Skip to content (Press enter)

This ISSB Update highlights preliminary decisions of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Projects affected by these decisions can be found on the work plan. The ISSB's final decisions on IFRS® Sustainability Disclosure Standards are formally balloted as set out in the IFRS Foundation's Due Process Handbook.

The ISSB met remotely on 16 March 2023.

Contents

Research and standard-setting

Strategy and governance

Research and standard-setting

International Applicability of the SASB Standards (Agenda Paper 8)

The ISSB met on 16 March 2023 to discuss the process to maintain, enhance and improve the SASB Standards, including the work involved in the International Applicability of the SASB Standards project.

The ISSB was not asked to make any decisions.

Strategy and governance

ISSB Consultation on Agenda Priorities (Agenda Paper 2)

The ISSB met on 16 March 2023 to discuss one of the potential projects to be included in the ISSB’s first request for information. Feedback provided by stakeholders on the request for information will inform the ISSB’s two-year work plan.

At its December 2022 meeting, the ISSB tentatively decided to seek stakeholder feedback on four potential projects in the request for information. One of the four potential projects was focused on connectivity in reporting and was described as a joint project with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) that would build on the IASB’s Management Commentary project and the Integrated Reporting Framework.

At this meeting, the ISSB tentatively decided that, within its request for information, it would:

  1. expand the scope of the potential project on connectivity in reporting to:
    1. focus on integration in reporting; and
    2. consider integrated disclosures beyond the requirements related to connected information in IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information (S1) and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures (S2);
  2. include a discussion of the requirements in S1 and S2 related to connected information to provide necessary context for the potential project on integration in reporting;
  3. present the potential project on integration in reporting as an ISSB project that could be pursued jointly with the IASB, rather than presenting it as a formal joint project; and
  4. frame the questions asked in a manner that elicits input about how the project on integration in reporting should be pursued.

Thirteen of 14 ISSB members agreed with these decisions.

The ISSB also tentatively agreed that, in the request for information, it would seek feedback on the potential project on integration in reporting regarding:

  1. the priority and urgency of the potential project on integration in reporting relative to the other potential research projects included in the request for information;
  2. whether the potential project on integration in reporting should be a formal joint project with the IASB, or an ISSB project that could draw on input from the IASB as needed; and
  3. whether the potential project on integration in reporting should build on and incorporate concepts from the IASB’s Management Commentary project, the Integrated Reporting Framework, both of those documents or from other sources.

Thirteen of 14 ISSB members agreed with these decisions.

Next steps

The ISSB will discuss the due process steps it has taken in developing the request for information, and will decide on the length of the comment period and the publication date of the request for information.