Business Insight

Board Priorities 2024: ESG reporting

11 January 2024

Sustainability Reporting has become ever more complex for companies with new legislation requiring detailed information on environmental, social and governance (so-called ESG) aspects and the scrutiny of ESG-related commitments becoming a focus for regulators and investors alike.

Companies covered by the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) now have to include additional information required by the EU Taxonomy Regulation, which has recently come into force. Reporting requirements will be further extended as soon as the provisions of the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSRD) will be implemented into national laws. CSRD and its accompanying Delegated Regulations do not only provide for more contents to be included in non-financial reports, but also materially extend the number of companies required to produce regular non-financial reporting.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) climate-related disclosure standards IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, released in 2023, have set standardised expectations for mandatory climate-related financial disclosure reporting, with many jurisdictions looking to implement these, on a phased basis, from as early as 2024.

Boards will have to ensure that both their non-financial and financial reporting is robust as it relates to ESG and produces information, which is reliable, compliant and defendable in the public eye. Reports of regulated and large public companies will likely be thoroughly analysed by investors, regulators and the wider public not only for completeness in light of the statutory requirements, but also whether they correctly reflect the company's efforts and impact in relation to ESG.

To ensure that those reports are accurate without inviting allegations of greenwashing has to be a priority for any Board.

Read about the other Board Priorities for 2024

Florian Drinhausen, Coporate Governance, Frankfurt

T +49 173 30 72 118
E: Florian.Drinhausen@ashurst.com

Prof Dr Florian Drinhausen is a Partner and Head of the Corporate German practice at Ashurst based in Frankfurt. Florian’s area of expertise is Corporate law, Boardroom advice and Cross-Border M&A. He is also a renowned expert on the European Corporation (SE), having advised on numerous SE creations in Germany. Florian has a distinguished career both in private practice and in various in-house roles. From 2014 until joining Ashurst, he held various senior leadership positions with Deutsche Bank, serving from 2018 as Global General Counsel and Chief Governance Officer of Deutsche Bank. During his time at Deutsche Bank, Florian had responsibility for numerous litigation and regulatory investigation matters, including their settlement, AGM, governance, M&A and corporate matters.

Elena Lambros, Partner, Risk Advisory, Sustainability and Climate Change, Brisbane

T: +61 478 198 178
E: Elena.Lambros@ashurst.com

Elena leads Ashurst Risk Advisory's Sustainability and Climate Change practice and works with clients to implement sustainable, agile and effective risk management that supports the achievement of business strategies and commitments in relation to sustainability, net zero and climate positive targets, while ensuring regulatory and compliance obligations are met.

Elena focuses on specialist risk advisory services, optimising risk strategy to facilitate consistent risk-based decision making and operationalising these decisions across the organisation to address the complex challenges associated with sustainability, climate change and social license risks.

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