European Commission adopts ESRS

European Commission adopts ESRS

The European Commission has adopted the ESRS under the CSRD, marking a major step towards the implementation of the law, with reporting set to begin for some companies as soon as the 2024 financial year. The press release may be accessed here. The press release notes that the ESRS take account of discussions with the ISSB and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in order to ensure a very high degree of interoperability between EU and global standards and to prevent unnecessary double reporting by companies.
In a Statement, Jean-Paul Servais, Chair of IOSCO, has welcomed the European Commission’s adoption of the ESRS and, in particular, the announcement by the European Commission that it has integrated the ISSB Standards into them.
The IFRS Foundation has published a Statement providing an update on their discussions around alignment and interoperability between ESRS and the ISSB Standards. The statement notes that the work jointly undertaken by the European Commission, EFRAG and the ISSB to improve the interoperability of their respective climate-related disclosure requirements has led to a very high degree of alignment, reduced complexity and duplication for entities wishing to apply both the ISSB Standards and ESRS.