ISSB consults on sustainability- and climate-related financial disclosures

The ISSB has launched a consultation on its first two proposed standards to develop a global baseline of sustainability disclosures for the capital markets. One sets out general sustainability-related disclosure requirements and the other specifies climate-related disclosure requirements. Comments due by 29 July 2022.

The exposure drafts build on the TCFD recommendations and incorporate industry-based disclosure requirements derived from SASB Standards. When the ISSB issues the final requirements, they will form a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures designed to meet the information needs of investors in assessing enterprise value. The ISSB is working closely with other international organisations and jurisdictions to support the inclusion of the global baseline into jurisdictional requirements. Also today, the ISSB has set out its plan for how its work will build on the SASB Standards and industry-based standard-setting processes.

The ISSB has also produced a comprehensive pack to support the proposals, including a high-level snapshot, comparisons with TCFD and with the prototypes published at COP26, and a statement on how they intend to build on SASB Standards.

The ISSB is seeking feedback on the proposals over a 120-day consultation period closing on 29 July 2022. It will review feedback on the proposals in the second half of 2022 and aims to issue the new Standards by the end of the year, subject to the feedback.

The proposals will be presented in two live webinars on 28 April at 9am and 5pm BST (information on how to register will be announced shortly).

Initial proposals for an IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy, enabling structured electronic tagging of a company’s sustainability disclosures, will be published shortly.

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Published 31 March, 2022