Who will encounter ESRS and the CSRD?
Audiences for the CSRD and ESRS disclosures include corporations, investors and financial institutions, regulators, stock exchanges, assurance and accounting firms and data providers, credit rating agencies and financial service providers.
Organisations
The demand for increased disclosures about sustainability risks and opportunities has precipitated this new era of sustainability regulations and standards designed to address this need.
The determinates regarding when and to which companies the CSRD is applicable are complex. As well as applying to companies based within the EU, the CSRD extends to non-EU companies that have significant activity within the EU. Seek expert advice to understand the impact upon your organisation.
Finance functions
As underscored by the requirements of the CSRD and ESRS, we are seeing a shift in the locus of that information, from primarily ‘stand-alone’ sustainability reports prepared by external relations, or other departments, to the financial statements and regulatory filings of the enterprise. This has thrust the finance function of these activities front and centre, which is a natural extension of the fundamental technical skills of the management accounting professional.
The disclosures across the 12 ESRS are interlinked and complex. Depending on your organisation’s characteristics, this may necessitate reporting against 86 disclosure requirements.13
Finance professionals
In addition to requiring fundamental accounting and reporting skills, the comprehensive nature of these new disclosure requirements — focusing on governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets — calls upon the broad range of skills of today’s management accounting professional.
