Corporate Disclosures 2026

9.00

Chair’s opening remarks

9.05

Morning Keynote Address: EU simplified sustainability reporting landscape

Burden reduction of sustainability reporting requirements and future priorities for corporate reporting regulation in the EU.

Alessandro d'Eri, Senior Policy Officer, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)

9.30

Fireside chat: Regulator’s perspective on sustainability disclosures in APAC

9.50

Panel Discussion: Data governance and organisation of cross-functional teams to ensure optimal sustainability reporting

• Defining clear ownership and governance of sustainability data for reporting
• What are the essential components of an integrated approach for data collection, processing, analysis and reporting?
• Breaking down internal data silos – how should cross-functional teams be organised including sustainability, finance, risk and legal to best support effective reporting?
• Building the flexibility to adapt to different reporting standards and future changes within standards
• Where and how can emerging digital tools including A.I. be used in the sustainability reporting process and how to address possible assurance challenges they create?

Claudia Hügel, Senior Director, Corporate Responsibility – Head of ESG Rating & Reporting, Lufthansa Group
Kat Dixon, Group Head of Sustainability Data & Reporting, Babcock International

 

11.00

Panel Discussion: Next steps - What are the standard setters’ future priorities for sustainability disclosures?

Representatives from the leading sustainability standard setting bodies will share their key priorities including future work streams, reviews and updates, implementation support and initiatives to simplify cross-standard reporting.

Moderator: Senior Executive, Linklaters

Chiara Del Prete, Chair, Sustainability Reporting Technical Expert Group (EFRAG SR TEG), EFRAG
Richard Barker, ISSB Member, International Sustainability Standards Board

11.40

Interactive Roundtable Discussions

1. AI as a tool for sustainability reporting
Using AI for data collection, gap analysis, drafting disclosures, and automating tagging/XBRL. Where it saves real time vs. where it introduces error. Assurance implications of AI-assisted reporting.

2. Governance of AI within the organisation
Board oversight of AI use; how AI governance itself is becoming a disclosure topic; accountability when AI outputs feed into regulated disclosures.

3. Financial materiality: Sentiment data and share price
How to determine what is financially material using open-source sentiment data correlated to share price movements.

4. Connecting climate risk to the financial statements
Bridging sustainability disclosure and financial reporting; how climate risk should (and increasingly must) show up in the financial statements themselves.

• Moderator: Paul Munter, Former Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

5. Supply chain human rights data
The practical challenge of getting reliable tier-2/tier-3 supplier data on human rights and labour conditions.

6. Sustainability assurance under ISSA 5000: first lessons learnt
Early practical experience of assurance under the new ISSA 5000 standard: what's working, what's proving harder than expected.

7. Practical multi-jurisdiction compliance
One global data architecture vs. jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction reporting builds, across ISSB, ESRS, UK SRS, SEC and others.

8. Mandatory vs. voluntary disclosure - Redundancy or complement?
Does CSRD/ISSB compliance make voluntary disclosure (CDP, SBTi, EcoVadis, etc.) less necessary, or do they serve different stakeholders?

• Moderator: Chiara Del Prete, Chair, Sustainability Reporting Technical Expert Group (EFRAG SR TEG), EFRAG

9. Asset retirement obligations and environmental liabilities
How environmental/social costs (decommissioning, remediation, ARO) get recognised under accounting standards vs. left as narrative disclosure. Credit rating implications, pre-funding obligations, balance sheet provisioning, and investor pressure for comparability.

10. Nature and biodiversity reporting
TNFD implementation, mandatory-adjacent status of nature disclosure.

• Moderators: Richard Barker, ISSB Member, International Sustainability Standards Board & Rebecca Nohl, Senior Technical Manager, TNFD

11. Closing the gap: Bringing people into scope of corporate disclosures
Investor demand for comparable social disclosures is increasing but challenges persist, including metrics and data; ties to ISSB S1 & ESRS S1/2/3/4.

Moderator: Simon Rawson, Executive Director, Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD)

12. Responsible business conduct disclosures: commercial sensitivity and legal risk
Anti-corruption, lobbying, and political contribution disclosure under GRI 205/415 and OECD RBC guidance, weighed against legal privilege, live investigations, and defamation exposure.

• Moderator: Senior Executive, Linklaters

13.40

Roundtables report back to plenary session

14.20

Panel Discussion: Sustainability assurance – Where are we now and what does the future of assurance look like?

• What are reporting companies and assurance providers experiences of current processes? Where are the key challenges and areas for improvement?
• Considerations for choosing an assurance provider?
• Where are auditors pushing back and asking for more information?
• What are the most important areas for companies to focus on when preparing for assurance?
• What is the regulatory pathway and timeline towards mandatory reasonable assurance?
• What are the opportunities and challenges for companies wishing to transition to reasonable assurance on a voluntary basis?

Magdalena Podoska, Head of Sustainability Reporting, ABB

 

15.00

Fireside chat: The UK regulator’s perspective on sustainability disclosures including its work on the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards

Louisa Chender, Sustainable Finance Policy - Technical Specialist, Financial Conduct Authority

15.50

Panel Discussion: What information belongs in future corporate reporting?

• How far should sustainability matters be integrated into financial reporting?
• What should remain in sustainability disclosures?
• Where to draw the line on how and when to include non-material information in a sustainability statement?
• Where does the accounting model fail to capture important sources of enterprise value?
• What is decision-useful for an investor vs disclosure for disclosure's sake? Does that differ from what preparers assume investors want?
• Which emerging sustainability matters will become mainstream reporting concerns?

Marie Corger, Head Sustainability Strategy & Reporting, Philip Morris International (PMI)

 

16:30

Afternoon Keynote Address

Paul Munter, Former Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

16.55

Chair’s closing remarks