Corporate watchdog ASIC has welcomed the significant progress toward establishing global sustainability reporting standards made by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
ISSB has published two draft standards (exposure drafts), “S1 General Requirements of Sustainability-related Financial Information,” and “S2 Climate-related Disclosure,” and ASIC encourages all relevant stakeholders to make a submission.
ASIC’s Deputy Chair Karen Chester said the publication of the exposure drafts is “a major step towards setting global sustainability and climate-related disclosure standards.”
“The ISSB has worked at pace to meet the urgent demand for transparent and comparable reporting on sustainability and climate-related matters,” Chester said. “Consistent, comparable, and relevant information is critical for investors to make fully informed decisions here. It’s important that Australian companies and stakeholders more broadly ̶̶ investors, other reporters, advisors, and assurers – participate in the ISSB consultation to establish these standards as ‘a global baseline.’”
Stakeholders can submit responses on the Exposure Drafts by completing a survey or submitting a comment letter. Submissions are due by July 29. Stakeholders may also make submissions to the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) by July 15.
“Australian stakeholder feedback is essential to ensuring the ISSB’s final standards are appropriate and workable for our market and economy,” Chester said. “Should the exposure drafts be adopted internationally, they will inevitably impact Australia’s capital markets and participants, as investors continue to demand comparable sustainability and climate-related corporate disclosures.”
