As an international financial institution with a public mandate, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) remains dedicated to integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) best practices into its operations.
This 2024 edition marks the ESM’s seventh annual carbon footprint report, reaffirming its ongoing commitment to transparency in ESG reporting. The report offers a detailed overview of the organisation’s operational carbon emissions for the year 2024, comparing results with those of previous years and referencing 2018 as the baseline.
Deloitte Luxembourg (Société à Responsabilité Limitée) supported the preparation of this report by performing independent reviews of the calculations and underlying assumptions, in line with the foureyes principle.
As in prior years, the carbon footprint estimations are based on a thorough analysis of both internal and external documentation, activity data, and exchanges with external data providers. The report follows the World Resources Institute International Greenhouse Gas Protocol – a Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. In addition, the methodology developed in the EcoAct 2020 Homeworking Emissions Whitepaper was applied again this year to provide a dedicated section on emissions related to teleworking.
It is worth noting that during the Covid-19 pandemic, various national and ESM-specific measures were introduced to limit the spread of the virus and safeguard staff health. These changes had a substantial impact on business operations, resulting in a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, followed by a slight decline in 2021. As restrictions were lifted and traditional work patterns resumed, emissions related to ESM activities rose sharply in the following years 2024 marks the first year breaking with this trend.
To enhance transparency and accuracy, the ESM has refined several aspects of its carbon footprint methodology in this year’s report and introduced a new emissions category, as detailed in Chapter 2.4. Updates to reporting scope and methodology.
The ESM remains committed to publishing an annual carbon footprint report as a means of tracking progress in reducing emissions. In the interest of full transparency, the report is made publicly available.