ESRS–ISSB Standards Interoperability Guidance released | IFRS

INSIGHT by the IFRS

The IFRS Foundation and EFRAG have published guidance material to illustrate the high level of alignment achieved between the International Sustainability Standards Board’s IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB Standards) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and how a company can apply both sets of standards, including detailed analysis of the alignment in climate-related disclosures. Having first worked during the development of the ISSB Standards and ESRS to deliver a high degree of alignment, the publication now provides practical support that explains how companies can efficiently comply with both sets of standards.

Read the ESRS–ISSB Standards Interoperability Guidance.

The document has been designed to reduce complexity, fragmentation and duplication for companies applying both the ISSB Standards and ESRS. As companies around the world are increasingly mandated to disclose sustainability-related information through the ISSB Standards and ESRS, EFRAG and the ISSB are committed to creating efficiencies where possible to advance transparency, comparability and accountability. Companies utilising this guidance will be better able to collect, govern and control decision-useful data once.

The guidance:

〉describes the alignment of general requirements including on key concepts such as materiality, presentation and disclosures for sustainability topics other than climate; and

〉provides information about the alignment of climate disclosures and what a company starting with either set of standards needs to know to enable compliance with both sets of standards.

The release of this guidance is a milestone for progressing interoperability and quality of sustainability-related data. ESRS preparers are able to report on climate, also in compliance with ISSB Standards, only with a very limited number of points to consider, clearly identified in Section 3 of this document. This document also explains that ESRS preparers are able to utilise ESRS to comply with ISSB Standards to report on matters beyond climate. This guidance reflects our commitment to avoid duplicative reporting and support preparers and other stakeholders in their implementation challenges. Now, our next step is digital interoperability.

-EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Technical Expert Group Chair Chiara Del Prete

The ISSB’s goal is to inform investor capital allocation decisions by ensuring they have access to globally comparable, targeted and decision-useful disclosures. Thanks to our deep collaboration with EFRAG, companies can use our joint guidance as a module for providing the global baseline while also providing incremental disclosures required within the European Union.

-ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber