G7 reiterates commitment to mandatory climate disclosures and welcomes the ISSB’s work on global baseline

The G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have issued a statement on climate issues in which they reiterate their commitment to move towards mandatory climate-related financial disclosures and welcome the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) work to develop a truly global baseline of sustainability disclosures to inform investment decisions:

… we welcome the global baseline of sustainability reporting standards currently under development by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Support for the global baseline has the potential to improve information and thus mobilise finance for the needed investments, particularly in emerging and developing economies, and we ask the ISSB to work closely with regional standard setters and any relevant local stakeholders and to provide advisory and capacity support. We welcome the ISSB´s Jurisdictional Working Group.

Emmanuel Faber, Chair of the ISSB, said:

We welcome the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ statement underlining the importance of our work. As part of our building blocks approach, we are liaising closely with jurisdictions and other standard-setters to ensure the ISSB’s Standards are interoperable with jurisdiction-specific requirements. We are also developing an ambitious capacity building framework, working in partnership with jurisdictions and organisations, to support application of the global baseline.

The ISSB is currently considering the feedback received to its consultation on its first two proposed IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, one setting out general sustainability-related disclosure requirements and one setting out specific climate-related disclosure requirements.

The ISSB will be discussing staff proposals related to the interoperability of its standards with jurisdictions at its public meeting next week, among other topics, and will seek to make key decisions on its proposed standards and future work.

All ISSB meetings are broadcast live from their respective meeting page.