Frank Bold’s research shows significant improvement in corporate disclosures largely due to the standardisation brought by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Companies are reporting ambitious climate targets and disclosing clearer, more comparable and meaningful sustainability information.
EU policy-makers are negotiating drastic changes proposed by the EU Commission to water down these rules as part of the first Omnibus on Simplification. The sudden U-turn and rushed legal process risks undermining momentum among the business community. Weakening the EU laws would roll back the progress made on transparency, data quality, and long-term climate planning at a time when consistency and ambition are most critical.
Our analysis shows how companies are responding to EU sustainability legislation, revealing positive developments in the transparency and quality of disclosures while also highlighting some persisting challenges:
Our analysts reviewed and assessed the sustainability information disclosed by 50 influential companies from the financial, textile, energy, agrifood and beverages, pharmaceuticals, mining and transportation sectors.
The complete research will be released this September, alongside a compilation of best practices.
Businesses require clarity, certainty, and stability to invest in sustainability reporting systems that meet market and stakeholder demands. The proposed rollbacks threaten not only environmental progress but also the credibility of EU leadership in sustainable finance. To preserve the achievements of the past decade and foster a forward-looking and competitive business environment, policy-makers in the EU Parliament must reject measures that weaken the CSRD and CSDDD and instead reinforce their consistent, effective application.
If you have any questions about the preliminary findings, or would like to share inputs, please get in touch with Susanna Arus at susanna.arus@frankbold.org or Lorena Bisignano at lorena.bisignano@frankbold.org.
The Turów brown coal (lignite) mine near Poland’s border with Germany and the Czech Republic is filling the atmosphere with dangerous toxins.
The threatened loss of drinking water for tens of thousands of people in the Czech Republic’s Liberec region has earned the notice of Politico, a Brussels-based news site. Politico reported on the plans for the expansion of the Turów brown coal mine in Poland, near the Czech/German/Polish border.
Thirty thousand people in the Czech Republic’s Liberec region face a loss of access to drinking water due to the planned expansion of the Turów coal mine. This mine is planned to newly stretch outwards to just 150 meters from the Czech border and downwards to a depth below the bottom of the Baltic. The resulting drainage of Czech underground water is not just a threat to citizens; the drying out of the area would destroy entire local ecosystems and cause significant agricultural damage. A further increase to dust and noise levels is a threat as well. Furthermore, the end date for mining is to be delayed from 2020 out to 2044.
