A group of over one hundred scientists have recently published an open letter to the European Commission to seek advancement of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which were adopted by the Commission on 31 July 2023.
EU flag flying in the wind

Whilst ESRS stipulates that companies must disclose on issues such as biodiversity and human rights, there is currently no scope within the legislation that includes compulsory reporting of carbon emission data. As it stands, 11,000 listed companies are allowed the decision as to whether their carbon dioxide emissions are significant enough to report on.

The letter, led by Theodor Cojoianu, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Finance at the University of Edinburgh Business School and Interim Director of Research at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, together with Andreas Hoepner, University College Dublin, Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School, Joeri Rogelj, Imperial College London & Fabiola Schneider, Dublin City University, has been featured in the Financial Times, together with Theodor’s remarks about the rationale for the initiative.

‘We wrote to the EU Commission to suggest that the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) should be mandatory for the EU's listed as well as largest private companies,’ said Theodor Cojoianu. ‘Given the climate emergency and the fact that the corporate sustainability disclosure regulation is crucial towards enabling investors to direct capital towards Paris-aligned economic activities and companies, it is important that greenhouse gas reporting should not be at the discretion of companies.’

Read the Open Letter in full


Theodor Cojoianu

Theodor Cojoianu is our Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Finance.