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ESRS 2 General Disclosures is the set of sustainability disclosures required for all companies starting from the first year of disclosure. Thus, it is the most generally applicable section of ESRS and it is considered “sector-agnostic” and “cross-cutting” across Sustainability Topics. Except a few specific phase-in requirements outlined in ESRS 1 General Requirements, all disclosures in ESRS 2 General Disclosures are required for all entities starting from the first year of mandatory reporting.

We are starting a series on Navigating CSRD Requirements. In each instalment of this series, we deep dive into a specific section or disclosure requirement of the CSRD. In this first instalment, we look at CSRD Annex 1 European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) 1 - General Requirements.

Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 GHG emissions is one of the main required reporting metrics across the three main reporting standards, CSRD/ESRS, GRI and ISSB. Is there a high level of inter-operability in the reporting requirements of this important metric across the published standards? We look into this particular reporting requirement.

In the November meeting of the EFRAG working group on Sustainability Reporting, the group provided an update on the guidance for materiality assessment. This document incorporates comments from previous rounds of revisions, and it is expected to be publicly released once all comments are incorporated and it receives approval.

The term “ESG” first appeared in a report titled “Who cares wins", published in 2004 under the guidance of the UN Global Compact. The subtitle of the report, “connecting financial markets to a changing world,” highlights its intention to provide guidance for financial institutions on environmental, social, and corporate governance issues which are seen to be closely related to sound financial resource allocation. The report is the output of a joint initiative of 18 leading financial institutions from 9 countries at the invitation of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

2023 is coming to an end, and we want to take stock of the progress in the areas of ESG and business sustainability. For our last blog of this year, we highlight some of our thoughts in four areas: sustainable finance and business sustainability, climate, carbon and data gaps, nature and its realms and services, and disclosures and corporate accountability.

What is the LEAP framework that accompanies the TNFD disclosure recommendations? It stands for “Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare”, and it is a four-step integrated assessment framework for nature-related issues released by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.

During Climate Week 2023, The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) released its inaugural Recommendations on Nature-related Disclosures. Building on the work of the Taskforce for Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD), TNFD sought to accelerate the integration of nature-related topics in financial disclosures in a similar structure to TCFD.

Companies in many industry sectors publish annual sustainability reports detailing sustainability-related initiatives and metrics across Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) dimensions. These reports typically follow one of the voluntary standards, like the GRI or SASB standards. As part of sustainability reporting, a description of the process for materiality analysis and the resulting prioritization of material topics often is the foundation of the disclosure particularly for those companies reporting in reference to or in accordance with GRI standards.

EFRAG reviewed the initial draft of the Implementation guidance for the materiality assessment on August 23. This document outlines practical information and FAQ on the materiality assessment. After the initial review, this document will be released for a public commenting period of four weeks, following which the final document will be released after approval.

The determination of materiality is central to meeting the regulatory requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). It is also a required process when reporting in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.

With the arrival of the final standards of ISSB on June 26, the leading global sustainability standards-setting organizations have published the latest standards for sustainability disclosure by large companies and SMEs worldwide.

On June 9th, the European Commission launched the four-week period of public feedback on its draft Delegated Act for the first set of the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) drafted by EFRAG. Following this feedback period, the Delegated Act is expected to be adopted by the Commission in the second to third quarter of 2023.

Since the early 2010s, corporations have increasingly leveraged bonds as a financial tool to fund various sustainability projects. The funding raised from these bonds are earmarked for environmental and climate-friendly projects, such as renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, resource conservation, or linked to some environmental objectives.

In 2008, the World Bank issued the first “green bond” to support the financing of projects addressing climate change.

In March 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released draft rules intended to enhance climate-related disclosures. These rules would require all registrants of SEC to include certain climate-related disclosures in their periodic reports, including the annual report.

UNEP published its latest Climate Risk Landscape report in March 2023. This is a continuation of reports published in 2020 and 2021, which provided an initial overview of the various publicly available climate risk assessment tools, and reflected on the use experience of the financial institutions.

ESG stands for Environment, Social, and Governance, which is a broad set of topics that cover climate action, carbon accounting, employee relations, social inclusion, executive compensation, board governance, etc.

The traditional finance approach to a company's valuation involves a probability-weighted estimation of the "material" events that could impact the company's business.

Materiality is a debated topic in the ESG debate. This term is originally an accounting concept that says that all items reasonably likely to impact investors’ decision-making must be recorded or reported in a business’s financial statements.