No one is exempt from the pressure and constant launch of new sustainability reporting requirements. This morning I have just read about The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) announcing it will develop a climate-related disclosure standard for governments and other private sector entities, marking the first sustainability reporting standard for the public sector.
This one is interesting as the first push to regulate and bring a consistent approach to the public sector globally. This followed a call by the World Bank in January 2022 to lead a process aimed at gaining support for the development of public sector-specific sustainability reporting guidance. It will be very interesting to see how the review will move at speed to issue a final standard approval anticipated for the second half of 2025.
It will easier you could argue, on one hand, to do this with the public sector as they can conform to a consistent approach, as not using it as a competitive advantage like the private sector do. But on the other hand so different the approach from one country to the next.
The one thing that is clear, is that we are at risk of having too many standards set, adding yet more confusion to supply chains as they get bombarded with new requests to report against yet another company's, or governments targets. We need to consider seriously how we support these value chains on this journey.
Without them, we will not succeed.
ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber said: “IPSASB had been an observer on the Technical Readiness Working Group of the IFRS Foundation that established the foundations to our work back in 2021. I am thrilled about our collaboration since then, and that their project will build off from our International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Climate Standard combined with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), leveraging our cooperation agreement with the latter.”