Mark Carney endorses creation of new IFRS SSB
3 December 2020
Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, endorses the creation of new IFRS Sustainability Standards Board (SSB):
“The IFRS Foundation has an essential role to play in making this vision a reality, and I fully endorse your proposal for a new Sustainability Standards Board under the Foundation’s remit. The Foundation, with its track record of robust, reliable and independent global standard-setting should play a pivotal role in delivering sustainability reporting standards that are in the public interest.”
The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation have published a Consultation Paper to assess demand for global sustainability standards and, if demand is strong, assess whether and to what extent the Foundation might contribute to the development of such standards. The paper established the option of creating the SSB. The new board could operate alongside the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) under the same three-tier governance structure, build on existing developments, and collaborate with other bodies and initiatives in sustainability, focusing initially on climate-related matters.
The SSB will seek to set consistent international standards for sustainability reporting, under the IFRS Foundation. The Foundation, with its track record of robust, reliable and independent global standard-setting can play a pivotal role in delivering sustainability reporting standards that are in the public interest. The SSB will be working in the direction of a single global standard, driving global consistency in reporting and making it easier to analyze climate risk.
The development of a new IFRS SSB is related to discussions in the new SSE climate disclosure workstream. The SSE Climate Disclosure Advisory Group, which includes experts from more than 40 organizations from 25 countries, is working on a guide to assist stock exchanges in promoting adoption and implementation of the recommendations from the FSB Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). More information about the first SSE Climate Disclosure Advisory Group meeting here.
The IFRS’s consultation is open until 31 December, and SSE encourages you to consider voicing your thoughts on the matter. More details about the consultation can be found here. About the SSE
The SSE initiative is a UN Partnership Programme organised by UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, UNEP FI and the PRI. The SSE’s mission is to provide a global platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, companies (issuers), regulators, policymakers and relevant international organizations, can enhance performance on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and encourage sustainable investment, including the financing of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The SSE seeks to achieve this mission through an integrated programme of conducting evidence-based policy analysis, facilitating a network and forum for multi-stakeholder consensus-building, and providing technical assistance and advisory services.
