• Emissions progress: Euronext listed companies with consistent reporting cut Scope 1 and 2 location-based emissions by an average 7% over three years.
• Efficiency gains: Large-cap companies reduced energy intensity by 19%, while the market continues to grapple with inconsistent Scope 3 data.
• Governance shift: Women held 35.4% of board positions in 2025, as companies also adjusted sustainability reporting to changes in the EU regulatory framework.

Euronext has released its 2026 ESG Trends Report, tracking sustainability performance across more than 1,680 listed companies in over 35 countries.

Published as Euronext Sustainability Week 2026 gets underway, the report points to measurable gains in emissions, energy efficiency and board diversity. It also captures a more complicated phase for European sustainability reporting.

Companies are adapting to changes introduced through the EU’s Omnibus simplification package and revised Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive timelines. Against that backdrop, investors are placing greater emphasis on the quality and comparability of reported ESG data.

Emissions fall, but Scope 3 remains difficult

Companies that reported consistently over the past three years reduced Scope 1 and 2 location-based emissions by an average 7%.

Reporting across all three emissions scopes has broadly stabilised since 2023. However, Scope 3 remains one of the largest weaknesses in corporate climate disclosure.

Value chain emissions are often the largest part of a company’s carbon footprint. They are also among the hardest to calculate consistently. Differences in supplier information, methodologies and data availability continue to complicate comparisons between companies.

That gap matters for investors assessing transition risk. It also affects companies trying to demonstrate progress against climate commitments that extend beyond their direct operations.

More than 250 Euronext-listed companies have now joined the Science Based Targets initiative. Of those, 233 issuers have approved near-term targets. Another 117 have committed to net-zero strategies.

Energy intensity drops 19%

Energy management showed one of the strongest improvements in the report.

Large-cap companies with consistent three-year reporting reduced energy intensity by an average 19%. Euronext measures this as megawatt-hours consumed per million euros of revenue.

The decline reflects a combination of corporate sustainability targets, investment in efficiency and pressure from high energy costs.

For executives, the results illustrate where operational efficiency and climate strategy increasingly overlap. Lower energy intensity can reduce emissions exposure while also helping companies manage costs and energy-market volatility.

Board diversity continues to improve

Women held 35.4% of board positions across the companies assessed in 2025. That represents an increase of 2.2 percentage points since 2023.

Progress below board level was less pronounced. Female representation across management bodies and management positions remained broadly stable during the same period.

The difference highlights an ongoing governance challenge. Board-level diversity has advanced, helped partly by regulation and investor scrutiny. Translating that progress into senior executive pipelines remains more difficult.

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EU rules reshape the reporting landscape

The report also captures the effects of Europe’s changing sustainability disclosure regime.

EU Taxonomy reporting has declined slightly since 2023. Euronext links the change to regulatory recalibration following the EU Omnibus simplification package and revised CSRD timelines.

Rather than indicating a retreat from sustainability disclosure, the shift comes as companies reassess reporting obligations and focus more heavily on data quality.

That distinction will matter for institutional investors. Regulatory simplification may reduce the volume of mandatory reporting for some businesses, but demand for decision-useful sustainability data remains strong.

ESG data enters a more mature phase

The scale of Euronext’s dataset gives the findings broader relevance for European capital markets.

The 2026 report draws on more than 125,000 reported and verified data points dating to 2020. Its database covers around 90% of Euronext issuers and more than 70 quantitative ESG indicators.

The companies represented have an aggregate market capitalisation of approximately $8.3 trillion, based on current euro-dollar conversion rates.

Indicators are aligned with major European frameworks, including the CSRD, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and EU Taxonomy. Euronext uses publicly available corporate disclosures rather than estimates.

For investors and executives, the report points to a shift in the ESG reporting debate. The focus is moving beyond whether companies disclose sustainability information at all.

The harder questions now concern consistency, credibility and whether reported data can support capital allocation decisions. As EU requirements evolve, those issues will increasingly shape how investors assess transition performance across European markets.

Read the 2026 Euronext ESG Trends Report here.