Two years of CSRD reporting: greater transparency, but strategy is lagging behind

At Frank Bold's expert group, we analysed the 2025 reports of 100 large EU companies disclosing sustainability information under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to assess how companies are addressing critical sustainability challenges in their strategy.

The research evaluated what companies are telling us on climate, double materiality assessment, due diligence, actions and metrics, and governance. After the Omnibus I package narrowed the scope of the CSRD and simplified the standards, the quality of reports now depends more than ever on what companies themselves judge to be material.

What we found

The CSRD works as a transparency tool. Users can now distinguish frontrunners from laggards and discern generic claims from actual evidence. However, our research also reveals a very uneven picture when it comes to how companies report on more complex sustainability challenges, as well as a concerning lack of integration in companies’ strategies. Among our key findings:  

• More climate targets with stalled ambition. 85 companies disclose decarbonisation targets, up from 73 last year. Net-zero commitments have barely moved (41 companies), and only 56 companies set interim targets.  

• Climate transition plans are spreading, but many are plans in name only. 68 companies report a climate transition plan, up from 54 last year. However, about 15 % of companies that declare a plan fail to show its basic elements.  

• Banks are falling behind. Only 5 of 17 financial institutions in the sample have decarbonisation targets with interim milestones. 14 report financing policies for high-impact sectors, but only 7 disclose climate transition plans tailored for high-impact sectors in their portfolios.
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