Sector-Specific ESRS: Why the Mandatory Standards Were Eliminated

As of August 2026

For years, EFRAG has been working on sector-specific ESRS—binding supplementary standards for industries such as oil and gas, mining, and road transport. The Omnibus Package has brought this initiative to an end: The European Commission’s authority to issue binding sector-specific standards has been eliminated without replacement. Read this article to find out what has happened so far and what this means for your reporting preparations.

How the Sector-Specific ESRS Came About

The CSRD originally provided that the European Commission would issue binding sector-specific standards in addition to the sector-agnostic ESRS, imposing additional disclosure requirements on industries with particularly high environmental or social impacts. EFRAG began developing initial drafts for these standards in 2022. In March 2023, Commissioner Mairead McGuinness asked EFRAG to focus initially on the sector-neutral ESRS, which delayed work on the sector standards. EFRAG nevertheless continued development at the secretariat level. However, not a single sector standard was subject to public consultation:

Oil and Gas: Draft approved by the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board on September 24, 2024, but never submitted for public consultation
Mining, quarrying, and coal mining: Draft discussed by the board on October 16, 2024, and not approved because further work was needed
Road transport: in the validation phase
Textiles, accessories, shoes, and jewelry; financial institutions; agriculture; automotive manufacturing; energy production; food and beverages: early design and research phase with no fixed timeline

The original adoption date for the first package was June 30, 2024. Following the provisional agreement reached by the Council and the Parliament on February 7, 2024, it was postponed by Directive (EU) 2024/1306 of April 29, 2024, to June 30, 2026, to give companies more time to implement the sector-neutral ESRS.

What the Omnibus Decided

With Amending Directive (EU) 2026/470 of February 24, 2026 (Official Journal of February 26, 2026; in force since March 18, 2026), the legal basis for binding sector-specific ESRS has been completely removed. Article 1(6) deletes the third, fourth, and sixth subparagraphs of Article 29b(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU. This effectively revokes the European Commission’s authority—it is not merely a postponement of the timeline. The drafts already prepared for the oil and gas and mining sectors will not be finalized as binding delegated acts.

EFRAG has accordingly discontinued its sector-specific work. The existing documents have been frozen at their current status and remain available via the EFRAG Knowledge Hub. The EFRAG 2026 Work Program no longer includes a sector-specific work stream.

This step is part of the overall ESRS revision: On July 3, 2026, the European Commission adopted revised, cross-cutting, and topic-specific ESRS as a delegated act (C(2026) 5010 final), with over 60% fewer mandatory data points compared to Set 1 from 2023 and over 70% fewer data points overall. This legal act has not yet been published in the Official Journal. The European Parliament and the Council have a period for raising objections until September 3, 2026, which may be extended by two months. The revised standards apply to fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.

The Omnibus Regulation consistently follows the same approach: fewer companies, fewer data points, and fewer additional layers of standards. In addition to sector-specific standards, the authorization for capital-market-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises to establish their own standards has also been eliminated; this group of companies has been completely removed from the scope of the regulation.

What This Means for Your Reporting

For companies falling within the scope of the CSRD, the following changes will take effect:

No additional sector-specific reporting requirements. You report in accordance with the two overarching standards, ESRS 1 and ESRS 2, as well as the topic-specific standards E1 through E5, S1 through S4, and G1, to the extent that these are material based on your dual materiality analysis. The materiality assessment applies to the topic-specific standards; ESRS 1 and ESRS 2 apply regardless of this assessment.
EFRAG’s preliminary work has not been lost. Companies in highly exposed industries, such as oil and gas or mining, can continue to use the drafts on the EFRAG Knowledge Hub as voluntary guidance—for example, to ensure they do not overlook industry-specific risks in their own materiality analysis. EFRAG explicitly designates them as draft working papers that do not represent an official position. This does not give rise to any reporting obligation.
Non-binding guidelines remain an option. Recital 20 of Directive (EU) 2026/470 states that, upon request, the European Commission may provide sector-specific guidelines explaining the application of the ESRS in a particular industry, including guidance on the dual materiality analysis. Such guidelines would not constitute legal acts and would not trigger any disclosure requirements.
The voluntary standard remains in effect regardless. The European Commission also adopted it as a delegated act on July 3, 2026 (C(2026) 5011 final), based on the new Article 29ca of Directive 2013/34/EU. It continues to have a two-tier structure and applies to companies outside the scope of the CSRD. At the same time, it limits the information that reporting companies may require from partners in their value chain with up to 1,000 employees. This legal act is also still subject to objection; the limitation applies to fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2027. We explain the modular structure, data point categories, and the exact impact of this cap in detail in our article on the interoperability of sustainability standards.

What You Should Do Now

Remove sector-specific ESRS from your project planning; they will no longer be part of the mandatory reporting requirements starting in fiscal year 2027. Instead, focus your resources on the revised cross-cutting and topic-specific ESRS, which will form the complete framework for your report once the delegated act is published in the Official Journal. For more information on the current scope of application and timeline, see our article on the CSRD Implementation Act as well as our white paper “Implementing the CSRD Safely: Four Phases to Your First Report for 2027.”

Do you need assistance preparing your materiality analysis and reporting? Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.