In May this year, the Coalition wrote an open letter to the EFRAG, GRI, SEC, and ISSB on behalf of the 7,000 businesses we work with, calling on them to converge their respective corporate sustainability reporting initiatives.
To deliver on the Paris Agreement, The Glasgow Climate Pact and our commitment to 1.5ºC, we need a new global baseline reporting standard on sustainability disclosures. Transparent and consistent reporting will be critical for businesses demonstrating their emissions progress and minimising greenwashing; for responsible investors to know where to direct their capital and for society to keep track of how fast businesses are moving.
Even small misalignments around terminology, definitions, and concepts in the draft versions of the standards and legislation risks undermining their collective impact. Companies and their investors should be able to access the most efficient solutions, without any additional reporting catering to a multitude of standards. Getting everyone on the same page is both vital and possible.
The Coalition strongly supports the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) decision to establish a working group seeking to enhance compatibility and interoperability between the global baseline and jurisdictional initiatives. We urge the ISSB and its members – including the Chinese Ministry of Finance, the European Commission, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, the Japanese Financial Services Authority, the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan Preparation Committee, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority and the US Securities and Exchange Commission – to find constructive ways of ensuring that the ISSB’s standards are established and adopted as the common global baseline for sustainability-related financial disclosures.