• High Interoperability Confirmed: CDP and EFRAG announced significant commonality between CDP’s questionnaire and ESRS climate standards, with full mapping guidance to be released in early 2025.
• Commitment to Efficiency: The partnership aims to reduce the reporting burden for companies and enhance compliance with the CSRD.
• Strengthened Future Alignment: CDP and EFRAG will explore enhanced alignment and deliver ESRS-aligned response insights to the market in 2025.

At COP29, CDP and EFRAG, a leading figure in developing European sustainability standards, announced the discovery of extensive interoperability between CDP’s questionnaire and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This breakthrough aligns with both organizations’ goals of building efficiency in the environmental data ecosystem and easing reporting for global companies.

Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, stated:

“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.”

Joint mapping revealed that the CDP questionnaire and ESRS climate standard (ESRS E1) share substantial commonalities. This dual benefit means ESRS E1 reporters will find it easier to complete CDP disclosures, while CDP disclosers will be prepared for ESRS E1 requirements. A comprehensive mapping document will be published in early 2025, ahead of CDP’s upcoming disclosure cycle.

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Patrick de Cambourg, Chair of the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board, shared:

“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.”

As a market adoption partner for ESRS, CDP is poised to facilitate the standard’s worldwide uptake. With over 90% of European stock market companies already using CDP for environmental data disclosure, this interoperability strengthens CDP’s position as a key tool for ESRS-aligned data.

Looking ahead, CDP plans to explore deeper alignment with ESRS and release market insights on ESRS-aligned responses in 2025. This partnership underscores CDP and EFRAG’s shared commitment to advancing sustainability reporting and fostering global transparency.

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