European insurers are pushing back against what they see as lingering complexity in sustainability reporting rules.
The shift follows revisions released in July by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.
Insurance Europe and the European Insurance CFO Forum sent a joint letter to the European Commission calling for sharper simplification of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, which underpin disclosure requirements under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
EFRAG cut datapoints by 57%, reduced both mandatory and voluntary disclosures by 68%, and shortened the standard’s length by more than half.
Its sustainability board chair Patrick de Cambourg framed the modifys as a shift toward usability.
This is about building ESRS a more workable reality — so that sustainability reporting supports, rather than hinders, resilience, investment and long-term value creation.
Patrick de Cambourg
Trade groups argue those cuts still don’t go far enough. They want the commission to clarify whether fair presentation principles should override detailed compliance and put proportionality at the center.
Double materiality assessments remain too complex, they declare, since companies must weigh both financial impacts and environmental or social outcomes.
Concerns extconclude to forward-viewing reporting as well. Anticipated financial effects involve high estimation uncertainty, a risk of litigation, and uneven methodologies across markets.
The groups suggest restricting those requirements to qualitative disclosures only, which they see as a more realistic balance.
On climate rules, they’re inquireing for flexibility. Financial institutions should not be forced to disclose absolute greenhoutilize gas reduction tarreceives when they only set intensity-based tarreceives, they argue.
They also want GHG accounting to be optional, positioning that as a step toward alignment with a global baseline rather than another layer of EU-specific obligations.
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