At COP29, EFRAG and CDP, the global environmental disclosure platform, announced significant alignment and interoperability between CDP’s framework and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This development is a major step toward achieving shared goals of enhancing efficiency within the environmental data ecosystem.
The alignment, a result of ongoing collaboration, reveals a strong commonality between CDP’s questionnaire and the ESRS climate standard (ESRS E1). Initial mapping shows this interoperability will benefit companies on both fronts: ESRS E1 reporters will find CDP disclosures easier to complete while CDP-reporting companies will be better positioned to meet ESRS E1 requirements. Full mapping details will be released early next year, in advance of the 2025 CDP disclosure cycle.
As a major ESRS adoption partner, CDP is positioned to support the global expansion of these standards. Currently, CDP’s platform is used by companies representing 90% of European stock markets for environmental reporting, positioning it as a key tool for ESRS-aligned data access.
Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP said, “At CDP, we continue to evolve our disclosure system to meet changing market needs, always guided by our ‘write once, use many’ philosophy. By collaborating closely with standard setters like EFRAG, we’re working towards a more efficient global environmental disclosure ecosystem that benefits both reporting organizations and data users alike. Our valued partnership with EFRAG is rooted in our shared goals of making environmental disclosure more efficient and valuable. The extensive commonality we’ve identified between CDP’s questionnaire and the ESRS climate standard is just the first step, and reinforces our commitment to streamlining the reporting process for organizations worldwide.”
Patrick de Cambourg, Chair of the EFRAG SRB said, “Our mission at EFRAG is, in line with the CSRD ambition, to bring a critical contribution to the development of quality and accessible sustainability related data to foster the sustainable growth of businesses as well as transparency and accountability vis-à-vis all stakeholders. Our ongoing work on datapoint mapping is a major step forward since it is designed to ultimately align to the maximum extent possible the CDP questionnaire with the ESRS disclosures in order for the users of the CDP platform to benefit from a straightforward digital reporting mechanism.”
The EFRAG-CDP collaboration includes multiple initiatives aimed at reducing companies’ reporting burden and assisting global organisations in implementing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Following today’s announcement, CDP will provide ESRS-aligned response insights to the market and work on further alignment of its questionnaire with ESRS E1 for 2025. CDP and EFRAG will also issue mapping guidance to help companies prepare for the upcoming disclosure cycle and conduct market research to inform future CDP questionnaire enhancements based on essential ESRS datapoints.