Irish Funds welcomes the establishment of an International Sustainability Standards Board

3 November 2021 -Irish Funds welcomes today’s announcement by the IFRS Foundation to establish an International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) with the objective to set globally consistent and comparable sustainability reporting standards. Like all efforts on sustainability, complete success will only come through global action and universal sustainability reporting standards.

In our response to the IFRS consultation in December 2020 we highlighted the need for a global set of internationally recognised sustainability reporting standards to allow for consistency, comparability, and transparency of reporting for all stakeholders. A reporting baseline is essential and will allow investors access to sufficient information regarding sustainability matters so that they can make informed decisions and comply with their own obligations arising from regulation.

In developing the sustainability reporting baseline, it will be important for the new ISSB to foster international convergence by drawing from and building upon existing standards and best practices internationally. To support this outcome, we agree on the need for the development of a new and distinct board that is responsible for the sustainability standards that will bring the focus and capabilities needed to develop standards that meet the needs of investors and other primary users of corporate reporting.

Irish Funds is committed to supporting sustainable finance from a range of perspectives and is strongly engaged with policymakers in the development of the EU’s sustainable finance agenda. At a domestic level, we were a key participant in the development of Ireland’s National Sustainable Finance Roadmap that was launched during Ireland’s Climate Finance Week on 11 October 2021.