1、Time for the rubber to hit the road:getting real about ESG in automotivePhoto by Zoe HazeltonKearney,OsloThe pressures risingFrom the UNs Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures(TCFD),the Global Reporting Initiative(GRI),the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board(SASB),the EU Taxonomy

2、,and the Common Ground Taxonomy(CGT)collaboration between the EU and China to an ever-expanding suite of country-specific policies,firms are now being told what they must disclose and how this should be presented.Its a virtual alphabet soup.To add to the complexity,these requirements are not yet sta

3、ndardized(see figure 1 on page 2).What unites these approaches is the overarching goal to achieve transparency about the substance of ESG measures,thus preventing greenwashing and understanding risks to the companies business model.The EU has accelerated the pace of the transition to a greener econo

4、my in recent years,introducing several new policies that apply across all 27 of its member states.One notable development is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive(CSRD),which will come into force in 2024.It affects all large companies,regardless of capital market orientation,and thus virt

5、ually the entire automotive industry,whether manufacturers or suppliers.The CSRD obliges companies to provide significantly more detailed and comprehensive non-financial ESG data(qualitative and quantitative/KPIs)as part of their management report,in an auditable form.The reporting mechanism is outl

6、ined by the planned European Sustainability Reporting Standards(ESRS),which lays out both mandatory disclosures on climate change and workforce and additional disclosures in eight categories from pollution and biodiversity to consumers and business conduct.Theres no getting away from ESG these days.