The International Sustainability Standards Board’s Exposure Drafts “IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information” and “IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures”

Together, Carbon Tracker and Planet Tracker, have provided comments to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) on its Exposure Drafts ED 2022/S1 IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and ED 2022/S2 IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures.

The lack of requisite climate information in financial statements is of great concern to us and the investment community; this failure hinders the appropriate allocation of capital. We appreciate that through addressing sustainability and climate-related reporting the ISSB is not setting financial accounting standards. However, the information in the financial statements should be complementary to the information provided by companies in their sustainability or relevant reporting. At the least, they should not contradict each other.

Our responses follow two main themes:

1. investors’ needs for quantitative information, including the significant climate-related assumptions and estimates used for, and material climate-related impacts on, financial statements today; and
2. the need for improved connectivity between general purpose financial reporting and financial statements