Over the last few years investors, companies, governmental regulators, international organizations have been increasingly calling for standardization of sustainability/integrated reporting by corporations and, in the longer term, by governments. They also see an urgent need to consolidate a wide range of organizations and initiatives currently involved in this agenda. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and focus on the sustainable recovery have helped to further cement this momentum.
On September 30, 2020 the IFRS Foundation, which acts as a global guardian overseeing standard setting process for corporate financial reporting and is responsible for development and promotion of the International Financial Reporting Standards, launched public consultations seeking to assess whether the Foundation should add sustainability reporting to its core mandate.
The key objectives of this SIT were: (i) explore trends driving evolution of the global sustainability standards; (ii) understand how development and implementation of sustainability reporting could affect global private and public markets and financial flows; (iii) analyze opportunities and challenges of sustainability reporting for public sector accounting.