First ISSB Standards of Reporting for Climate and Sustainability According to ESG Criteria Published – What Does This Mean for Investors?

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has published its first two standards in the field of climate and sustainable business, comprising a set of global standards of reporting according to ESG (environment, social, governance) criteria, as announced on the website of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS).

– ESG is a concept through which quantified rating of a company’s sustainability is done – says Dusan Stokic, the head of the Center for Environment, Technical Regulations, Quality and Social Responsibility. When an ESG strategy is prepared, it most frequently focuses on achieving certain, pre-defined, measurable performances, establishing numerical goals, with the carrying out of external, independent checks.

– Thanks to the fact that ESG is based on measurable, reliable and verifiable data, it is a special kind of an indicator for investors of whether the company is sustainable in the long term – points out Stokic.

Experts worked on developing the ISSB standards for nearly 18 months and they are the basis for uniform and all-encompassing reporting on sustainability that companies implement. The standards consist of two separate reporting frameworks: on climate and on sustainability.

Based on the reports that companies prepare by implementing these standards, the investors will make decisions much more easily, because they will avoid or reduce to a minimum the risks of bad estimates of investing in inadequate projects.

The ISSB standards provide a framework for information that companies include in their financial reports, which will make them pay special attention to ESG risks.

Most importantly, ISSB standard will ensure that companies provide ESG information along with their financial reports, within the same reporting documents. Simultaneously, for the first time, a joint framework has been created for companies which display climate-related risks this way.

In a wider context, the ISSB standards are a contribution to the further development of standardization in these fields and, at the same, complement the existing standards and frameworks, such as:

- CDSB – Climate Disclosure Standards Board,
- TCFD – Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures,
- Value Reporting Foundation’s Integrated Reporting Framework, and
- SASB – Industry-based guidance from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.

Privredna komora Srbije

Chamber of Commerce of Serbia

CCIS

International Sustainability Standards Board

ISSB

Dusan Stokic

global standards of reporting according to ESG

ESG strategy

company sustainability

CDSB

TCFD

Value Reporting Foundation s Integrated Reporting Framework

SASB

Climate Disclosure Standards Board

Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures

Industry based guidance from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board