“Everyone in the system is aware that we need to be realistic: investors acknowledge the fact that they don’t want to ask the impossible from companies,” explains Sue Lloyd, vice-chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
Euromoney sits down with Lloyd after the lengthy consultation period, during which the ISSB received feedback and worked with advisory groups on its inaugural sustainability disclosure standards.
It has been more than 18 months since the board was created at COP26 in Glasgow and given the responsibility of creating a global methodology with which companies could report the sustainability risks and opportunities of their business models to investors – and on June 26 the board published IFRS S1 and S2.
S1 requires companies to communicate to investors the sustainability-related risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium and long term. It covers governance, strategy and risk management, as well as metrics and targets related to the sustainability risks and opportunities that a company faces.
S2 sets out specific climate-related disclosures and is complementary to S1. It includes cross-industry metric categories beyond GHG emissions and climate-related targets.
Both standards include some “application guidance” on what type of information is considered material and comparable, as well as illustrative examples to help corporates navigate this task.
