Editorial

As this month’s edition goes to press, more news about sustainability standards is breaking. The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has issued a public statement announcing that it will work with the IFRS Foundation Trustees as they develop a plan for establishing a Sustainability Standards Board (SSB). IOSCO’s focus will be to help the Trustees create an appropriate governance structure to promote market acceptance of the new standards, and their compatibility with financial reporting standards. The IFRS Foundation Trustees have issued a statement welcoming IOSCO’s comments and detailing recent developments. They say they plan to make their decision as to whether to proceed with the creation of a new board before the United Nations COP26 conference in November 2021, which implies that there is still uncertainty about what they will do. However, it could be inferred from the wording of the rest of the statement that they are likely to go ahead. For example, they give their views on the strategic direction of a new board, which include the facts that: the standards would focus on information relevant to investors and creditors; the board would tackle climate-related matters initially, while also addressing other environmental, social and governance matters; the board will build on the work of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (the TCFD) and the Trustees will start to engage with other existing initiatives. The standards produced will provide a baseline for globally consistent and comparable sustainability reporting, which will be achieved by working with jurisdictional standard-setters. The Trustees plan to publish a feedback statement, explaining how they arrived at their conclusions, and a consultation document on proposed changes to the Constitution.