The Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants has commented on a pair of International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) exposure drafts related to sustainability-related financial information and climate-related disclosures.
The ISSB is new standard setting board that was announced at the United Nations climate conference COP26 to create disclosure standards on climate and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters.
CIIPA said it supports including a broader range of information in corporate reporting so that organisations can communicate more effectively – and stakeholders can better understand – prospects for longer-term value creation.
Insight gained from both financial and sustainability information would lead to better commercial decisions and increased account of value to customers, employees, suppliers, and societal interests, the professional accounts body said.
“We share the vision that the accountancy profession must lead on climate reporting and other material environmental, social and governance disclosures and their assurance,” said CIIPA Chief Executive Officer Sheree Ebanks in a press release. “It’s important to contribute to strong and sustainable financial markets and economies and enabling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.”
CIIPA’s comments highlighted five thematic areas CIIPA believes are important to high-quality, decision-useful sustainability-related disclosures:
Investor focus
Climate and sustainability-related information enhances investors’ ability to assess company performance, risks, opportunities, and long-term prospects.
Alignment
Reporting entities should be able to accurately collect and report information in a manner that effectively serves requirements under globally applicable or jurisdictional requirements. Alignment of key concepts, terminologies and metrics is imperative to avoiding standard-setting and regulatory fragmentation, CIIPA said.
Importance of regulation
Climate and sustainability information must be high quality, decision useful, and trusted.
Verifiability
To be trusted, climate and sustainability information should be subject to high-quality, independent, external assurance, based on high-quality assurance and ethics standards.
Interconnected approach
Climate and sustainability disclosures are most valuable to investors and other stakeholders when they are connected to financial reporting information, the organisation said in its letter.
Related Videos
