On Monday, the International Sustainability Standards Board
released its first two reporting standards. Not another ESG
standard you say? Aren't there enough standards already in
play, with both the US and Europe proposing or adopting mandatory
standards? Not to mention that the ISSB standards are just
voluntary, although some countries, such as Canada, Japan, Hong
Kong and the UK, may adopt the standards as mandatory. But take
note—the WSJ suggests that the ISSB standards
could well become “the global baseline” because
“the advantages of using a single standard worldwide may, for
many companies, outweigh the disadvantages of being more demanding
than the SEC's coming climate reporting rules.”
According to Mary Schapiro, former SEC Chair and current Head of
the TCFD Secretariat and Vice Chair for Global Public Policy at
Bloomberg L.P., “The global economy needs common reporting
standards to reduce fragmentation and drive comparability in
climate-related financial data.
