A Major Challenge for Sustainable Transition: We Need to Help SMEs Collect and Publish their main ESG Data

With the proliferation of legislative instruments on the issue, Jean-François Pons' paper examines how to better help SMEs to collect and communicate their ESG data. SMEs underpin the European economic and social fabric. However, they meet many more hurdles to comply with ESG’s requirements if compared to the big enterprises. Taking into account the importance of SMEs for the European economy and their environmental impact, this policy brief presents the current state of ESG legislation at the EU level. It then proposes a series of concrete actions to be adopted by the EU, its MSs and the natural partners of SMEs (banks, accountants and professional associations) to help these fundamental economic entities in their transition towards a greener economy. These actions must be started quickly and on a large scale, given that it will take a couple of years for an average SME to collect and publish a good set of ESG data.