EFRAG PTF-ESRS and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) agree on joint cooperation

EFRAG reported on 8 July 2021 the closing of a Memorandum of Understanding between its Project Task Force on European sustainability reporting standards (PTF-ESRS) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

According to the news on EFRAG’s website both organisations will share their wealth of expertise to foster the swift development of European sustainability reporting standards and at the same time the progress of converged standards at international level. Specifically, EFRAG reported that both sides had initially agreed on proactive observer roles in their respective technical working groups.

The extent to which the GRI standards will actually form the basis for the PTF-ESRS work is not sufficiently made clear in EFRAG’s news item.

ASCG President Georg Lanfermann comments: “The international orientation of the sustainability reporting standards to be applied in the EU in the future is a central matter of concern for the ASCG. The cooperation agreement between EFRAG PTF-ESRS and GRI opens the door for the idea of internationalisation, as it is also expressed by the European Commission in its recently published Sustainable Finance Strategy. However, the statement made by EFRAG and GRI still lacks a clear link to the G7 decisions regarding a “global baseline” approach as currently being developed at the IFRS Foundation for climate reporting.”

In the last week, the ASCG had co-hosted a well-attended online conference in cooperation with the Deutsches Aktieninstitut and its French partner association AFEP to support the international orientation.