(FEB NEWS) Universitas Airlangga – 14 November 2025, The Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, successfully held Guest Lecture Series #10 with a distinguished presentation by Prof. Dr. Kees Camfferman, RA from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. This academic forum brought together graduate students, faculty members, and practitioners for an in-depth exploration of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), with a particular emphasis on first-year implementation and the evolving regulatory outlook across the European Union.
The session began with a contextual overview of the European Union’s institutional structure, legislative processes, and reporting architecture, ranging from the Accounting Directive, the IAS Regulation, and the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) to the transition toward the CSRD. Prof. Camfferman underscored how the EU initially embedded high ambitions to transform corporate reporting, supported by rapid regulatory developments and accelerated timelines to enforce CSRD requirements beginning in FY 2024.
A central component of the lecture was the explanation of ESRS principles, including:
• Double materiality assessment (impact and financial materiality),
• Identification of material impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs) across the value chain,
• A standardized reporting structure covering governance, strategy, policies and actions, metrics, and targets, and
• Alignment with established frameworks such as GRI, the GHG Protocol, and TCFD recommendations.
Drawing on early reporting examples and emerging evidence from the first wave of companies applying ESRS, Prof. Camfferman highlighted substantial variations in the number of identified IROs, disclosure challenges on financial impacts, and the increasing importance of reliable third-party data. The lecture also examined sector-specific issues such as greenhouse gas emissions (including Scope 3), the global gender pay gap calculation under ESRS S1, and the complexities surrounding wage adequacy reporting.
An important part of the presentation discussed the changing political climate in Europe, including the outcomes of the 2024 European elections, the publication of the Draghi Report on Competitiveness, and the EU’s subsequent reconsideration of its sustainability regulatory trajectory. These developments culminated in the 2025 Omnibus Proposals, which recommend significant adjustments: narrowing the CSRD scope to very large entities, postponing future implementation waves, removing the long-term objective of reasonable assurance, and simplifying ESRS by eliminating voluntary datapoints and reducing mandatory requirements by more than half.
Prof. Camfferman closed the session with reflections on the broader implications for global sustainability reporting. Although political and regulatory uncertainty persists, he emphasized that the first year of CSRD implementation has yielded valuable insights, showing that many organizations have made reasonable efforts despite compressed timelines. CSRD/ESRS, even in a reduced form, is expected to play a pivotal role in strengthening the foundation of sustainability reporting within and beyond the EU.
This guest lecture reaffirmed the commitment of the Department of Accounting, FEB Universitas Airlangga, to providing high-quality academic engagement and fostering discourse on global developments in accounting, corporate governance, and sustainability regulation.