GRI Publishes New 2025 Climate Change and Energy Standards
As climate-related disclosure rises to the top of corporate and regulatory agendas worldwide, in June 2025, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has updated sustainability reporting standards: GRI 102: Climate Change and GRI 103: Energy. These standards respond directly to the growing pressure on companies to demonstrate transparency, accountability, and tangible progress on climate action.
Far exceeding basic emissions reporting, the new GRI standards require companies to disclose detailed information on transition planning, energy strategy, and the social consequences of climate change, including impacts on workers, communities, and vulnerable groups. This broadens the scope of climate reporting to reflect not just environmental, but also human and systemic dimensions of the climate crisis.
Crucially, the standards have been developed to align with key international frameworks, such as the ISSB’s IFRS S2 and the GHG Protocol, ensuring a high level of interoperability. This makes them especially valuable for organizations navigating multiple reporting requirements across jurisdictions, allowing for more consistent and efficient sustainability disclosures.
GRI 102: Climate Change
The revised GRI 102: Climate Change standard requires companies to report more comprehensively on their climate-related impacts and on how they manage those impacts. A core requirement is disclosure of Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which must be calculated in alignment with the GHG Protocol. This ensures consistency with other major standards such as the ISSB’s IFRS S2.
However, the scope of the standard goes well beyond emissions. Companies are now required to disclose whether and how they have developed climate transition and adaptation plans. This includes describing related policies, mitigation actions, and the extent to which these are aligned with scientific evidence, such as the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) framework. Disclosure of fossil fuel phase-out plans and related targets and progress metrics is also included.
A notable innovation in GRI 102 is the introduction of just transition principles. Companies must report on the social impacts of their climate strategies, including how transition or adaptation plans affect workers, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and other vulnerable groups. This integrates social responsibility into climate governance and requires companies to assess who is being impacted by decarbonization strategies and how they are being supported.
The standard also introduces new disclosure requirements regarding the use of carbon credits and greenhouse gas removals. Companies must explain the assumptions, methodologies, and integrity of any claims related to carbon offsetting, ensuring transparency around the climate effectiveness and social impacts of these instruments.
Lastly, companies are expected to assess their most significant climate-related impacts as part of their materiality assessment and to integrate these into their sustainability disclosures. This reinforces the importance of impact-based reporting and encourages organizations to go beyond risk disclosures by also accounting for their broader contributions to climate change and its mitigation.
GRI 103: Energy
The updated GRI 103: Energy standard supports organizations in disclosing the significant environmental and social impacts associated with their energy consumption and production. It expands energy-related reporting to include not only total energy consumption (both renewable and non-renewable) within the organization, but also significant upstream and downstream energy use. The objective is to provide a full value chain picture of an entity��s energy footprint.
The standard requires companies to report on energy intensity and efficiency measures, energy reduction efforts, and the generation of energy from renewable sources. Additionally, companies must describe how energy-related strategies and policies contribute to their transition to a decarbonized economy. This includes disclosure of any targets related to renewable energy sourcing and the progress made toward those targets.
Importantly, GRI 103 integrates social and environmental dimensions into energy reporting. Companies must assess and disclose the impacts of their energy strategies on people and ecosystems. This includes occupational health risks linked to energy production and use, as well as waste management practices associated with energy generation. These requirements are particularly relevant for sectors with intensive energy use, where energy choices can have direct consequences for both the workforce and the environment.
Interoperability with IFRS S2 and the ISSB Framework
One of the most strategically significant elements of the 2025 update is the deliberate alignment of GRI 102 and 103 with the IFRS Foundation’s ISSB climate standard, IFRS S2. A joint interoperability statement from the GRI and IFRS Foundation clarifies how the standards can be used together, particularly in relation to GHG emissions disclosures.
Under this alignment, organizations that report Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions in accordance with IFRS S2 and the GHG Protocol can use the same disclosures to meet the corresponding requirements in GRI 102. Both standards also require disclosures on climate transition plans, climate adaptation, and resilience-building efforts. This alignment significantly reduces the reporting burden for multinational companies and publicly listed entities that are subject to both investor-oriented and impact-oriented disclosure expectations.
While IFRS S2 focuses primarily on financial materiality and investor-relevant climate risks, GRI 102 adds depth in terms of social impacts and the wider consequences of climate action. The two frameworks are therefore complementary, with GRI offering broader stakeholder accountability and ISSB emphasizing enterprise value.
This approach is consistent with the broader push toward a global baseline in sustainability reporting, where jurisdictions and standard-setters recognize each other’s frameworks to promote efficiency, comparability, and clarity in ESG disclosures.
Alignment with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)
In developing the revised climate and energy standards, GRI also collaborated with EFRAG to ensure a high degree of alignment with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which underpin the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This ensures that companies using GRI 102 and 103 as part of their broader ESG strategy can integrate their disclosures into EU-compliant sustainability statements with minimal duplication.
GRI’s new content on transition planning and target-setting has also been aligned with the Science-Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard, further reinforcing its scientific credibility and consistency with current best practices.
Implications for Business
For businesses, the 2025 update of GRI 102 and 103 marks a decisive step toward a more integrated and actionable sustainability reporting framework. It acknowledges that climate and energy issues are not only environmental but deeply social and economic in nature.
From a compliance perspective, companies operating in multiple jurisdictions will benefit from the enhanced interoperability between GRI, the IFRS Foundation’s ISSB, and the EU’s ESRS. This interoperability has been formalized through joint statements and technical cooperation between GRI, the IFRS Foundation, and EFRAG. It enables companies to streamline their reporting systems, align internal ESG KPIs, and reduce duplication of disclosures across multiple frameworks. For sustainability teams, this offers a practical pathway to implement one reporting system that meets multiple requirements, thereby increasing reporting efficiency and coherence.
From a strategic standpoint, the new standards require companies to elevate their climate governance and bring more transparency to transition planning and social safeguards. The integration of just transition and value chain disclosures will require closer collaboration between sustainability, human resources, risk, and finance functions.
Companies should now assess the gaps between their current reporting practices and the updated GRI 102 and 103 requirements. They should ensure that transition plans are not only science-based and financially sound but also socially inclusive. Reporting systems must be updated to capture upstream and downstream energy impacts, including new indicators on energy use, generation, and occupational health risks.
Finally, the updated standards reinforce the shift in global ESG frameworks from mere disclosure to impact-oriented, decision-useful sustainability information. By applying these revised GRI standards, businesses can not only fulfill regulatory and stakeholder expectations but also position themselves as credible and accountable actors in the global transition to a low-carbon, equitable economy.
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