ISSB issues global sustainability disclosure standards

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has issued inaugural standards—IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, to drive sustainability-related disclosures in capital markets worldwide.

IFRS S1 provides a set of disclosure requirements to enable companies to communicate to investors about the sustainability-related risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium, and long term. IFRS S2 sets out specific climate-related disclosures and is designed to be used with IFRS S1. Both fully incorporate the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Both the standards were developed with extensive help from market feedback and in response to calls from the G20, the Financial Stability Board, and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), as well as leaders in the business and investor community.

Emmanuel Faber, Chair, ISSB, said, “The ISSB Standards have been designed to help companies tell their sustainability story in a robust, comparable, and verifiable manner.”

Mary Schapiro, Head of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Secretariat and Vice Chair for Global Public Policy at Bloomberg L.P., said, “The global economy needs common reporting standards to reduce fragmentation and drive comparability in climate-related financial data. Built upon the foundation of the TCFD framework, the ISSB Standards provide a global baseline for companies to disclose decision-useful, climate-related financial information—information that is critical for creating more transparent markets, helping achieve a smooth low-carbon transition, and building a more resilient and sustainable global economy.”

Woochong Um, Managing Director General, Asian Development Bank, said, “We welcome the inaugural IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards which deliver a global baseline of sustainability-related financial disclosures that have the potential to enhance Asian capital markets through attracting more investment and boosting private sector development in Asia. We encourage Asian Development Bank members to give their consideration to the adoption of the Standards.”

Global leaders at the recently concluded World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) emphasised the need for sustainable finance to fuel green growth.

The speakers emphasised the lack of new instruments to facilitate long-term lending to fuel green growth, particularly in emerging economies and least-developed countries.

Among the speakers, here’s a round-up of what six key global leaders said at the summit.

“Though renewable energy has received adequate funding, areas such as climate adaptation, sustainable consumption and production, biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, and pollution abatement have not received the necessary funding”: Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

“Finance is central to combating climate change. The central question here is whether we can transform the global financial system to meet today’s challenges in ways that promote low-carbon, resilient growth”: Manish Bapna, President Natural Resources Defence Council, India

“ADB is currently developing innovative financing models to facilitate the transition to clean energy by financing the retirement of coal-fired power plants and repurposing them to provide renewable energy and grid services, as well as lending to countries to develop climate change policies”: Dr Pradeep Tharakan, Regional Advisor, South Asia, Asian Development Bank (ADB)

“Facilitating climate finance and diversifying the fiscal base to support green growth should lead the priorities list. Capacity building should be prioritised to achieve the necessary transformational change. Both national and sub-national finance ministries must boost their capacity with tools like green budgeting and carbon tax and pricing”: Helen Clarkson, CEO, The Climate Group

“We need three things: a vision of what we want to do, an inter-institutional framework to do what we want to do and leadership”: Laszlo Broberly, state counsellor to the prime minster of Romania

“Our recommendations on climate finance would be to expand the scope of climate finance and make climate smart transition of the financial sector overall,” according to the Green Development Pact. Also, rather than improving the resilience of existing infrastructure, let us build infrastructure that improves our resilience”: Jagjeet Singh Sareen, Principal, Dalberg Advisors

Source: ANI Press Release

Tag: Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Sustainability, Capital Markets, BFSI, IFRS, TCFD

Global leaders emphasise the need for sustainable finance at WSDS
Sonal Desai

Sustainability, Capital Markets, BFSI, IFRS, TCFD

ISSB issues global sustainability disclosure standards Sonal Desai

Global leaders emphasise the need for sustainable finance at WSDS Sonal Desai

ISSB issues global sustainability disclosure standards
Sonal Desai

Global leaders emphasise the need for sustainable finance at WSDS
Sonal Desai