The formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
The ISSB’s main goal will be to develop – in the public interest - a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards to meet investors’ information needs.
The IFRS foundation has also announced the consolidation of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board and Value Reporting Foundation by June 2022 into its new board (ISSB), thereby including leading investor-focused sustainability organisations.
Prototype climate and general disclosure requirements developed by the ISSB’s Technical Readiness Working Group (TRWG), that have consolidated key aspects of leading organisations’ materials into a unified set of recommendations for consideration by the ISSB, have been announced. This is the produce of six months of joint work by the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), and the World Economic Forum, supported by the International Organisation of Securities Commission (IOSCO).
According to the IFRS Foundation, these actions lay the technical groundwork and create the necessary institutional arrangements for a single global sustainability standard setter for the financial markets and provide connectivity between financial reporting and sustainability disclosure.
Importantly for SAICA and its members, the ISSB will sit alongside and work in close cooperation with the IASB, ensuring connectivity and compatibility between IFRS Accounting Standards and the ISSB’s standards, which will be known as IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. South Africa has played a leading role in integrated reporting and promoting shareholder-centricity, and therefore has an important role to play in the advocacy and roll-out of associated sustainability disclosure and reporting.
To this end, SAICA is establishing its own Sustainability Technical Committee (SSTC), where one of its objectives is to act as an advisory committee to the SAICA board in the emerging direction of corporate reporting – that of the disclosure and integration of financial and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information.
South Africa’s vast experience and expertise in integrated reporting and financial reporting serves as a solid platform to contribute to this enhanced corporate reporting. The SSTC will play an important role in this regard.p
SAICA will track emergent trends in this space and will keep both members and the general public informed of developments.
Read the IFRS Foundation’s press release and more information can be found in the communications pack on the SAICA website.
About SAICA
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), South Africa’s pre-eminent accountancy body, is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading accounting institutes. The Institute provides a wide range of support services to more than 50 000 members and associates who are chartered accountants (CAs[SA]), as well as associate general accountants (AGAs[SA]) and accounting technicians (ATs[SA]), who hold positions as CEOs, MDs, board directors, business owners, chief financial officers, auditors and leaders in every sphere of commerce and industry, and who play a significant role in the nation’s highly dynamic business sector and economic development.
Chartered Accountants are highly valued for their versatile skill set and creative lateral thinking, that's why all of the top 100 Global Brands employ Chartered Accountants.
SAICA Media Contacts
Renette Human
Project Director: Corporate Communications
SAICA Brand Division
064 662 6205
***@saica.co.za