Yesterday, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) formally submitted its technical advice to the European Commission, delivering the Amended European Sustainability Reporting Standards (Amended ESRS), which were approved on November 28, 2025.
The amended ESRS reduces mandatory datapoints by 61%, supported by new proportionality mechanisms and streamlined disclosure requirements. The new standards aim to reduce overall compliance efforts, making ESRS shorter, clearer and easier to apply.
At the same time, the standards continue to retain the most essential pillars – including the Double Materiality Assessment approach, the topical standards covering climate programs from Scope 3 disclosures through to targets and the full suite of environmental, social and governance-related disclosures. The simplifications also aim to enhance interoperability with other standards and regulations, especially the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
At today’s conference, EFRAG also unveiled the ESRS Knowledge Hub — a new digital gateway that centralizes standards, tools and guidance.
An extensive, evidence-based consultation process
To revise the amended standards, EFRAG undertook an intensive consultation process, including reviewing 800+ responses to their call for input in April 2025, benchmarking of sustainability wave-1 reporters, the public consultation following the July draft as well as outreach events and field tests.
Highlighting some of the key changes
The revised ESRS—particularly ESRS 1 and ESRS 2—introduce several usability enhancements:
- Option to include an executive summary
- Ability to shift detailed content, including EU Taxonomy-related information, into appendices
- Clearer rules for incorporation by reference, reducing duplication
- Better integration of the sustainability statement within the management report, helping companies tell their story more coherently
Another significant architectural change is the replacement of Minimum Disclosure Requirements (MDRs) with General Disclosure Requirements (GDRs). Granular specifications in topical standards have been further reduced, and companies are no longer required to justify the absence of Policies, Actions or Targets (PAT) – removing unintended effects that mandated specific behaviors.
EFRAG concludes that the Amended ESRS achieves a reasonable balance between reducing administrative burden and preserving high-quality sustainability reporting, including essential disclosures such as climate transition plans. Several areas within the Climate Change Standard (E1) generated discussion during the revision process, including the following:
- Scenario analysis is now not mandatory, and the standards do not prescribe which scenario types companies must use.
- The reduction of information in E1-11 on Anticipated Financial Effects.
- An exception allowing financial institutions to not report absolute values for GHG emissions intensity targets.
- The emissions reporting boundary follows the financial control approach (GHG Protocol). However, if this does not sufficiently reflect emissions from operated assets outside that boundary, Scope 1 and 2 emissions must instead be calculated using the operational control approach.
What comes next
The European Commission will now prepare the Delegated Act to revise the first set of ESRS based on EFRAG’s technical advice.
In December 2025, EFRAG will also submit the Basis for Conclusions, the Explanatory Note and the cost-benefit analysis of the amended ESRS.
EFRAG has also noted that the broader Omnibus legislative process is still ongoing with the current trilogue negotiations (Parliament, Council, Commission) targeted to reach final agreement by the end of 2025. Should the political outcome affect EFRAG’s technical advice, the standards can be adapted.
