Tough EU climate reporting net to ensnare ASX companies
Australian companies are likely to be among those hit with stringent new sustainability reporting rules which come into effect in the European Union in less than eight months.
Big companies may have won a reprieve on climate reporting from Australian regulators, but those with sizeable operations in the European Union will be ensnared in a much more stringent regime that comes into effect as early as next January.
The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is far more broad-ranging than Australia’s proposed mandatory climate disclosures and is likely to affect hundreds of Australian companies, including those who may not operate in Europe but have debt or equity securities listed on a European stock exchange.
The process of figuring out if a company is affected requires a complex scoping exercise that assurance professionals urge those with European connections to start working on immediately, if they haven’t already.
“It’s quite complex — every company needs to go through the corporate structure in a scoping exercise to look at the legal entities that may be caught in Europe," PwC assurance partner John Tomac said. "In some cases, companies may have several subsidiaries that operate in Europe and they may all be captured, or only some."
