Ambition or Simplification? Europe’s Green Finance and Sustainability Reporting after the Omnibus Package

This thesis takes the European Commission’s Omnibus proposal as its starting point. The proposal aims to lighten sustainability reporting and to narrow the set of firms covered by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Taxonomy, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Building on recent scientific evidence about climate change, the thesis argues that credible, comparable and timely information is necessary to support real mitigation and adaptation. Europe’s move from the early United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change phase of voluntary narratives to mandatory rules reflects this need, with CSRD and the Taxonomy designed to turn scattered data into decision useful signals for investors, banks and supervisors. Market tools such as European Green Bonds and sustainability linked bonds fit within the same architecture and can channel capital to the transition, yet current scale is still not enough to align with Paris temperature goals. Against this background, the thesis asks whether simplification helps or harms. If lighter rules come with safeguards that protect auditability, comparability and coverage along the value chain, they can reduce costs without losing substance. If not, they risk slowing progress and may lead to a step back that is difficult to reverse, especially given the Union’s influence on global practice. The core aim is to define clear criteria to judge current reforms and to show what would count as responsible simplification.