January 18, 2022
Sarah Marsh, Partner, National ESG Report and Assurance Leader
Scott Morrison, Director, ESG and Sustainability
Paul Feetham, Partner, Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services
Our 2021 PwC Global ESG Investor Survey told us that decision making by investors would be better informed if companies applied a single set of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting standards. And it’s not just investors. Stakeholders across organizations have struggled with the myriad sustainability standards, frameworks and metrics.
So at COP26, the formal announcement of the IFRS Foundation’s establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) came as welcome news. It’s an important step towards having globally consistent and trusted standards for corporate reporting on ESG topics.
The ISSB has made it clear it’s tackling climate disclosures first, as demonstrated by the climate-related disclosure prototype it released in November 20212. The climate-related disclosure aligns with the pillars of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). It’s also consistent with the approach of the CSA, which has released its own climate-related proposal that’s heavily influenced by the TCFD and may need to be implemented as early as 20233. To get ahead of what’s coming, organizations should look to the TCFD as a key standard to follow and implement.
Although climate may be the first focus area for regulators, your organization’s reporting shouldn’t be limited to climate. Twelve months ago, institutional investors called for companies to report using standards set out by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and TCFD. Voluntary reporting is still the main solution, so companies need to focus on reporting on those ESG topics they consider material. The most practical way to do this is to continue to use the existing standards (e.g. SASB and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)) to help structure that reporting, but companies should also keep the ISSB’s General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information Prototype in mind when developing their ESG reporting4.
Expectations about the quality of ESG information reported are rising—the bar for quality is moving closer to the level expected for financial reporting. Given their experience providing trusted and quality financial reporting, finance functions are uniquely positioned to help meet stakeholders’ ESG reporting expectations. Finance leaders should upskill their teams on ESG and, more specifically, on the enhanced reporting that must come with it. After all, this new sustainability standard is being led by the same organizations that have created the most widely recognized and used accounting standards in the world.
Define your reporting ambitions, and from there, figure out what’s needed to be successful. Many organizations are investing in people, systems, processes, controls and technologies to help them deliver on their ESG reporting ambition. The same sophisticated mechanisms that ensure the accuracy of financial information—including control procedures, internal audits, external assurance and cyber and other security systems—should be deployed to meet the same high standards for non-financial information.
1 “Canadian securities regulators strongly support the establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board in Canada,” Canadian Securities Administrators, October 7, 2021, https://www.securities-administrators.ca/news/canadian-securities-regulators-strongly-support-the-establishment-of-the-international-sustainability-standards-board-in-canada/.
2 “Climate-related Disclosures Prototype,” Technical Readiness Working Group, chaired by the IFRS Foundation, November 2021, https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/groups/trwg/trwg-climate-related-disclosures-prototype.pdf.
3 “Consultation Climate-related Disclosure Update and CSA Notice and Request for Comment Proposed National Instrument 51-107 Disclosure of Climate-related Matters,” Canadian Securities Administrators, October 18, 2021, https://www.osc.ca/sites/default/files/2021-10/csa_20211018_51-107_disclosure-update.pdf.
4 “General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information Prototype,” Technical Readiness Working Group, chaired by the IFRS Foundation, November 2021, https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/groups/trwg/trwg-general-requirements-prototype.pdf.
Partner, National ESG Report and Assurance Leader, PwC Canada
Tel: +1 604 806 7123
Partner, Capital Markets & Accounting Advisory Services (CMAAS), PwC Canada
Tel: +1 416 365 8161