Emperor Sustainability Briefing 16.07.2026

Issue #25

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Keeping it brief

A breezier Briefing for you this week, perhaps a bit of an antidote to the weather, as we ring in mid-summer with a shorter (but no less important) collection of stories.

Pragmatism is the overwhelming flavour – the EU finalises its revised (and slightly simpler) standard, Temasek raises the heat of its most optimistic climate scenario, and Microsoft and Google seeing emissions rise sharply to permit growth. 

Contents:

Revised ESRS – GHG Protocol guidance

Temasek scenario – Tech giant emissions

Reporting Highlight:

Cory Group, the recycling and waste management experts, has recently released its Annual Report and Sustainability Report for 2025. We love the visualisation of “no waste from waste” in the Sustainability Report, depicting how Cory break down nearly every part of waste into a new use or output. If you’d like to take a look, you can find both reports here.

One Number:

24

The average number of sustainability initiatives reported on by the world’s biggest companies, based on a sample of the 500 largest listed firms globally. It’s a reminder of how ‘standards led’ and verification-heavy sustainability reporting has become – which, at least from the point of view of consistency and clarity, can be counted as a positive.

Regulation and Frameworks

Revised ESRS adopted; EU Taxonomy review begins

Another couple of updates from the world of EU regulation – we’re sure that you scrolled to this story first ;) 

The final revised ESRS have now been adopted by the European Commission, as expected. These represent
a meaningful simplification when compared to the original standards, boasting a total datapoint reduction of 70%. You can read a previous Briefing on the news for full details. Companies may have to move relatively quickly on these, as the new standards are likely to be effective from FY27 reporting (i.e. reports released in 2028). This means that if you currently report ESRS, you should review what about your internal data collection systems might need to change.

To note, EFRAG has also renamed the reporting standard for non-EU companies from N-ESRS to ESRS-TC, with "TC" standing for "Third Country".

Separately, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a six-week consultation on simplifying EU Taxonomy disclosures, with proposals including streamlined operational expenditure reporting and easier group-level reporting. ESMA and other EU supervisory authorities are expected to submit final recommendations to the Commission in October.

Both these developments can be taken as a reinforcement of the EU’s broader direction of travel since around 2024: a simplification of processes and burdens, without (too much!) of a retreat from the substance of what must be disclosed. 

GHG Protocol launches Land Sector and Removals Guidance

A companion resource to the Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Standard, the new Guidance provides practical details on how to account for and report GHG emissions and CO2 removals from agricultural land use. This document is primarily intended to support corporate implementation of the LSR Standard through, for instance, worked examples – particularly helpful given the complexity of the standard. If your company currently uses or is looking to use LSR, this will be well worth looking into. 

This long-awaited release comes following a minor furore within the GHG Protocol, which you can read about in a previous Briefing.

Shortlist:

TenneT, the German energy grid’s largest transmission systems operator, has raised €3.5bn through its inaugural green bond – the largest corporate issuance under the EU’s recent European Green Bond standard (EuGB) to date

Lloyds Banking Group and Wildfarmed have launched the Food & Nature Resilience Fund, designed to help transition farmland in the UK to employing regenerative agriculture practices

Corporate

Temasek adopts 2.4°C baseline climate scenario

Singapore’s state-owned investor Temasek has raised its baseline climate scenario from 1.8°C to 2.4°C warming by 2100, aligning with the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) “Fragmented World” scenario, citing delayed and uneven global climate policy as the reason.  

While the other two climate scenarios used by Temasek remain the same, the move demonstrates how many corporate actors now view a scenario below 2.0C as highly unlikely. Particularly as IFRS S2 (the climate-related standard replacing TCFD) rolls out worldwide, we expect more companies to reconsider the pragmatism of the climate scenarios they consider.

Google and Microsoft emissions jump due to AI

What wins, growth or emissions reductions? For two tech giants, the answer is firmly growth. Google’s latest environmental report shares an 18% annual increase in emissions, with Microsoft’s rising a whopping 25%. Both companies claimed that this was down to AI buildout, with Google citing “unprecedented growth”. Microsoft’s situation is a little more complex, as its jump was also down to a change in policy around renewable energy certificates. However, the news remains a little demoralising.

Both companies have also been leading investors in renewable energy assets and technology, and both have maintained their existing 2030 targets for decarbonisation – with Microsoft maintaining its water and waste targets too. We therefore hope that these raised emissions drop over time, as the nature of the energy used to power their AI data centres changes. 

To discuss any of these topics in more detail or speak to one of our Sustainability team about how to better your corporate sustainability efforts, email [email protected] -we'd love to hear from you.