases batch of draft sustainability reporting standards
The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) continues to steam ahead in the development of sustainability disclosure standards. Its Project Task Force on European sustainability reporting standards (PTF-ESRS) has recently published a batch of several working papers containing draft standards relating to various aspects of sustainability reporting. This follows their release in September of preliminary climate change-specific standards and supporting rationale.
The further drafts now available include four cross-cutting standards (of a total of five), covering strategy and business model; sustainability governance and organisation; sustainability material impacts, risks and opportunities; and definitions for policies, targets, action plans and resources. Also published are two conceptual guidelines (of a planned six), on double materiality and characteristics of information quality. Two further batches of working papers are planned for the coming weeks, which will include topical standards on specific aspects of environmental, social and governance disclosures.
A cover note accompanying the working papers sets out the architecture and structure of the standards, as well as a draft index, and links to each available document. EFRAG emphasises that these are in-process drafts released in the interests of transparency, and are not yet open to public consultation. It also states that digitisation will be one of the points that the PTF-ESRS will particularly bear in mind during the next steps of the standards-setting process. We certainly hope to see the task force hone and sustain its focus on digital-first standards to ensure the utility of disclosures for today’s stakeholders.
Read more here (skip to Appendix 2 for links to each working paper).
