Strategy to Leverage Sustainability Reporting: Advancing International Alignment and Capacity Building

What’s in this publication?

This publication sets out key recommendations to unlock the potential of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards for the economic transformation, focused on the role of International Alignment and Capacity Building in the Global South. Towards that end, it sets out a strategy to guide philanthropic efforts along three main pillars:

1. An internationally aligned disclosure system, with high ambition.
2. A sectoral approach to address implementation challenges.
3. Value chain capacity building, beyond compliance.

This publication is the executive summary of an extensive scoping study on the effective implementation of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which draws on desk research, multi-stakeholder workshops in New York and Jakarta, research visits across Europe and Southeast Asia, and targeted interviews. It sets out the main challenges and potential actions per pillar, followed by methodological considerations and a suggested work programme for philanthropy.

Why now?

Relevance beyond compliance:

Simplification does not require crude rollbacks of reporting obligations; rather, it can be achieved through targeted actions that create opportunities beyond compliance. The actions set out in this paper advocate for a more coherent and ambitious international sustainability reporting landscape, that not only sets the stage for compliance with the ESRS but also enhances the role of reporting as a tool for the sustainable transformation.

Relevance in the context of policy uncertainty:

While policy shifts may alter the specifics of the ESRS implementation and disclosure requirements, the core challenges – capacity-building, international coherence, and stakeholder buy-in – remain critical to address. The recommendations in this report address those systemic challenges.

Read and download our report below:

For any questions or feedback on this publication, please contact the authors.