SIMON WEAVER
ESG
At the same time, the European Securities and Markets Authority( ESMA) has started overseeing ESG rating providers in the EU.
Efforts to simplify the ESRS have caused disagreements. Regulators want to reduce bureaucracy, while climate groups are concerned that companies might do less for the environment.
New sheriff in town As reporting templates change, companies are now being evaluated more closely than ever.
ESMA, which was set up in 2011 to maintain stability, integrity and investor protection in European financial markets, is now becoming the direct supervisor of ESG rating providers in the EU.
“ Under the new regime, ESMA’ s supervisory objective is not to define what‘ good’ ESG ratings look like, unlike some popular misconceptions,” explains Geoffroy Marcassoli, Sustainability Assurance Leader at PwC Luxembourg.
“ Instead, the objective is to raise the baseline for transparency, governance and comparability in how ESG ratings are produced.
“ In practice, this means ESG ratings providers will need to disclose their methodologies, data sources and assumptions more clearly, addressing long-standing concerns about opaque‘ black-box’ scoring and inconsistent approaches across the market.”
This change is reshaping the industry. Ratings providers in the EU must now register and get approval from ESMA, or they could lose access to the market.
SIMON WEAVER
TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY
COMPANY: KPMG INTERNATIONAL
LOCATION: LONDON, UK
Simon helps boards identify risks and opportunities affecting their organisation due to climate change, determine the appropriate strategy and hardwire strategic risk issues into their business planning and models.
96 August 2026