ISSB proposes two “sustainability and climate disclosure” standards

Last week, the ISSB launched a consultation on its first two proposed standards. One sets out general sustainability-related disclosure requirements – and the other specifies climate-related disclosure requirements. Comments are due by July 29th.

A comment by Alexandre Rambaud on this thread notes:

Wow, welcome back to the future… Reporting “-1.0”, which smells of the 2000s. Everything is based on (business) risks and opportunities: pure and brutal “single materiality”. In short, we did not expect anything worthwhile from the ISSB, and we cannot be disappointed.

And this note by Geoff Kendall also is critical of the ISSB and points to this note by B. Lorraine Smith:

I encourage anyone in the fields of sustainable business and esg investing to take a look at this “matereality approach” (spelling mistake intentional!) from the inimitable B. Lorraine Smith.

This week IFRS Foundation published the “Exposure Draft” of its forthcoming Sustainability Disclosure Standard, which focuses only on the impacts of environmental and social issues ON a company. In other words, how will issues such as climate change, inequality, ecosystem collapse, and so on affect a company’s ability to make money?

The eagle-eyed among you will realise this tells only half the story, and its arguably by far the least interesting and important half. What we really need to be focusing on are the impacts OF a company on the world, and what it’s doing to help or hinder our collective progress to a better future for everyone. This is what Lorraine’s matereality approach sets out to achieve. Definitely worth an hour of your time.