The debate over the future of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) has intensified in recent weeks. As the EU Commission reviews proposed revisions to the standards, a broad coalition of civil society organisations – including The Good Lobby – is warning that further cuts could seriously undermine transparency and accountability in corporate sustainability reporting.
Together with 29 organisations, The Good Lobby published a joint statement, warning that ongoing efforts to simplify ESRS’s reporting standards risk weakening one of the European Union’s key tools for understanding how companies impact people and the planet.
The ESRS are the practical framework implementing the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Together, they require large companies to disclose information about how their activities affect the environment, workers, communities and society at large. For citizens, investors and policymakers, these disclosures are essential to assess whether businesses are genuinely transitioning towards sustainable practices.
However, civil society groups warn that the current revision process may go too far. The draft revision already removes around 71% of reporting datapoints, raising concerns about the coherence and effectiveness of the framework. Further reductions could create significant blind spots, making it harder to identify risks and impacts across corporate value chains.
The organisations stress that simplification should not come at the cost of meaningful transparency. The CSRD already includes safeguards to avoid unnecessary reporting, particularly through the double materiality principle, which requires companies to report only on issues that are relevant to their business model and impacts. Weakening disclosure requirements beyond this principle risks allowing companies to omit critical information simply because there is no longer a clear expectation to disclose it.
Strong and consistent sustainability reporting also matters for fair competition. Without clear, comparable information, companies that take their sustainability responsibilities seriously may become indistinguishable from those making unsubstantiated claims. This not only increases the risk of greenwashing but also undermines trust in the market.
In our joint statement, we call on the EU Commission to protect the coherence, credibility and ambition of the CSRD by strengthening rather than weakening the ESRS. Transparent and reliable sustainability data, they argue, is essential not only for accountability but also for Europe’s long-term economic resilience and strategic autonomy.
As the EU continues to shape its sustainable finance framework, maintaining robust reporting standards will be crucial to ensure that companies remain accountable for their impacts on people and nature – and that citizens have the information they need to hold them to account.