The Climate Expert: ESG Reporting & Disclosure (Vol 3)

The Climate Expert is a five-volume primer series for young professionals working in climate, sustainability, and ESG. Each volume covers one region of the field in plain language: how it works, where it came from, what the law says, and what a careful professional should doubt. The series is published by Climate Expert Publication, an editorial collective committed to unbiased, knowledge-based information for students, young professionals, and everyone.

This is the third volume. ESG Reporting and Disclosure is the operating manual for the corporate sustainability reporting stack as it stands in 2026. If you prepare, audit, or read IFRS S2, ESRS, or GRI reports as part of your job, this book explains where each framework came from, how they fit together, and which parts of the architecture are now being contested.

Inside this volume:

• The four lines of descent that govern corporate sustainability disclosure: TCFD/ISSB, GRI, ESRS, and the GHG Protocol as shared accounting plumbing
• How IFRS S1 and S2 absorbed the TCFD four pillars and what IFRS S2 adds that the original TCFD left flexible
• Financial materiality versus double materiality
• Scope 1, 2, and 3 mechanics: organisational-boundary rules, location-based versus market-based Scope 2, the fifteen Scope 3 categories, and PCAF's methodology for financed emissions
• The regulatory map after the repricing: IFRS S2 adoption across sixteen-plus jurisdictions, the EU Omnibus threshold changes, California SB 253 and SB 261 as the US backstop, and the UK FCA's SDR labels
• Greenwashing as an enforcement category: the SEC's three settled cases, the Frankfurt prosecutor's EUR 25 million DWS fine, UCPD 2024/825 in force, and the Green Claims Directive in limbo
• Assurance under ISSA 5000 and what the phase-in from limited to reasonable assurance means in practice

The five volumes of The Climate Expert:

• Volume I: Foundations
• Volume II: Climate Risk
• Volume III: ESG Reporting and Disclosure (this book)
• Volume IV: Climate Law and Policy
• Volume V: Net Zero Strategy