(24 June 2024) The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (UN SSE) initiative joined the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the IFRS Foundation and leaders in sustainability-related disclosures to celebrate the first year of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Kicking off London Climate Week, the celebration started with a market open ceremony, joined by Mary Schapiro (GFANZ Vice-Chair, former SEC Chair), Sue Lloyd (ISSB Vice Chair), Jean-Paul Servais (IOSCO Chair) and Amanda Blanc (Aviva CEO), among other leaders.
LSEG celebrated the first year of the IFRS’ ISSB by taking stock of progress and charting the path forward. Following the bell ringing ceremony to open the market, LSEG CEO David Schwimmer moderated a high-level panel discussion with Sue Lloyd, Mary Schapiro, Jean-Paul Servais and Amanda Blanc. The panellists not only celebrated the progress made to date, but also announced that the IFRS Foundation would be assuming responsibility for the Transition Plan Taskforce’s (TPT) disclosure guidance.
The UN SSE participated in the second panel which focused on the joint call to action for adoption of the ISSB Standards. Moderated by LSEG Head of Sustainable Finance Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships, David Harris, participants included Tiffany Grabski (SSE Academy Head), Mardi McBrien (Chief of strategic affairs and capacity building, IFRS Foundation), Fiona Watson (Senior Director, corporate performance and accountability, WBCSD) and René van Merrienboer (Director of sustainable systems, PRI).
“Stock exchanges have a unique role in markets, and we’re seeing the level of support they are providing through the capacity building that exchanges are facilitating for their markets. We’ve already worked with 17 stock exchanges around the world in just over 6 months, facilitating training workshops on the ISSB standards for more than 5,000 participants globally” said Ms. Grabski.
She also announced the recent launch of the SSE’s Advisory Group on climate transition plans which was made possible by seed funding provided by the London Stock Exchange Foundation. “Building on our close collaboration with the IFRS Foundation to extend capacity building opportunities to all parts of the world, we look forward to further collaborating with the IFRS as it embarks into the topic of climate transition plans,” Ms. Grabski said.
Following the panel discussions, the UN SSE, IFRS Foundation and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) facilitated a workshop on the IFRS S1 and S2 standards. Workshop participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the top experts on the standards and share both progress and obstacles along their disclosure journeys.
“To continue our support for London-listed companies in building their climate disclosure capabilities and help them to prepare for the ISSB’s global baseline of disclosure requirements, we were delighted to partner with the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange’s initiative & the IFRS Foundation to facilitate an expert interactive training session. The session focused on helping participants identify climate and sustainability-related issues in their businesses and understand how to integrate them into strategy decision making and governance processes, to measure progress and resilience,” said Claire Dorrain, Head of Sustainable Finance, Capital Markets and Post Trade at LSEG.
Stock exchanges that wish to host training on the IFRS S1 and S2, should contact [email protected]. Training is provided at no cost to the exchange or market participants.
Anyone interested in joining the SSE Advisory Group on Transition Plans, should contact the SSE at [email protected]
Main photo by Layton Thompson
