Several UN organisations issues joint statement on ISSB exposure drafts

Several UN organisations, including the UN Regional Commissions, UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, UN Global Compact and others have issued a joint statement on the International Sustainability Standards Board’s exposure drafts.

The join statement includes the following:

The standards being developed by the ISSB provide a unique opportunity. They can support global convergence of sustainability-related disclosure, create a common reporting baseline, and help mainstream sustainability-related issues into regular business strategy and management.

Despite this opportunity, there is a risk that these key benefits will not be delivered. In particular: (i) a narrow interpretation of enterprise value (and the factors that affect it) would mean that ISSB standards could leave out important sustainability risks and opportunities; and (ii) the ISSB standards could result in selective disclosure by reporting companies. To address this risk, solutions lie in a holistic approach that complement a list of core globally harmonized indicators, along with additional steps to strengthen the impact of the standards, as laid out below.

The full press release may be accessed here.