SUSTAINABILITY
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards by Sheila Stanley

The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards
by Sheila Stanley
On 26 June 2023, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) issued its inaugural sustainability disclosure standards, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, which are effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024. Known collectively as the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, they were developed to meet the demand for globally consistent, comparable, and verifiable sustainability and climate-related financial information.
In its communications on the IFRS Sustainability Standards, the ISSB has consistently reiterated that investors throughout the world are increasingly looking towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and non-financial reporting to find the information they require as part of their investment decision-making process.

With the IFRS Accounting Standards being used by 168 jurisdictions worldwide, the hope is for the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards to live up to “ushering in a new era of sustainability-related disclosures in capital markets worldwide” as described by the ISSB.

An overview of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards
IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information feature disclosure requirements that are aimed at enabling companies to communicate the sustainability-related risks and opportunities that they face over the short, medium and long term to investors. As for IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures, it provides specific disclosure requirements on climate change. Report preparers are to refer to IFRS S1 for all sustainability-related topics except for climate-related risks and opportunities and to IFRS S2 for climate-related risks and opportunities.

However, IFRS S1 has to be applied in conjunction with IFRS S2 when providing disclosures on climate.

office workers in conference room having a meeting around table
The relationship between the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Recommendations
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards incorporate the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) architecture of Governance, Strategy, Risk Management and Metrics and Targets. It also incorporates the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards which thus far have been used by companies – usually large, public listed companies – that use the Integrated Reporting Framework to prepare integrated reports. The incorporation of the SASB standards in the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, however, has expanded the use of the SASB standards to now include SMEs.

On 24 July 2023, the ISSB published a comparison of the requirements of IFRS S2 and the TCFD. While IFRS S2 disclosures are consistent with the four core recommendations and 11 recommended disclosures of the TCFD, IFRS 2 does require additional disclosures and more detailed information, effectively making it ‘TCFD and more’. Nevertheless, companies that are already producing TCFD Reports are well placed to seamlessly transition to fulfilling the requirements of IFRS S2 disclosures.

Other sustainability reporting frameworks referred to in the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards also allow companies to consider the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) Framework Application Guidance, specifically the CDSB Application Guidance for Water-related Disclosures and the CDSB Application Guidance for Biodiversity-related Disclosures. Additionally, it allows companies to consider the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.

Responding to stakeholder feedback during the consultation process, the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards are interoperable with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and this is reflected in the ISSB allowing for companies to consider the ESRS in the development of its sustainability and climate-related financial information.

IFRS S2 requires companies to use the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (2004) when reporting on its GHG emissions unless required otherwise by a jurisdictional authority or an exchange on which the company is listed. Furthermore, IFRS S2 requires companies to disclose its Scope 3 GHG emissions, which are emissions in the value chain, following the descriptions found in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard (2011) (See Figure 1).

Upstream or downstream
Scope 3 Category
Upstream scope 3 emissions
  1. Purchased goods and services
  2. Capital goods
  3. Fuel-and energy-related activities (not included in scope 1 or scope 2)
  4. Upstream transportation and distribution
  5. Waste generated in operations
  6. Business travel
  7. Employee commuting
  8. Upstream leased assets
Downstream scope 3 emissions
  1. Downstream transportation and distribution
  2. Processing of sold products
  3. Use of sold products
  4. End-of-life treatment of sold products
  5. Downstream leased assets
  6. Franchises
  7. Investments
Figure 1: List of Scope 3 emission categories in the GHG Protocol [Source: Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard (2011)]
Comparing the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the ESRS
The ISSB plans to publish a comparison of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the ESRS in the near future. In the meantime, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) which was responsible for the development of the ESRS published a reconciliation table of the IFRS Sustainability Standards and the ESRS in April 2022 as part of the public consultation process for the draft ESRS. However, this was conducted before the publication of the final IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. With the adoption of the ESRS Delegated Regulation on 31 July 2023, a more exhaustive and accurate comparison conducted either by the ISSB or EFRAG should be available soon.

