On December 12, 2024, the President signed the Act of December 6, 2024. on amendments to the Accounting Act, the Act on Certified Auditors, Audit Firms and Public Oversight, and certain other acts (information is here, under item no. 13). This concludes the delayed transposition of the CSRD into Polish law. All that remains now is a technical formality, namely publication in the Journal of Laws, which should take place in the coming days.
MATERIALITY signed together with over 90 organizations from across Europe public position on the further implementation of regulations concerning sustainability reporting. We urge that the implementation of these regulations be carried out in a manner that ensures legal continuity and avoids excessive burdens on companies. This position has been communicated to the European Commission and other institutions.
The EU Official Journal published a regulation on ESG ratings (No. 2024/3005This marks the beginning of the end of the Wild West era in this domain. Order will be brought by a strong sheriff, namely ESMA. Rating agencies will not be allowed to combine issuing ratings with advising on how to improve those ratings, which, in my opinion, has been ethically questionable to date. Agencies will also have to provide separate ratings for the E, S, and G areas, or, in the case of issuing a single rating for overall sustainability, disclose the weighting of each of these three areas in the rating. ESMA will be able to impose heavy administrative sanctions, up to 10% of annual revenue, on agencies that fail to comply with the new requirements. The ESG ratings regulation is very good news for companies, which have been complaining for years about the poor quality and low credibility of ratings.
Later this week, EFRAG Sustainability Reporting TEG will begin work on two new documents. Implementation Guidance. The first will concern the difference between gross and net. This is particularly important when assessing risks and impacts. The second document will explain the approach to a range of social issues. Of these, only ESRS S1 contains detailed metrics, while all the others have only a consistent, generic structure based on the specifics of due diligence processes.
Finally, I would like to ask you to complete a short survey:
In the near future, MATERIALITY ACADEMY will be preparing a series of specialized courses on individual ESRS standards and certain cross-cutting issues related to the standards. Please let us know which of these courses on individual standards and issues you consider most urgent and which would be most useful to you.
This is (probably) the last newsletter of the year. Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day are just around the corner. On behalf of myself, Justyna Biernacka, and the entire MATERIALITY and MATERIALITY ACADEMY team, I would like to wish you all peace, a break from reporting, and the opportunity to gain perspective on what is important in life 😊
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