Empowering Corporate Accountability: Inside GRI’s New Climate Change and Energy Standards

As the world moves into an age where climate transparency is no longer an option but a requirement, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) released an important update to its sustainability reporting standards on the 26th of June, 2025. The just-released GRI 102: Climate Change and GRI 103: Energy are a step in the right direction toward sharpening corporate sustainability disclosures globally—balancing business operations with stakeholder needs, regulatory requirements and the growing pressure of the climate emergency.

These new updates are released at a pivotal moment. The worldwide climate crisis is mounting, stakeholders are calling for more transparent action and the business community is coming under mounting pressure to do more than simply speak about sustainability but to integrate it into the very fabric of business practice. With its new guidelines, GRI is shaping how corporations ought to report on their environmental and social footprints—especially in the fields concerned with climate change and the use of energy.

Corporate leaders analyze climate, ESG, and energy metrics in a modern boardroom as part of aligning with GRI’s updated 2025 sustainability standards.

Why the Update Was Necessary

Among the most globally recognised frameworks for environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting worldwide, The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards are the most opted for. Created by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), they offer companies a fully fledged system for revealing information related to sustainability that is not only consistent but also comparable and transparent.

The revised climate and energy standards follow decades of changing stakeholder expectations. As per GRI, such a move to update these standards was necessitated by a "remarkable increase in stakeholder demands for transparency around climate-related action and reporting." Owing to the trend of conscientious consumerism and its regulatory pressure, all stakeholders, viz. investors, communities, regulators and civil society organisations look beyond carbon emissions and energy usage. Therefore, they actively want to know how businesses go about climate adaptation, shifting towards cleaner energy and aligning with scientific routes to net-zero emissions while keeping their social impacts in check.

What's New in GRI 102: Climate Change

The new GRI 102: Climate Change standard is a revolutionary way of reporting on climate. While earlier standards were mainly about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption, GRI 102 takes a larger and more human-focused approach.

Key additions are:

1. Just Transition Principles

This is the most socially pertinent addition in the new standard. Companies inevitably have to disclose what ways their climate transition and adaptation impacts plans on workers, local communities and vulnerable groups. With this approach, companies cannot escape their regulatory mandate and social obligation, viz. fairness and equity while transitioning to a low-carbon, uninflicted economy.

2. Transition Planning and Fossil Fuel Phase-Out

Organisations are required to disclose developing transition plans for climate mitigation now. This involves establishing science-aligned targets, describing detailed policies and actions and reporting progress on the phasing out of fossil fuels. Disclosures will provide stakeholders with a better understanding of how companies are shifting net-zero pledges into real action.

3. Carbon Removals and Credits

Another key aspect is the increased disclosure regarding GHG removals and the utilisation of carbon credits, including supply chain embedded credits. The companies are now required to describe how these instruments play a role in overall emissions plans and if they are consistent with sound carbon accounting practices.

4. Adaptation Measures

In addition to mitigation, the standard also requires disclosures associated with climate change adaptation. This encompasses initiatives aimed at adapting operations, supply chains and business models to changing climate risk—thereby linking climate resilience and strategic planning.

What's New in GRI 103: Energy

The friend standard, GRI 103: Energy, addresses the effects of energy production and use—specifically in the context of the global energy transition. The updated framework enables companies to report more extensively on how people, the environment and the economy are impacted by their energy-related activities.

Highlights include:

1. Energy Consumption and Generation

Organisations are now required to report not only on internal energy consumption but also on upstream and downstream energy usage—a more complete picture of energy flows throughout the value chain.

2. Energy Transition and Target Setting

The rule sets high priority on a low-carbon energy future. Disclosure of energy transition policies, associated commitments and energy reduction or renewable sourcing targets is requested for companies. These disclosures enable accountability by bridging ambition and tangible consequences.

3. Stakeholder Impact

Similar to the climate standard, so too does GRI 103 recognise the human effects of energy decision-making. This encompasses disclosures regarding how energy transitions impact employees, local economies and environmental ecosystems, thus encouraging a balanced, systems-thinking approach to energy management. 

4. Energy Intensity

The standard establishes more robust reporting requirements regarding energy intensity, enabling comparison among various companies and industries—enabling more useful measures for investors and policymakers alike.

Driving Global Alignment Through Interoperability

Perhaps the most interesting thing about these new standards is how aligned they are with other prominent sustainability reporting frameworks. Seeking to take into account the load of competing overlapping standards on businesses, GRI has collaborated in close cooperation with groups such as the IFRS Foundation and EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) to ensure compatibility.

Actually, GRI and the IFRS Foundation both confirmed that IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures may be utilised to satisfy equivalent GHG emissions disclosures under GRI 102. This will enable companies to prevent duplicate reporting and instead concentrate on providing thorough and high-quality sustainability information.

GRI also showcased alignment with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and its Corporate Net Zero Standard.

This strategic alignment enables organisations to report against GRI standards while at the same time adhering to regional regulation and investor demands.

Industry Reactions

GRI’s leadership views these standards not just as regulatory tools but as instruments for real-world impact. Robin Hodess, CEO of GRI, emphasised the human dimension of the climate crisis:

•  “Climate change is a deeply human issue, as much as it is an environmental one and these new GRI Standards are unique in bringing these dimensions together.”

Similarly, Carol Adams, Chair of the GSSB, underscored the importance of accountability:

• "GRI Standards on Climate Change and Energy address fundamental reasons why businesses must be held responsible for the effects they have on people and planet. They play a central role in the development of an integrated and efficient global climate reporting system."

The IFRS Foundation's Sue Lloyd also noted:

• "This will allow companies to make a single set of GHG emissions disclosures based on IFRS S2, to satisfy the needs of both standards."

Such approvals from influential organisations testify to the strategic importance of the GRI as well as its growing influence in the realm of climate reporting.

The Road Ahead

With the new GRI 102 and 103 mandate, the platform is up for enacting a new phase of ESG reporting. With priorities like People and Plant, the first two Ps of the triple bottom line, the new mandate give lease of sustainable business to societies as well as boardrooms.

Such measures, needless to say, go beyond mere checkbox practices and ensure due actions. The GRI not only is making sure of better examination of climate-impacting aspects right at the source but is also leading to the enablement of transparency, visionary strategy and accountability.

The move is aimed at gaining actual climate benefits, giving an edge to companies that embrace the new standards, given the deepening climate crisis.

In the face of climate urgency, GRI’s new standards don’t just ask companies to report more. They demand that they act better.

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