Review of trends in ESG Reporting requirements for investors

Year published
2022
Theme
Disclosure
ESG
Author
UN PRI
Category
Report

An overview of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting requirements for investors around the world and the trends driving the disclosures

The PRI is assessing how best to ensure accountability on responsible investment practices globally. To support this work, we have carried out a review of the global ESG reporting landscape for investors and the major trends driving the reporting.

The review covered a total of 120 ESG reporting instruments across five global reporting initiatives and nine key jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US. 

Our findings should help signatories understand the current ESG reporting requirements applying to their investments and investment processes in key markets. We also expect the findings will influence the future development and implementation of the PRI’s reporting and assessment (R&A) framework.

Key findings
Investment-related ESG reporting requirements are growing but not in all jurisdictions
A move from “tell me” to “show me” reporting
ESG issue-specific reporting is growing
We are a long way from global consensus on investment-related ESG reporting
Next steps
The PRI established its reporting function in 2006, at a time when there were few ESG reporting requirements on companies or investors. As detailed in the briefing below, the reporting landscape for investors has changed dramatically since then.

The R&A framework has evolved over time and the PRI continues to assess the framework to ensure it remains useful for responsible investors and helps drive change in the market. Our intention is to deliver a universally applicable set of reporting requirements that is better-aligned with jurisdictional reporting rules and can evolve to meet the future needs of our signatories. We will also continue to monitor the reporting landscape for investors to inform the future development and implementation of our reporting framework.

The PRI will share further details on our 2023 R&A framework on our R&A updates page. Please also feel free to contact us at [email protected] for more information.