IFRS Foundation Trustees announce next steps for sustainability reporting
By Anne Adrain, Head of Sustainability and Reporting
10 March 2021
We highlight the announcement by the IFRS Foundation Trustees on their plans for the future of sustainability reporting.
The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation have issued further details of their future plans for the development of sustainability reporting standards following their recent consultation.
Initial analysis of the feedback they received has confirmed an urgent need for global sustainability reporting standards and support for the Foundation to play a role in their development. The Trustees are therefore continuing their work on the establishment of an international sustainability reporting standards board within the existing governance structure of the IFRS Foundation.
The Trustees also welcomed the February 2021 public statement by the IOSCO Board, announcing IOSCO's intention to work with the IFRS Foundation in developing a plan to establish a new board for setting sustainability reporting standards that meet the needs of the capital markets. This will include consideration of future endorsement of the new board and its standards.
Based on the feedback to the 2020 Consultation, and encouraged by the IOSCO Board statement, the Trustees have reached the following views about the strategic direction of a new board:
- Investor focus for enterprise value: the new board would focus on information that is material to the decisions of investors, lenders and other creditors.
- Sustainability scope, prioritising climate: due to the urgent need for better information about climate-related matters, the new board would initially focus its efforts on climate-related reporting, while also working towards meeting the information needs of investors on other ESG (environmental, social and governance) matters.
- Build on existing frameworks: the new board would build upon the well-established work of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), as well as work by the alliance of leading standard-setters in sustainability reporting focused on enterprise value. The Trustees will consider the prototype proposed by the alliance for an approach to climate-related disclosures as a potential basis for the new board to develop climate-related reporting standards. To prepare for this work, the IFRS Foundation will initiate a process of structured engagement with the relevant organisations.
- Building blocks approach: by working with standard-setters from key jurisdictions, standards issued by the new board would provide a globally consistent and comparable sustainability reporting baseline, while also providing flexibility for coordination on reporting requirements that capture wider sustainability impacts.
The Trustees intend to publish a feedback statement that summarises the responses received to their 2020 Consultation, and how that feedback informed the above decisions. Together with the feedback statement, the Trustees will publish for public comment the proposed changes to the Foundation’s constitution necessary to formalise establishment of a new board, including its composition.
The Trustees will continue to engage with the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board and be informed of their views to proposed changes. Any changes to the constitution are subject to a public consultation with a 90-day comment period.
The Trustees remain on track to make a final determination about a new board in advance of the November 2021 United Nations COP26 conference, including the detailed analysis of feedback on the requirements for success outlined in the 2020 consultation and other conditions to be satisfied prior to that consideration.