We wholeheartedly support the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) as announced today by the IFRS Foundation. The investment management industry is keen to actively engage in its governance and technical work, as it develops.

Asset managers can still not fully integrate climate change considerations in their investment decisions, due to the global fragmentation of climate-related disclosures, the modest comparability of disclosed information and the absence of a single, global mandatory reporting framework.

It is essential that the ISSB focuses on converging the numerous existing standards into a common basis for a mandatory global sustainability reporting framework. Given that certain jurisdictions, such as the EU with its standard-setting body EFRAG, may adopt more ambitious frameworks, we commend the ISSB for announcing a formal coordination mechanism with such jurisdictions.

In this context, we would welcome a commitment by the ISSB to widen the IFRS’ approach to materiality in sustainability reporting by including companies’ positive and negative climate impacts, on top of how environmental risks impact companies (i.e. ‘double materiality’).
 

[1]  Details about ‘materiality’ on page 13 of the IFRS Consultation Paper on Sustainability Reporting