How do the current sustainability reporting drafts compare?

Sustainability reporting is developing quickly with several new proposals published by ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board), EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) and SEC (United States Securities and Exchange Commission) for public comment this spring. Although the proposals differ, there are also similarities among them, for example the TCFD framework forms a shared input. In order to help companies understand how the proposals compare and which companies that are in scope, KPMG has released a report with ten key questions in order to illustrate this.

Initially, ISSB’s and SEC’s proposals are primarily focusing on the shareholder perspective in the application of the standards, where only disclosure requirements addressing climate change has been released so far. This entails a narrower stakeholder perspective as well as range of topics compared with the ESRS drafts developed by EFRAG. The ESRS drafts are based on the double materiality concept and aim to include reporting on the impact on a wider range of stakeholders with different objectives from both an inside-out and outside-in perspective.

The ambitious proposals drafted by ISSB, EFRAG and SEC will have a significant impact on the corporate sustainability reporting. With this in mind, we recommend companies to start preparing in time and participate in the development by sending in feedback on the proposals.