IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards
At the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in November 2021 (COP26), the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation announced the establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), dedicated to developing IFRS sustainability disclosure standards. The current standards provide general requirements for the disclosure of sustainability-related financial information and standards on climate-related disclosures.
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Please cite this register in conjunction with the following article:
Hummel, K., Jobst, D., 2024. An Overview of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Legislation in the European Union. Accounting in Europe. DOI: 10.1080/17449480.2024.2312145
Overview
On 26 June 2023 the ISSB published the following IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards:
IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information
IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards can be downloaded here.
Institutional arrangement
| May 2020 | The IFRS Foundation Trustees publicly announced to explore its role in establishing sustainability reporting standards. |
| September 2020 | The starting point for the IFRS sustainability disclosure standards, when the IFRS Foundation Trustees published a consultation paper on sustainability reporting. |
| September 2020 | At the same time, five sustainability reporting standard-setters, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), the GRI, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), published a ‘statement of intent to work together toward comprehensive corporate reporting’. |
| November 2020 | The IIRC and the SASB announced their consolidation into the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), which was then formed in June 2021. |
| April 2021 | The IFRS Foundation delineated the strategic direction for the development of sustainability reporting standards. |
| November 2021 | At the COP26, the Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees announced the Foundation’s consolidation with the VRF and the CDSB and the establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) with the purpose of developing a ‘comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures for the financial markets’. |
| March 2022 | The ISSB issued exposure drafts for its first two proposed disclosure standards. |
| June 2023 | The ISSB issued its first two disclosure standards. |
Scope and structure
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards provide general requirements for the disclosure of sustainability-related financial information (IFRS S1) and standards on climate-related disclosures (IFRS S2).
IFRS S1 outlines general reporting requirements, including the objective, scope, conceptual foundations, core content, and general requirements for judgements, uncertainties, and errors.
The aim of the standards is to provide sustainability disclosure to 'primary users of general purpose financial reporting', which are defined as ‘existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors’. Reporting has to include material information about all sustainability-related risks and opportunities.
Reporting focuses on information that is financially material.
The disclosures are required to cover governance, strategy, risk management as well as metrics and targets (i.e., following the structure of the TCFD).
The conceptual foundations define principles of fair presentation, the materiality of information, and the reporting entity. They also emphasize the connectivity of sustainability-related financial information with other disclosures, such as in the financial statement.
The standards define that disclosures are to be made concurrently with the financial statement and may be included in the management commentary or in a similar section within the financial report.
IFRS S2 focuses on climate-related disclosures.
The disclosures are to focus on climate-related physical and transition risks, and the structure of reporting follows IFRS S1.
The standards require the disclosure of cross-industry metrics and targets (including GHG emissions) and industry-based metrics and targets.
The ISSB emphasizes the standards’ compatibility with multistakeholder-focused reporting standards and additional jurisdictional disclosure requirements.