EFRAG appoints Kerstin Lopatta as new Chair of Sustainability Reporting Board

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has appointed Kerstin Lopatta as the new Chair of its Sustainability Reporting Board, marking a key leadership change in Europe’s sustainability governance framework. Her three-year term will begin in May 2026, following nomination by the European Commission and consultation with EU institutions.

EFRAG plays a central role in shaping the European Union’s sustainability reporting landscape, particularly through the development of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which underpin the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The Sustainability Reporting Board is responsible for setting positions and guiding implementation of these standards across the EU.

Lopatta brings extensive experience in financial accounting, auditing, and sustainability reporting, having served as Vice Chair of the board since 2022. Her appointment comes at a critical time, as the European Commission prepares to adopt updated and simplified sustainability reporting standards and introduce voluntary frameworks for companies outside the CSRD scope.

The leadership transition is expected to support the next phase of sustainability reporting implementation in Europe, with a focus on improving usability and reducing complexity for businesses. The move reinforces the EU’s broader push to strengthen transparency, accountability, and standardisation in corporate sustainability disclosures.

Kerstin Lopatta's Chair appointment (from Vice Chair) combined with the ESRS simplification-and-voluntary-framework agenda captures the institutional continuity plus substantive-agenda-shift that EFRAG faces. Continuity in leadership during a substantive-framework transition reduces process risk that entirely-new-leadership changes would introduce.

The usability-and-complexity-reduction focus is analytically important. First-cycle CSRD implementation revealed substantial preparer-cost concerns; well-calibrated simplification improves practical workability without materially compromising decision-usefulness. Whether EFRAG's technical-standard-setting can deliver this balance shapes CSRD's long-term credibility.

For CSRD-in-scope corporates, financial institutions with CSRD-scope portfolio exposure, consultancies and their advisors, Cognitud's ESG strategy and transformation, sustainability due diligence and market intelligence teams help clients evaluate exposure under evolving ESRS framework, structure sustainability-reporting infrastructure aligned with simplification agenda, and prepare disclosures aligned with revised CSRD, ISSB and jurisdictional sustainability-reporting frameworks.