What is clear for now is the following:

  1. Similarities between IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the ESRS

The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards supports interoperability with the ESRS which effectively means that there is a reduction of duplication. This is done through the following means:

  1. Both the IFRS and the ESRS adopt the TCFD architecture, i.e., the disclosure structure of Governance, Strategy, Risk Management and Metrics and Targets.
  2. Both the IFRS and ESRS require reporting on the value chain.
  1. Where IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards differ from the ESRS

The following are the main ways in which the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards differ from the ESRS disclosures as noted in Appendix V IFRS Sustainability Standards and ESRS reconciliation table published by EFRAG:

  1. The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards uses an implicit approach, whereas ESRS uses an explicit approach in terms of identifying specific disclosure topics. For example, in ESRS S1 Own Workforce and ESRS S2 Workers in the Value Chain, the dimension of impacts is explicit, while in IFRS S1 these two areas are not explicitly stated but are implied as a source of risks and opportunities.
  2. A significant difference is that the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards use financial materiality whereas ESRS uses double materiality as the filter for companies to determine whether a sustainability-related risk and opportunity is material. Information required under the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards is focused on those investors required to make informed decisions on sustainability-related matters that affect the company’s prospects in terms of cashflow, access to capital and cost of finance.
bar chart showing selected impacts on firms of climate change and related adaptation measures
Figure 2: Selected impacts on firms of climate change and related adaptation measures [Source: ECB, 2022]
Climate disclosures for all?
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards provide transitional reliefs for companies in the first year of its application. Most notably, companies are only required to report on climate-related risks and opportunities in the first year of reporting i.e., for the financial year (FY) 2024. Disclosures on all other sustainability-related risks and opportunities will only be required in the second year of application, i.e., FY 2025 onwards. Another relief granted for the first year is for companies to only provide disclosures on Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions, and not for Scope 3 emissions.

The IFRS approach suggests that climate change is financially material for all companies regardless of size, geographical location or industry. The expectation is that considering the pervasive effect of climate change, the majority of companies – if not all – will be financially impacted in some way or other.

The findings of a 2022 survey conducted by the European Central Bank (ECB) on leading large and mostly multinational companies on the impact of climate change on economic activity and prices provides insights into how climate change and related adaptation and mitigation measures are affecting businesses.

The survey found that most companies expect climate change and their firm’s adaptation to it to increase different types of cost pressure (See Figure 2). More than 90% agreed that climate change and their firm’s adaptation to it would require investment in new facilities or processes and changes to their supply chain, as well as make inputs more expensive.

bar chart of selected impacts on firms of the transition to net zero
bar chart of prices and cost
bar chart of production and market structure
Figure 3: Selected impacts on firms of the transition to net zero [Source: ECB, 2022]
The majority of firms also agreed that transitioning to a net-zero economy would require higher investment, raise costs and increase their firm’s selling prices (See Figure 3). Almost all firms said that mitigating climate change required them to renegotiate with suppliers or find new suppliers to decarbonise inputs.

It is clear that any changes in the supply chain of larger companies would impact SMEs in the supply chain, thus making it necessary for SMEs to also incorporate climate mitigation and adaptation related practices within their own organisations to remain profitable into the future.

Expectations for companies to perform climate resilience analysis using climate-related scenario analysis
One of the requirements of IFRS S2 is for companies to disclose the climate resilience of its strategy and business model to climate-related changes, developments, and uncertainties, taking into consideration its identified climate-related risks and opportunities. Specifically, IFRS S2 requires the company to use climate scenario analysis to assess its climate resilience.

The question then is whether this requirement is too onerous for smaller companies. The point that is made by the ISSB and the TCFD with regards to scenario analysis is that it can be a tool for companies to use to inform and enhance critical strategic thinking. Considering the uncertainties associated with climate change, scenarios are a way for companies to explore alternative outcomes that may alter the basis for ‘business-as-usual’ assumptions.

man and women in office talking over table covered in papers and laptop
Companies can use climate-related scenario analysis to identify their future exposure to a range of climate-related risks and opportunities. Many asset managers and asset owners are already using the results of their scenario analysis in their decision making which suggests that there are financial rewards to be obtained from using the results of scenario analysis for strategic decisions. In the 2022 TCFD Status Report, some 28% of asset managers (See Figure 4) and 40% of asset owners (See Figure 5) use the results of the scenario analysis to make decisions.
pie chart of asset managers that use the results of scenario analysis
Figure 4: Asset managers that use the results of scenario analysis [Source: TCFD, 2022]
pie chart of asset owners that use the results of scenario analysis
Figure 5: Asset owners that use the results of scenario analysis [Source: TCFD, 2022]
The IFRS has considered that smaller companies will not have the same level of skills, capabilities and resources as larger companies. IFRS S2 therefore provides that in using climate-related scenario analysis to assess its climate resilience, a company is to use an approach which is commensurate with its circumstances, which is defined in paragraph B2 of IFRS S2 as “the skills, capabilities and resources available to the entity”.
Preparing for IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards
There is no doubt that companies and accountants will need to prepare for the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. As such, the ISSB has provided the following general advice to prepare and ready themselves:

