Simplified ESRS need use, not another haircut
Hans Buysse, Chair of the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) makes a timely (and perhaps for some, uncomfortable) case for European sustainability reporting. After months of political and technical pressure, the simplified European Sustainability Reporting Standards were shaped to strike a balance between ambition and practicality, at a point where both have been in short supply.
The point Buysse makes is that simplification is not the same as surrender. Reducing data points and clarifying requirements is not deregulation, but an acknowledgement that markets value information they can analyse, compare and trust. Investors have been explicit for years that decision-useful sustainability data matters more than expansive narrative. A framework that can be audited, digitised and aligned with other reporting regimes is not a compromise. It is the minimum viable product for capital markets.
The risk now lies elsewhere. There is a growing instinct to keep cutting before anything has been put to use. Regulatory frameworks do not mature through perpetual redesign; they mature through application, feedback and targeted adjustment.
Europe’s credibility depends on showing that it can implement what it designs. The simplified ESRS reflect careful technical work and political balance. The sensible next step is not another round of reduction, but letting the standards operate, observing how markets respond, and adjusting where evidence genuinely demands it.
Read the full article here.
