What are the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)?

The **European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)** are the technical rulebook that gives the **CSRD** reporting duty its content. The first set sits in **Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772** (adopted 31 July 2023, in force since 25 December 2023), which supplements the Accounting Directive 2013/34/EU. It contains **twelve standards**: the two cross-cutting **ESRS 1** (general requirements) and **ESRS 2** (general disclosures), five environmental standards **E1–E5** (climate change, pollution, water and marine resources, biodiversity, circular economy), four social standards **S1–S4** and the governance standard **G1** ^[1].

The separation of levels matters: the **CSRD (Directive (EU) 2022/2464)** prescribes *that* you report and *who* reports; the **ESRS** set out *what* and *how* you report. That is why supervisory and standard-setting traffic on sustainability arrives on two tracks — the directive/transposition track and the delegated-act/EFRAG track.

The ESRS are built on **double materiality** (ESRS 1, Section 3.3): a matter must be reported if it is material from an **impact perspective** (the undertaking's effects on people and the environment, inside-out) **or** from a **financial perspective** (how sustainability matters affect the undertaking's position, outside-in) — either perspective suffices. This logic governs the entire scope of the report ^[1][2].

The Omnibus package bites in two places: the **stop-the-clock Directive (EU) 2025/794** (in force since 17 April 2025) postponed the application timelines; the substantive **Directive (EU) 2026/470** (applicable from 18 March 2026) narrows scope and mandates a revision of the ESRS. EFRAG delivered its technical advice on simplified ESRS to the Commission on 3 December 2025; the Commission is consulting on the draft until 3 June 2026 ^[3].

**As of 2 June 2026:** the first set (2023/2772) is applicable law; the revised, slimmed-down set is **still in draft** and is intended to apply for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027. **Double materiality is retained** — the Omnibus simplifies the disclosures, it does not abolish the principle. It is precisely this moving picture that makes continuous reading of EFRAG and Commission communications mandatory.