ACCA commends Canadian approach to sustainability standards
June 24 2024 - 10:15AM
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) says
Canada should adopt International Sustainability Standards Board
(ISSB) standards in a timely manner to ensure a global baseline for
sustainability standards can be achieved.
ACCA welcomed the proposal by the Canadian Sustainability
Standards Board (CSSB) to introduce a two-year transition relief
period for disclosures beyond climate-related risks and
opportunities. ACCA said the break makes sense given that systems
will need to be established within organizations to ensure quality
and timeliness in collecting data.
While recognizing that mandating standards is beyond the remit
of the CSSB, ACCA also applauded the CSSB’s approach in ensuring
the proposed standards are almost an exact match of the IFRS
Sustainability Disclosure Standards.
ACCA always calls on regulators and standard setters to ensure
that companies are able to adopt these new sustainability reporting
standards in an efficient and cost-effective manner, recognizing
the challenges for businesses subject to multiple jurisdictional
regulations and the need for a global baseline.
In that light, ACCA has suggested that at first the new
sustainability disclosures, while being part of an entity’s general
purpose financial reporting, should not have to be in a company’s
financial statements.
Julie Missimore, Head of Public Affairs – Americas, ACCA, said:
‘ACCA believes that for information to be useful, timely and
comparable, sustainability related reporting and financial
reporting should be at the same time. However, as the required
disclosures are located within the financial statements/annual
reports, they will be subject to the same strict regulatory
timeframe, which can be challenging particularly in the early years
of implementation.’
In its submission to the CSSB on the adoption of sustainability
related information (See editor’s note), ACCA said that no
transition relief is required for climate resilience
disclosure.
Jessica Bingham, Regional Lead, Policy & Insights, ACCA
said: ‘Climate resilience testing and scenario analysis is an
important tool to ensure meaningful reporting on relevant risks and
opportunities. The options for both qualitative and quantitative
analysis ensures improved reporting year on year as expectations
change and provides time to pick appropriate data and scenarios.
This tool improves global interoperability assisting in improving
the availability of transition financing leading to the intended
action as an outcome of the reporting.
Further guidance such as sector specific examples and scenarios
would be useful to those carrying out climate resilience
assessments, particularly for financial services. However, ACCA
added that care is needed to ensure that such guidance does not
introduce additional disclosure requirements that might
inadvertently conflict with, or obscure information required by the
IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.
Read the submission here
Editor’s Note The Canadian Sustainability
Standards Board (CSSB) is consulting on the adoptions of Canadian
Sustainability Disclosure Standards (CSDS), 1 and 2, which are
based on the independent standard setter the International
Sustainability Standards Board’s IFRS S1 General Requirements
for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial
Information and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures.
About ACCA
We are ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified
Accountants), a globally recognized accountancy body providing
qualifications and advancing standards in accountancy
worldwide.
Founded in 1904 to widen access to the accountancy profession,
we’ve long championed inclusion and today proudly support a diverse
community of over 252,500 members and 526,000 future members in 180
countries.
Our forward-looking qualifications, continuous learning and
insights are respected and valued by employers in every sector.
They equip individuals with the business and finance expertise and
ethical judgement to create, protect, and report the sustainable
value delivered by organizations and economies.
Guided by our purpose and values, our vision is to develop the
accountancy profession the world needs. Partnering with
policymakers, standard setters, the donor community, educators and
other accountancy bodies, we’re strengthening and building a
profession that drives a sustainable future for all.
Find out more at: www.accaglobal.com
CONTACT: |
|
Matt Sollars |
|
Anat Gerstein, Inc. |
|
(on behalf of ACCA North America) |
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347-925-0101 |
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matt@anatgerstein.com |