Sustainability
Tenured Harvard Business School professor, now at Oxford University.
In January of last year I noted how the narrative on sustainability reporting had changed from the belief that market forces will determine the standards because there is no need for regulatory reporting requirements, to the obvious recognition that, as with accounting, we need regulators to create the standards and enforce their use. In this piece I would like to focus on just one aspect of sustainability reporting—standards for climate-related disclosures.
There are three significant new proposals now in the public domain for comment:
1. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rule for “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors” with comments due by June 17, 2022.
2. The International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) “[Draft] IFRS S-2 Climate-related Disclosures” with comments due by July 29, 2022.
3. The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) “ESRS E1: Climate change” with comments due by August 8, 2022.
Robert G. Eccles of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford is the author of a number of books on integrated reporting, sustainability and the role of business in society. His focus is on sustainability from both a company and investor perspective. Professor Eccles is also involved in a variety of initiatives to embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues in real world decision making. One of these is the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), of which he was the founding chairman. In 2018, Professor Eccles was selected by Barron’s as one of the top 20 influencers on ESG investing.
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