ACRA-SGX RegCo Response to ISSB's Exposure Drafts

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is a new standard-setting board to deliver a comprehensive global baseline for sustainability-related disclosure standards that provide investors and other capital market participants with information about companies’ sustainability-related risks and opportunities to help them make informed decisions.   

ACRA and Singapore Exchange Regulation have provided our comments on the Exposure Drafts published by the ISSB. Our comments were informed by the viewpoints of company preparers, service providers, investors, government agencies and regulators based in Singapore, as well as sustainability reporting practitioners and leaders from diverse industries represented on our Sustainability Reporting Advisory Committee.    

In our letter, we affirmed our support for the ISSB’s initiative to develop a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosure standards. We sought further clarifications towards achieving alignment with current sustainability reporting standards so that companies know how their current reporting will interact with the ISSB standards, and collectively form a comprehensive corporate reporting regime for sustainability-related information.  We recommended that the ISSB provide practical guidance to help companies assess how qualitative disclosures, such as governance processes surrounding sustainability-related financial information, could materially affect their enterprise values; and how to estimate the anticipated financial effects of climate-related risks and opportunities.  We also recommended that the ISSB tier the requirements in the standards based on their level of complexity, allowing more complex requirements to be phased in at a later date; and introduce a simplified version of the standards that would facilitate the inclusion of small and medium enterprises who contribute significantly to our economy.

Read the full letter here.