CIMA welcomes drive to greater transparency and trust in UK sustainability reporting

25 February 2026, London – The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) today welcomed the introduction of the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS), marking a significant step towards improving transparency, accountability, and trust in sustainability-related financial reporting.

The UK SRS provide a clear and practical framework for reporting material information about sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The standards aim to support long-term value creation for businesses and strengthen investor confidence, accelerating progress toward the UK’s net-zero ambition.

Dr Jeremy Osborn, FCMA, CGMA, FCPA (Aust.), Global Head of Sustainability at The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, said: “These standards give business a robust framework to produce meaningful sustainability data that investors can trust. They raise the bar on transparency and data quality, ultimately driving more confident and informed decision-making for investors, whilst creating greater value for business by helping them refine their goals and planning, and ensuring they are well positioned to meet their sustainability targets.”

Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, Chief Executive – Management Accounting at The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, said: “The UK has long led the way in sustainability disclosure, and CIMA has championed this progress for many years through its leadership on integrated reporting and more recently through its active support to the UK Sustainability Disclosure Technical Advisory Committee. These standards will go a long way towards building trust in corporate reporting and improving decision-making among business leaders and investors.”

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S1 and S2, on which the UK standards are based, are designed to be interoperable with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), helping global businesses to harmonise their sustainability-related disclosures and reduce reporting complexity across jurisdictions.

• IFRS S1 outlines the general requirements for sustainability-related financial disclosures, enabling companies to communicate sustainability-related risks and opportunities to investors on a consistent, comparable basis.

• IFRS S2 provides specific requirements for disclosing climate-related risks and opportunities and is designed to be applied alongside IFRS S1. It fully integrates the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Together, these standards provide a coherent global baseline for sustainability reporting and offer regulators a robust framework that can be tailored to jurisdictional needs.