Sustainability reporting: some challenges from and for the European Union

Sustainability reporting emerged strongly at the end of the last century. For the last few years, its status has changed from voluntary to compulsory, at least in the European context. Yet it is not only Europe that is firmly committed to the new reporting system because, internationally, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation also works at speed in the field. Thus there are two new bodies, the Sustainability Reporting Board (SRB) of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which share the common goal of developing sustainability standards, and with some differences that constitute challenges. In this paper, I focus on the second aspect, particularly on the different views about 'materiality'. This is a rather difficult notion with distinct angles that have provoked some interesting discussions not only institutionally, but also in the academia.