The UK government has appointed representatives from Generation Investment Management, the London Stock Exchange Group and HSBC to help it decide how it should adopt the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) sustainability disclosure standards.
The 14-strong UK Sustainability Disclosure Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will help the Department for Business and Trade develop a ‘UK-endorsed’ version of the ISSB standards by Q1 2025, according to two announcements made yesterday.
The ISSB is in the process of developing a slate of globally-recognised ESG reporting expectations that regulators and other stakeholders can adopt to avoid regional fragmentation.
Last summer, it published general standards and standards for climate disclosures. The UK government has been one of the loudest champions of ISSB so far, and had promised to adopt the standards into national law once they were published.
In order to do this, it has convened the TAC to examine the first two standards and provide recommendations on if anything needs to be amended or ignored to cater for companies and investors operating in the UK context.
Members of the committee include Madeleine Evans, director of impact at Generation Investment Management; David Harris, head of sustainable investment and policy at LSEG; and Dia Desai, who heads sustainability disclosures for HSBC.
Craig McKenzie, former head of strategic asset allocation at Abrdn is also on the TAC, alongside representatives from Barclays, NatWest, PwC and KPMG.
The announcement was accompanied by a wider update from the UK government about its plans for sustainability-related disclosures.
As well as confirming that it had pushed back the deadline for endorsing the ISSB’s standards from its original July target, the update also set out the timeline for consulting on the introduction of transition plan requirements and addressing unlisted companies.
Speaking with IPE, Veronica Poole, head of UK and global sustainability reporting at Deloitte, said the announcements did not reveal anything unexpected, but “took the next step towards moving things forward”.
“The document is helpful in referencing some of the broader work that’s being done by the UK on sustainability, to strengthen the sense that there’s a holistic approach being taken these policies and regulations,” she said.
The government reiterated its plan to consult on whether to broaden the scope of its upcoming Sustainability Disclosure Requirements to cover overseas funds and portfolio managers. On the latter, it is expected to publish its final rules later this year, while the former is due in 2025.
It namechecked its green taxonomy, saying that following a consultation and the finalised rules, it would “introduce a testing period for voluntary disclosures and use for at least two reporting years before exploring mandating disclosures”.
Read the digital edition of IPE’s latest magazine
No comments yet