Climate change: new global sustainability body will improve ESG disclosures, help Hong Kong’s carbon trading ambition

Name: COP26 Glasgow, the UN Climate Change Conference: last chance to save the planet?
Uploaded: 2021-11-03T10:45:16.000Z
Duration: 3 min 38 s
Description: COP26 Glasgow, the UN Climate Change Conference: last chance to save the planet?

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will be formed to develop global standards on sustainability reporting by June next year

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said last month the government was assessing the feasibility of developing the city into a regional carbon trading centre

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Activists protest outside the venue of the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, UK, on November 1. Photo: Bloomberg

Eric Ng

Published: 6:45pm, 3 Nov 2021Updated: 10:47pm, 3 Nov 2021

International organisations setting corporate climate and sustainability disclosure standards have agreed to consolidate into one body and unify key standards to improve the quality of disclosures and gain investors’ trust on sustainability claims.

The move is likely to help accelerate the growth of sustainable investment products and foster new carbon emission credits markets, including one mooted in Hong Kong.

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board and the Value Reporting Foundation, among other bodies, will be merged into a new entity called the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) by June next year, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation) said on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the ongoing UN global climate summit in Glasgow.

The ISSB will develop comprehensive global standards on sustainability reporting. A prototype of climate and general disclosure requirements has also been published, following six months of collaboration by various regulatory bodies.

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COP26 Glasgow, the UN Climate Change Conference: last chance to save the planet?

“Together, these developments create the necessary institutional arrangements … and lay the technical groundwork for a global sustainability disclosure standard-setter,” the IFRS Foundation said. “They fulfil the growing and urgent demand for streamlining and formalising corporate sustainability disclosures.”

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