Evaluating Corporate Climate Change Reporting Compliance under CSRD with ESRS E1 Standards

This master’s thesis examines the disclosure of climate-related information by large European utility companies under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), utilizing the European Sustainability Reporting Standard ESRS E1 (Climate Change) as the assessment framework. A straightforward and traceable checklist method is developed, grounded in the nine core ESRS E1 disclosure requirements (E1-1 to E1-9), and implemented through evidence mapping (page/section references) and a transparent scoring system (0/1/2). The method is first demonstrated on Enel Group (Research A) and then extended in the Final Project to a comparative analysis of five utilities: Enel (Italy), ENGIE (France), Iberdrola (Spain), E.ON (Germany), and Ørsted (Denmark). Results show strong and consistent disclosure across the core operational requirements (transition planning, policies, actions, targets, energy, and Scope-based emissions). The main differences across companies emerge in the more challenging requirements, particularly carbon credits/removals (E1-7), internal carbon pricing (E1-8), and anticipated financial effects of climate risks and opportunities (E1-9). Overall, the thesis provides a replicable approach for assessing ESRS E1 disclosure completeness using publicly available reports and identifies priority areas for improving comparability and decision-usefulness of climate reporting.