  • Evaluate internal systems and processes for collecting, aggregating and validating sustainability-related information across the company and the value chain.
  • Consider the sustainability-related risks and opportunities that affect the business by applying the industry-based SASB standards.
  • Review the ISSB’s standards and supporting materials, including the SASB Standards, CDSB Framework and TCFD Recommendations.
conference table meeting with workers and their computers watching one speaker standing
A key development on the horizon is the Proposed IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy which was released for public consultation and comment on 27 July 2023. The Proposed IFRS Taxonomy relates to digital reporting for disclosure requirements in the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. The Proposed IFRS Taxonomy uses XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) tagging, which is also being proposed for digital reporting of ESRS disclosures under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. With further updates expected in the future, it is imperative that the accounting profession help their clients prepare for reporting disclosures under the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.
Sources:
  1. IFRS. ISSB issues inaugural global sustainability disclosure standards. Available at: https://www.ifrs.org/news-and-events/news/2023/06/issb-issues-ifrs-s1-ifrs-s2/
  2. IFRS. Who uses IFRS Accounting Standards? Available at: https://www.ifrs.org/use-around-the-world/use-of-ifrs-standards-by-jurisdiction/
  3. Comparison IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures with the TCFD Recommendations. Available at: https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/supporting-implementation/ifrs-s2/ifrs-s2-comparison-tcfd-july2023.pdf
  4. Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard (2011). Available at: https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/Corporate-Value-Chain-Accounting-Reporing-Standard_041613_2.pdf
  5. Draft ESRS Appendix V – IFRS Sustainability Standards and ESRS reconciliation table. Available at: https://www.efrag.org/d?assetUrl=%2Fsites%2Fwebpublishing%2FSiteAssets%2FED_ESRS_AP5.pdf
  6. Financial Stability Board. FSB Roadmap for Addressing Financial Risks from Climate Change Progress report. Available at: https://www.fsb.org/wp-content/uploads/P130723.pdf
  7. IFRS. Proposed Taxonomy and comment letters: IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy. Available at: https://www.ifrs.org/projects/work-plan/ifrs-sustainability-disclosure-taxonomy/proposed-taxonomy-cls-ifrs-sds/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=268072821&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9aCWjDwdkgxVUJPRuJ2djlX6rAlPl96XSdl_SUOHTr5YW2Wp-Uf3qUVunP2Qracb_Y3jD_xEJd3hldQP3Zu8eTTQAml4HR_HmBhqJSLvJzGJADXE4&utm_content=268072821&utm_source=hs_email
  8. Proposed IFRS Taxonomy. Available at: https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/project/ifrs-sustainability-disclosure-taxonomy/proposed-taxonomy/pt-cd-issb-2023-1-sustainability-taxonomy.pdf
  9. IFRS Survey on IFRS Taxonomy. Available at: https://ifrs.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b1tkOcILTYv0ghU
  10. IFRS. Feedback statement on IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. Available at: https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/project/general-sustainability-related-disclosures/feedback-statement.pdf
  11. European Central Bank. The impact of climate change on activity and prices 0 insights from a survey of leading firms. Available at: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/economic-bulletin/focus/2022/html/ecb.ebbox202204_04~1d4c34022a.en.html
  12. 2022 TCFD Status Report. Available at: https://assets.bbhub.io/company/sites/60/2022/10/2022-TCFD-Status-Report.pdf
Headshot of Sheila Stanley
Sheila Stanley
Sheila Stanley is an ACCA certified Integrated Reporting Practitioner and has worked on numerous award-winning Integrated Reports, Sustainability Reports and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Reports developed against sustainability disclosure requirements such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the TCFD. She is currently pursuing a MSc in Sustainable Development with University College Dublin and possesses a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of London. You can view her LinkedIn profile on https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-stanley-b5447625/