Sustainability Section - Doing Business
You will find here a series of summaries providing an overview of useful sustainability regulations, processes and sustainability issues for Doing Business in Thailand.
ISSB announcements at COP15: description of the concept of sustainability and incorporation of two new theme in its work plan
During the 15th United Nations conference on biodiversity (COP15) held in Montreal in December 2022, ISSB members agreed how to describe the concept of sustainability and clarified that a company’s ability to deliver value for its investors is inextricably linked to (i) the stakeholders it works with and serves, (ii) the society it operates in, and (iii) the natural resources it draws on.
ISSB priorities for the coming months
At its October meeting, the ISSB also discussed its priorities for the coming months. In view of the need to finalise IFRS S1 and S2 as quickly as possible, and the importance of these two standards which will form the bedrock of the IFRS sustainability disclosure framework, the ISSB has decided to postpone the launch of the public consultation on its two-year work plan until the first half of 2023 (rather than the fourth quarter of 2022 as originally planned).
Industry-based requirements
Appendix B of the draft IFRS S2 standard comprised industry-based requirements derived from standards developed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
Disclosures required on Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions under IFRS S2
As regards the disclosures required on Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, the ISSB has clarified that these disclosures must be disaggregated into, firstly, the emissions generated by the consolidated group (using the same scope of consolidation as for the consolidated accounts, i.e. including the parent company and its subsidiaries); and, secondly, unconsolidated entities in which the group has invested (i.e. associates, joint ventures and unconsolidated subsidiaries that are not included within the scope of consolidation cited above).
Interoperability of IFRS sustainability-related standards and other frameworks
The ISSB is currently in dialogue with other bodies, particularly EFRAG, to ensure interoperability of the ISSB’s global baseline with the standards under development in particular jurisdictions, notably the European Union (cf. our feature in this issue on the development of ESRSs). In this context, the ISSB has tentatively confirmed:
Clarifying fundamental concepts and the definition of materiality
As a reminder, the ISSB’s approach in the IFRS S1 exposure draft was to focus on investors’ needs, resulting in an approach based on financial materiality only with the objective of providing information on sustainability-related matters that is useful for assessing enterprise value.
First ISSB decisions on future IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 sustainability standards
In October, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) met in Montreal to begin redeliberations on the content of the future standards IFRS S1 – General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 – Climate-related Disclosures, following a public consultation on the two draft standards which finished at the end of July.
IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards: ISSB reviews comments received and plans redeliberations
At its September meeting, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) reviewed a summary of the comment letters (available here) that it received in the public consultation on the draft standards IFRS S1 – General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 – Climate-related Disclosures, for which the comment period closed at the end of July 2022.
Update on Sustainability – September 2022
The comment period for EFRAG’s public consultation on its first set of 13 draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRSs) closed on 8 August. EFRAG’s Sustainability Reporting Board, supported by its Technical Expert Group, now has to analyse the more than 750 responses received in order to submit the final version of its draft standards to the European Commission by next November.
ISSB reaches full complement of members
During July and August, the IFRS Foundation continued with the recruitment process for the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and made the following announcements.